Well-known for Her personal commitment in aid of child-support actions, HRH the Princess of Hanover will firstly visit Niamey and the construction site of the future Health and Research Centre for sickle-cell disease. Having already been in contact with beneficiary populations in 2007, the President of AMADE Mondiale was moved by the suffering caused by this genetic disease which affects over 20% of families in Niger. Mothers and children were then calling for the creation of a suitable structure which met their specific needs.
At the instigation of local associations and working closely with the Nigerian and Monegasque governments, this Centre will finally be opened in spring 2009, thanks to the joint financing of AMADE Mondiale and the Department of International Cooperation. It will make it possible to treat effectively the many conditions from which people with sickle-cell disease suffer, effectively and in a single place; the Centre's function will also be to encourage and develop scientific research into sickle-cell disease, a blood disorder which we still know little about today and which is still incurable.
This new structure will also accommodate a pharmacy dedicated to people with sickle-cell disease, financed by AMADE and the DCI and already opened by HRH the Princess of Hanover in 2007.
Later, HRH the Princess of Hanover will visit the Ganguel Plateau to the north west of Niamey, to visit the maternity wing of the Komba Integrated Health Centre, set up thanks to the support of the DCI.
The importance of health problems in a country such as Niger does not however eclipse the issue of education, an area which is always essential for families in Niger, particularly in this region of Ganguel where only 55% of children receive regular schooling. This is why HRH the Princess of Hanover will be going to meet the beneficiaries of the Ganguel education program that Amade Mondiale and the DCI set up at the beginning of the year.
Conducted over the next four years, this far reaching initiative will aim to improve the rate of schooling and working conditions for the pupils of Ganguel, notably through constructing and completely equipping two new schools and 22 classrooms, along with the restoration of seven considerably dilapidated classrooms.
During her visit, HRH the Princess of Hanover will lay the first stone for these new buildings which in time will be able to accommodate 1500 Niger pupils.
Continuing the busy schedule of these three days, HRH the Princess of Hanover will have the opportunity to travel to Kiota, 120km from Niamey, to visit the school complex there and meet the pupils. Thanks to the generosity of school and library establishments in the Principality as well as the DCI, last December these children received many books and school supplies, sent by AMADE Mondiale.
Surrounded by these young pupils, HRH the Princess of Hanover will also visit the Recovery and Nutritional Education Centre in Kiota, and as in 2007, will officially meet Sheik Moussa Aboubacar Hassoumi, Caliph of the Tidjane Brotherhood, whose commitment to the cause of child support is a determining factor in this region of Niger.
More Information
www.amade-mondiale.org
Photo = Marie-Laure de Becker / Gamma
