Fondation Pour L’Enfance – Terre de Paix

1. Family in transit services

Terre de Paix’s Family Residential Care Services, launched in 2023, redefines child protection by prioritizing family preservation over institutionalization. This model, grounded in the principles of community integration and dignity, allocates housing units to vulnerable families and provides 24/7 support through trained social support workers. Core services include education follow-up, food provision, psychological assistance, and parenting training. The project outcomes, the service currently supports 4 families and 10 children across two homes. Benefits include reduced labelling, improved emotional security for children, reintegration into mainstream education, and increased parental confidence. Collaboration with institutions like NEF and hospitals ensures a holistic networked care model. The program shows early evidence of impact: improved school behavior, fewer behavioral issues, stronger family cohesion, and better employment readiness of parents. Emotional follow-up, art therapy, and structured monitoring mechanisms further strengthen this innovative model’s resilience and replicability in Mauritius.

2. Atelier du Savoir (ADS)

Special Education Needs Program The Atelier du Savoir (ADS) offers an alternative and inclusive education pathway for children aged 7–17 excluded from mainstream schooling. The curriculum is mother-tongue based and integrates life skills, literacy, art, movement, agriculture, and IT. ADS also runs outreach programs in deprived areas such as Albion and La Valette/Camilia, Bambous. In 2024, over 90 children participated, supported by a multidisciplinary team. The annual report confirms the continuation of behavioral monitoring, vocational training for youth over 16, and participation in sporting activities via Club Med partnership. Staff created Montessori-based digital content and participated in a Facebook documentation initiative, showcasing a blend of digital creativity and reflective pedagogy. The program's resilience amid policy pressures (notably with regulatory institutions) and its active role in national educational inclusion discussions highlight its relevance and adaptability. It is not just a school, but a space of empowerment for children, their families, and educators.

3. Jardin d’Éveil 

Psychosocial & Cultural Learning Park The Jardin d’Éveil integrates ecological education with psychosocial stimulation in a unique outdoor environment. Located in Albion, the park serves over 3000 children and accompanying adults yearly and is used for both educational and therapeutic purposes. Activities span storytelling, environmental awareness, traditional arts, and Learn Through Play (LTP) pedagogy. The Park continues to support community engagement through workshops and is a training ground for caregivers and teachers. The Park also houses endemic species, combining sustainability with child development. Its therapeutic value—documented through increased emotional stability and reduced behavioral issues—has made it a reference for other NGOs exploring outdoor education in Mauritius.

4. Integrated Early Childhood Development (ECD) Program 

From Motherhood to Primary This model spans from prenatal support to primary school integration. Services include antenatal care, early stimulation, parenting workshops, and follow-up after children enter primary school. ECD centers are located in Albion, Tamarin, Flacq, Grand Baie, La Valette, Goodlands, and at the Beau-Bassin Women's Prison. Over 600 children served with a successful launch of a new center in Goodlands in partnership with Fondation Antoine Tsia Lip Ken represent a key milestone in the outcome of the program. Activities include Montessori-based play, storytelling, and family literacy programs. Follow-ups are conducted with schools and parents, especially during holidays, to maintain children’s connection to their learning journey. This continuum approach has reduced dropout rates and improved family participation. It also supports working mothers through childcare access, directly improving employability and household income.

5. MQA-Registered Training Programs and Regional Knowledge Transfer

The Terre de Paix Training Centre, MQA-certified since 2015, provides pedagogical training for professionals in childcare, early education, and psychosocial support. Courses include ECD care, special needs education, art therapy, and mother tongue-based pedagogical design. A culturally-informed psycho-socio- pedagogical approach is used resorting to active methods for effective capacity building. In 2024, over 100 professionals benefitted from courses, with international placements (Switzerland, Denmark) and collaborations with Abaim, an accredited NGO to the UNESCO Convention on Intangible Cultural Heritage. External capacity building included training for Club Med hotel staff in Mauritius and Seychelles and ECD care workers in Rodrigues. This innovation builds systemic capacity by creating a multiplier effect, empowering childcare professionals across multiple sectors while preserving Mauritian cultural tools such as 'Zwe Lontan'. It supports the formalization of care professions and fosters a child-rights-respecting workforce.

6. Emotional Supervision and Participatory Governance for Staff

Recognizing caregiver burnout as a systemic risk, Terre de Paix embedded a model of emotional supervision in its care services. Staff receive monthly reflective sessions to address work-related stress, build emotional intelligence, and co-develop strategies for challenging cases. It confirms high satisfaction rates and resilience outcomes. Complementing this is the Advisory Committee, which used action-research in 2024 to explore themes such as parenting and addiction. Staff parents were invited to participate, deepening the relational ecology of the organization. This dual mechanism fosters democratic governance, reflective practice, and program adaptability—elements critical in sustaining high-impact child services in a fragile socio-institutional context.

7. International Internships and Regional NGO Network Participation

Terre de Paix facilitates regular placements of interns from Denmark, Switzerland, and Netherlands and Germany through partnerships placement agency in Mauritius, KP university Denmark and HES Switzerland. Interns participate in full-day programs, educational innovation, and field activities, contributing to pedagogical enrichment and intercultural dialogue. Through its membership in OPOI (Observatoire de la Parentalite de l’Enfance de l’Océan Indien), Terre de Paix shares its models regionally and engages in mutual learning with child rights organizations from Reunion, Madagascar and Comores. The aim is to collect, analyse and share parenthood practices across our respective countries and regions through the holding of annual colloquiums and webinars on all issues families and communities have to face in their livelihoods. These international engagements provide financial, pedagogical, and strategic benefits while reinforcing Terre de Paix’s status as a regional leader in innovative and inclusive child care.

The association was founded in the late 1970s to provide relief to persons facing various types of hardships in society. The Fondation pour L’Enfance Terre de Paix grew up to meet the felt needs of people. In this process, the action, which is now more focused on children in the context of the family, gathered both momentum and respect from larger society. Today, the action of the association remains in line with its original aim: to combat poverty and its resulting consequences on the most vulnerable groups of society, particularly children, in a non-discriminatory way through the child's rights approach.

• Carry out child care activities in a secular and non-discriminatory way and in line with existing laws and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child;
• Provide alternative care services, in the best interest of the child and in collaboration with biological parents and relatives whenever possible

(a) Of a residential nature in ways conducive to the overall development of children, especially through the setting-up of family-type structures for young children and youth homes.

(b) Of a non-residential nature through the setting-up of appropriate creative and cultural and educational pre-school structures, and appropriate creative and cultural educational, pre-vocational and vocational structures for children who are out of the mainstream system of education and training. 

• Engage in networking activities with other Non-Governmental Organisations, the government and other stakeholders in the furtherance of the objects of the Association.
• Raise and apply funds to meet the objects of the association; 
• Provide training in child care through the development and implementation of appropriate programmes.

• Experience in foster families as an alternative mode of residential care for children who are removed from hostile families and environments. Due to increasing risk of institutionalisaton, this program was terminated in 2023 and replaced by a residential care program run in collaboration with families.
• Experience in the form of direct intervention at a primary school, Camp Levieux Government School where there were behavioral problems and violence.
• Experience in the form of direct intervention at the Reverend Espitalier Noel Government school in the context of behavior problems of children. 
• Consultative services at other primary schools through specific programmes, in the context of handling severe behavior problems of children.

• NSIF: July 2023 - June 2024: Rs 29,981,056.54
• NSIF: July 2024 - June 2025: Rs 30,164,234.64
• SENA: January 2024 - December 2024: Rs 5,526,892