The start-up workshop of the Youth Justice III project took place at the headquarters of YMCA Madagascar in Ankerana on March 30 and 31, 2021. During these two days, were presented to the staffs the main points and planning of the project for the next three years.
Youth Justice is a project funded by SMC and Sida, the Swedish international development cooperation agency, in collaboration with the KFUK/KFUM Sweden. This project is designed to build a better justice system – preventive and restorative – for youth in Madagascar so that they become resilient and their actions have a positive impact on their communities and the state as a whole.
To achieve this, three main actions will be undertaken, including:
Preventive action: Building the capacity of youth at risk of delinquency to prevent them from coming into conflict with the law.
In-prison Action: Helping youth in prison gain better access to a better juvenile justice system
Restorative Action: Helping ex-offenders achieve better social and family reintegration.
These actions have already been initiated since 2018, in the communes of Moramanga, Carion and Manjakandriana and have had a great impact on the level of young people to mention only that more than 350 young people have been trained in subjective skills of which :
- 95% young people acquired knowledge improvement through different training
- 75% of young people trained perceived skills development opportunities (traineeship, job, advocacy group etc.)
- 12 ex-offenders managed on having a stable source of income in their life
- Young people have been convicted of felony reconnected with their surrounding such as family, friends and relatives
Scale-up: For this next phase, YMCA Madagascar will expand its intervention area in the Vakinankaratra region, especially in Antsirabe where 1900 youth in conflict with the law, young prisoners and ex-offenders will be assisted to benefit prevention and restorative juvenile system to become an engaged citizen in advocating for better social inclusion.
Then, 100 young inmates will have better access to legal support and a better juvenile system and 30 jail administration staffs familiarized on humanitarisation of prisoners.
And last but not least, YMCA would like to collaborate with others CSOs to gain capacities and build a stronger and more influential civil society network to advocate for more efficient youth justice system policies and practices in Madagascar.
Mialy Sombiniaina
31/03/2021
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