Making the reintegration of marginalized children.

The Marem was created by Lome students who wanted to help with the social reinsertion of marginalized children. Activities were held both in the streets and in the EMERA Center.

In January 2005, after conducting both field and documentary research, the students of Lome created a volunteer association called the Movement for Action for the Reintegration of Marginalized Children (Marem is the French acronym), taking the initiative to try to help with the social reinsertion of such children. The association is based in Lome, where the problem has taken on troubling proportions. For example, behind big buildings, you can find abandoned lots filled with the remains of broken down trucks, where children go to sleep. The area is alarmingly unsanitary.

The main goal of the association is to maintain contact with the street children, to listen to them, to support them, in order to prepare their reinsertion into social and family life.

Several steps are necessary in order to achieve this goal: identification, removal from the street, shelter, initial reinsertion via schooling or vocational training, contact with the parents, reinsertion into family life, post-reinsertion follow-up. The MAREM set up a rehabilitation center where children can stay between one and three years: the EMERA Center. Children are then reintroduced to family life, and take advantage of the opportunity to go back to school or start receiving vocational training. The MAREM also creates an environment where closer relationships between children and the biological or foster family are possible.