Mayotte: Rebuilding Roads, Restoring Education

Nine months after the devastation of Cyclone Chido, the start of the school year has been particularly difficult for tens of thousands of children in Mayotte due to insufficient facilities and resources. In this already fragile territory, numerous challenges await teachers and their students. Since the beginning of the year, Libraries Without Borders has been mobilizing to support educational continuity: after sending school supplies, we are preparing the deployment of new projects designed to support young people affected by the disaster. 

Because education is at the heart of reconstruction, it must remain a priority in the emergency response and an essential lever for a sustainable future. 

On December 14, 2024, Cyclone Chido hit the archipelago of Mayotte, affecting thousands of families and disrupting children’s schooling. In the weeks that followed, BSF sent two tons of school supplies – notebooks, pencil cases, backpacks – equipping a thousand students in coordination with the Rectorate. 

In April, an exploratory mission assessed the medium-term educational and psychosocial needs of impacted communities. The conclusion was clear: to support Mayotte’s reconstruction, education had to be at the heart of the response. 

“Young people in Mayotte need to regain their bearings, continue learning and dreaming despite the hardships. Our projects aim both to support learning and to recreate spaces for play and resilience.” Siegrid Duranthon, Coordinator of BSF programs in France. 

Read, Learn, and Grow 

To support educational continuity and accompany reconstruction, BSF has just opened an office in Mayotte and will deploy three programs in the territory over the coming months. 

An Ideas Box will be installed in Dembéni, in collaboration with the Rectorate’s Educational Documentation Center, to strengthen students’ learning and encourage cooperation between teachers and after-school associations, with support from Secours Catholique and the Department of Nord-Pas-de-Calais. 

In Mayotte, where nearly half the population is under 18 and an estimated 5,000 to 9,500 children and young people are not enrolled in school, BSF is partnering with the association Le Village d’Eva to strengthen its offering of daily learning workshops. Four day-care centers will thus be equipped with educational and recreational resources – via our Ideas Cubes – promoting new pedagogical approaches. This initiative is supported by Promepar. 

Finally, twenty-three micro-libraries will be established throughout the territory, with support from the Fondation de France, Crédit Agricole, and the Ministry of Culture. Their objective will be to strengthen children’s psychosocial skills and guarantee access to reading for all. They will also contribute to developing the book mediation skills of local partner organization teams and to sustaining a lasting local reading offering in the Mayotte territory. 

Education is not a luxury, but a necessity. After the cyclone, it constitutes an essential lever for rebuilding, protecting, and restoring hope to Mahoran children and their families.

Support Mayotte’s reconstruction: every action helps children access a better future.