An Orange Village is "a water point, a healthcare centre, a school." At the Orange Foundation, we believe that the socio-economic development of communities relies on access to education and to health infrastructure. Wells and a health centres are so many ways of bringing healthcare to isolated villages in Africa and Europe.

It has already been 10 years since we started supporting schools and healthcare centres in Europe and Africa! Now we are changing gears, and building this essential infrastructure from scratch in the most remote and impoverished villages. We are careful never to impose ill-adapted and inflexible models on local realities: we listen to local communities, NGOs and authorities.

The foundation: access to drinking water

In the most isolated villages in Africa, access to water is often a complicated matter. Fetching water is a time-consuming activity which prevents girls, who are charged with this task, from accessing education. There are also public health implications. We provide each of our villages with a hydraulic pump. While the basic principles are the same, each Village is different. Take the example of Amphitra in Madagascar. This village is now served by a more effective drinking water irrigation system. In addition to the pump, we have trained local masons to construct more resilient wells and public toilets which meet sanitary standards. Amphitra was built in September 2013. Six months later, it had 2,588 inhabitants and 200 school children. All these people now have access to a quality school and sanitary facilities.

A local, well-equipped health centre

In our Villages, each healthcare centre is furnished with essential equipment and managed by trained staff. In Côte d’Ivoire, the closest healthcare centre was 10km from the residents of Gbandbo. Since the Village was developed, the 3,500 inhabitants and locals from the other five neighbouring villages have enjoyed access to their own healthcare centre. Depending on local needs, we also provide other facilities alongside these essential structures: housing for healthcare staff and teachers, or a canteen.

Our employees are involved as volunteers

Our employees are involved in every project: proposing Villages, working on projects, donating books… Every one of them offers a little of their time or makes a donation to these people who are in want of so much. In the Village of Bir Salah, our first Village in Tunisia, our volunteers decided to address desertification alongside education, planting over 500 trees. Beyond the traditional education sessions, everybody donated a few hours of their time to provide digital training.

In fact, an Orange Village is not just “a water point, a healthcare centre and school”… It is also a place where families can live together securely, work, provide for themselves and imagine a future for their children.

Currently, 100 villages in 11 countries benefit over 500,000 people.

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