Fourth annual ceremony for the Occitanie call for proposals

22/05/2019

On 20 May 2019, six associations from Occitanie presented their proposals during a ceremony held at the Fondation Pierre Fabre headquarters.

These projects focus on improving access to healthcare in the Republic of Guinea, Benin, Cambodia, Rwanda, Chad and Burkina Faso.

The Fondation Pierre Fabre’s call for regional project proposals, an initiative begun in 2016, targets cooperative partners in the Occitanie region implementing initiatives that contribute to improve healthcare for underprivileged populations in the Global South.

It is an expression of the Foundation’s commitment to supporting proactive, cooperative healthcare actors in the Occitanie region. At this event, Béatrice Garrette, Director General of the Foundation, emphasised that nearly 70 different initiatives have benefited from one-time financial assistance from the Foundation since 2002 and, since 2016, the Occitanie call for proposals has supported 23 projects in 16 countries.

The 2019 call for proposals opened on 12 November 2018 and closed on 31 January 2019. Of the many projects received this year, 28 were reviewed by the selection panel and the following six were chosen as winners:

– ADEPASE Association (Toulouse, Haute-Garonne) – Prevention programme that protects teenage girls and young women in the Battambang Province.

– Sauver la Face Association (Toulouse, Haute-Garonne) – Improve treatment for patients in Cambodia suffering the trauma and after-effects of facial paralysis.

– Comité de coopération Castres Huye Rwanda Association (Castres, Tarn) – Developing eHealth to organise healthcare systems in the Huye district.

– Institut de Génétique Moléculaire de Montpellier (Montpellier, Hérault) – Collaborative fundamental and epidemiological studies addressing adenoviruses in Chad and Burkina Faso in the broader context of vaccination.

– Kania mod’action Association (Toulouse, Haute-Garonne) – Strengthen parental education in family planning, maternal, neonatal and child health through educational talks, home visits, community dialogue and health-worker training.

– Codev Occitanie Association (Toulouse, Haute-Garonne) – Improve the quality of diagnosis and healthcare provided the population of Couffo department.

The crucial role associations play

Tarn Prefect Jean-Michel Mougard, representative of the Ministry of the Interior on the Foundation’s Board of Directors, shared some remarks at the ceremony, stressing “the humanistic values, innovation, rigor and independence that are the DNA of the Fondation Pierre Fabre, rooted in the territory of the Tarn and Occitanie.”

Nicole Miquel-Belaud, member of the selection panel and representing Toulouse City Hall, talked about the selection process, highlighting the “quality of these six well-constructed projects that make the training of trainers a priority, which is one of the necessary conditions for an initiative’s autonomy and sustainability.”

The Occitanie Coopération network, of which the Fondation Pierre Fabre has been a member for several years, is a partner in this undertaking. The network’s president, Henri Arévalo, spoke of the role associations play, calling them entities that are “precious to our society and promote and practice essential humanist values.”