“In the field, we are fortunate to be able to rely on a network of exceptional women and men who work tirelessly to be able to provide a better future for their people. We owe it to ourselves to remain at their side: their courage and determination command respect and give meaning to our commitment.”
The Mérieux Foundation funds projects set up by local organizations to improve the living conditions of communities through initiatives focused on education, training, or establishing income-generating activities. These may include initial and continuing training, professional development, or raising awareness of hygiene, nutrition, or disease prevention. They all help to create decent living conditions conducive to improving health.
Helping to empower the most vulnerable with enfants du Mékong
The Mérieux Foundation has been supporting the Doctor Christophe Mérieux Center in Phnom Penh since 2010, helping vulnerable young people to access higher education. Managed by the NGO Enfants du Mékong, the Center also has five nursery school classes and welcomes local children during the day. In 2025, the Foundation’s support enabled 113 students and 60 nursery school children to attend the Center, and English lessons and educational activities were provided for 60 young children living nearby.
Young students welcomed at the Dr. Christophe Mérieux Center in Phnom Penh
The Mérieux Foundation has been contributing to the association’s social project for mothers and children since 2017, helping families living in extreme poverty in Phnom Penh and the cities of Sisophon, Sihanoukville, Banteay Chhmar, Preah Vihear, Samrong, and Battambang. This support involves distributing food and hygiene parcels and powdered milk, organizing professional training, and rebuilding housing and sanitation. In 2025, 200 families and 80 vulnerable mothers received assistance, and around a hundred parents were trained in budget management and parenting. Nine homes were also built or renovated.
Haiti was one of the first countries where the Mérieux Foundation began operating. Faced with a severely worsened security and health situation, we are more committed than ever to working with our local partners.
In 2025, the Foundation’s support financed several projects helping to improve access to healthcare and education:
Support for the GHESKIO Centers (Haitian group for the study of Kaposi’s sarcoma and other opportunistic infections) dedicated to operational research, training, and public health. The Foundation’s funding helps to guide women towards health and training services, psychological and nutritional support, housing for displaced families, teacher training, support for schoolchildren, etc. Emergency support was allocated in 2025 to guarantee that the GHESKIO Centers’ community services and activities could continue.
Endowment for ACME, a local association for cooperation with small businesses, which has been offering microfinance services to the Haitian population since 1997. The Foundation has been supporting the MAG program (Mérieux–ACME–GHESKIO) since 2005, offering training in small business management for women living with HIV and other vulnerabilities. In 2025, the program supported 730 women at GHESKIO Centers and members of RAMSA (women with agricultural projects), with 218 of them going on to access credit.
Support for professional training for young people with Association Klib Timoun Ke Kontan (ATKK) since 2010. Between October 2024 and September 2025, the project trained 78 students and housed ten female boarders at the Centre de l’Espoir run by ATKK. An additional grant was allocated to distribute food and hygiene parcels to 112 displaced households in the municipality of Verrettes.
Grant for orphanages run by the Little Brothers and Little Sisters of the Incarnation, created with support from the Mérieux Foundation in 2012. Between April 2025 and March 2026, the Foundation’s support helped to care for 90 children and carry out restoration work.
Improving women’s health with the Actions Santé Femmes NGO
The Mérieux Foundation has been supporting Actions Santé Femmes, an association working to improve women’s access to gynecological and obstetric care, since 2023. The Foundation’s grant is targeted at the “Armenian women’s health in the Shirak and Syunik provinces” development program, implemented with financial support from the French Development Agency, the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, and the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region.
Actions were taken in all three components of the intervention model in 2025: training for medical teams, mobile obstetric and gynecological consultations in villages, and awareness raising among women through the “Mothers’ School” program and “Women’s Café” discussion workshops.
The Mérieux Foundation also allocated an additional grant to Actions Santé Femmes to organize a seminar in Erevan on perinatal infections and conduct a medical bacteriology evaluation mission in Goris in the Syunik region.
With an annual grant budget of €50,000, the Mérieux Foundation’s Small Grants program awards sums of up to €5,000 to small organizations with a strong local impact working in line with our mission of combating infectious diseases.
Support for Primary Health Care Facilities Through the “Small Grants” Program
In 2025, ten projects operating in three areas were selected:
Support for primary healthcare structures
Installing solar panels at the Bertoua Mother and Child Health Center in Cameroon and raising staff awareness about psychological support for pregnant women (Association de Personnes Handicapées de Mekone 1)
Solar electrification and acquisition of equipment for the Kangala-Nzibira maternity hospital in the South Kivu province of the DRC, and training for traditional midwives in how to guide women towards structured health services (Initiative Humanitaire pour le Développement)
Screening, treatment, and psychosocial support for children infected with or exposed to tuberculosis via an integrated community approach in Conakry, Guinea (Fraternité Médicale Guinée)
Supply of essential medical equipment and healthcare staff training in neonatal reanimation at the Muong Nhe District Medical Center in Vietnam (VinaCapital Foundation)
Capacity building at the Mbissa health center in Cameroon: installing solar panels, supplying equipment, training, and awareness raising on the importance of prenatal consultations and the risk of mother-to-child transmission of infectious diseases (Cameroon Family Welfare Association)
Education and awareness
Improving maternal and neonatal health in the Ambanja district of Madagascar by training healthcare staff and raising community awareness, with a particular focus on women living with HIV. The results will be presented to ministerial and regional authorities to support the extension of the model to other districts (PANDA-Madagascar)
Combating malaria, malnutrition, and diarrheal diseases in pregnant women and mothers of young children among internally displaced and refugee populations at the N’Tintinbougou camp in the Koulikoro region of Mali. Some of these women will be trained to enable them to pass on what they have learned to their communities (Vie Bonne NGO)
Preventing infant infection in the Mediouna prefecture in Morocco by training mothers in hygiene and detecting early signs of infection (Association Initiative pour la Réadaptation des Familles et l’Insertion des Personnes Handicapées)
Improving infant nutrition in Porto-Novo in Benin by promoting local food resources and training mothers in good infant nutritional practices and hygiene (Le Potentiel Bâtisseur NGO)
Support for global health initiatives (WASH & Nutrition)
Combating the spread of infectious and water-borne diseases in schools in Uvira in the South Kivu province of the DR Congo by installing rainwater collection facilities at 13 schools, distributing liquid chlorine, and training parents’ committees and school managers’ committees (ARVC NGO)
The Mérieux Foundation contributes to the operation of Samusocial in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Senegal through a grant paid to Samusocial International. This grant is designed to support local mobile teams offering medical, psychosocial, and educational assistance to severely excluded children and young people in the capitals of the three countries: Bamako, Ouagadougou, and Dakar.
In all, 3,845 children and young people living rough, including 1,050 girls and young women, benefited from support in the three capitals. In Bamako and Ouagadougou, 3,350 displaced people and vulnerable foster families were also supported in 2025. The Mérieux Foundation allocated an additional grant to guarantee that these essential services could continue in Burkina Faso and Senegal in the second half of 2025.
2025: 20 years of commitment alongside Samusocial
Samusocial International was created in 1998 to combat all forms of exclusion, supporting the creation and development of mechanisms for assisting the most excluded people across the world’s major cities. Initiated in Mali in 2005, support for Samusocial was extended to Senegal and Burkina Faso in 2009.
Working with Akamasoa to support people in poverty
The Mérieux Foundation has been supporting the Madagascan anti-poverty association Akamasoa since 2014, helping vulnerable people in the villages around Antananarivo by providing access to hygiene, education, and healthcare. The Foundation’s endowment funds infrastructure projects and improves living conditions for beneficiaries in a country experiencing a serious humanitarian crisis, where food insecurity is among the most alarming in the world (according to the Global Hunger Index).
Soap Distribution as Part of the Partnership with Akamasoa
A major project was completed in 2025 with the opening of the Akamasoa Medical Center in Manantenasoa, equipped with essential medical services such as a medical and pediatric emergency department and a range of diagnostic equipment (ultrasound machines, ECG machines etc.). The Center has six new wards and solar panels have been installed to boost its energy independence. A large conference hall for up to 1,000 people was also built at Saint Vincent de Paul University (construction funded by the Mérieux Foundation in 2022). To improve public hygiene, about a hundred additional toilets were installed in Akamasoa villages in 2025. l (construction financée par la Fondation Mérieux en 2022). En matière d’hygiène publique, une centaine de toilettes supplémentaires ont été aménagés en 2025 dans les villages d’Akamasoa.
Support for our Madagascan partners
Several projects to support vulnerable communities in Madagascar came to fruition in 2025:
The new building at the Préci Sainte-Anne Maternity and Pediatric Medical Center, operated by the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception, was opened in the municipality of Bemahatazana in the center of the island (the project received support from the Appel Détresse France initiative to finance state-of-the-art equipment).
The Chemin Neuf Community’s new school canteen was also opened in 2025, in the community’s premises in Antsobolo-Antananarivo.
The Foundation organized a distribution of soap: 12,000 bars of soap, 150 g each, were handed over to various partner associations that play a crucial role in setting up awareness and support programs to improve hygiene and disease prevention.
