The association Grandir Dignement / Growing with Dignity

Grandir Dignement

Grandir Dignement / Growing with Dignity is a French non-profit organization which has been helping minors in detention in Madagascar since 2009.

Our actions are motivated by the strong belief that « Each child, whatever his past or the place he is living in, has the right to grow with dignity ». This is why penitentiary institutions and especially the minors, who live there, mean a lot to our association. We intercede with young incarcerated people, without judging them on their past. We have the inflexible conviction that every human being, whatever his acts, his age, his beliefs and his personality, has the right to the respect of his human dignity.

Somes dates

June 2009

Hélène and David Muller, a couple of childcare workers are volunteering in Madagascar, when they visited a rehabilitation centre of the prison service, where 100 children aged from 8 to 18 years old live. Observing hard life conditions and a crucial lack of care, the couple decides to set up a social plan in collaboration with the head of the penitentiary institute. From the beginning, the project has been aimed at the implementation of professional training, educational monitoring and instructive activities.

So the fight against the non-respect of the Humans Rights has become a major component of the couple’s interventions. Progressively, living conditions are getting better and the young people are benefiting from a more respectful care of their human dignity.

June 2010

With the intention of giving a legal setting to their actions, the association Grandir Dignement / Growing with Dignity was created in June 2010. From its birth, the association has been working with state operators such as the penitentiary Administration and more generally the Ministry of Justice.

September 2011

Answering  a proposal from the penitentiary administration and encouraged by their experience in the penitentiary rehabilitation centre, the association extended their actions in the jail of Antanimora where on average 100 children are incarcerated.

September 2013

Grandir Dignement / Growing with Dignity obtained a financing from the European Union as a part of the European Instrument for Democracy and Human rights. That subsidy has helped the association to continue their actions and extend their interventions in the country.

October 2013

Grandir Dignement / Growing with Dignity started intervening in the prison of Diego Suarez and in the rehabilitation centre of Joffreville, both located in the region of Diana, in the north of Madagascar. Since then many projects have been set up in these two places: Food assistance, health care, educational and psychological accompanying, schooling, and professional training, support of reintegration and rehabilitation of places of detention.

November 2013

With the collaboration of his partners, Grandir Dignement / Growing with Dignity issued a report evaluating the conditions of detention of the incarcerated minors in the country, from November 2013 to November 2014. They evaluated these conditions within 40 penitentiary establishments, by granting a very particular importance to the minors accompanying their incarcerated mothers.

December 2013

On December 12th, 2013, Grandir Dignement / Growing with Dignity received the price of the Human Rights of the Republic of France, from the hands of Thierry Repentin, Minister in charge of European business. The price rewards all the action led by the association in Madagascar.


July 2014

With the support of the European Union, the Embassy of France and the Madagascan Ministry of Justice, Grandir Dignement / Growing with Dignity was able to lead a program of « right judicial practices », in order to promote the installation of legislative reform and justice adapted for minors. In July 2014, Grandir Dignement / Growing with Dignity announced the official launching of the measures of probations.

October 2014

Grandir Dignement/ Growing with Dignity restructured its head office in the city of Nancy, in order to develop its activities in France and worldwide. A team composed of a wage earner and several volunteers joined the board of directors in Lorraine, region from which the association originated.


Juin 2015

Grandir Dignement commence ses interventions dans les établissements pénitentiaires français, notamment au sein du Quartier mineur de la maison d’arrêt de Metz-Queuleu. Nos interventions s’articulent autour des thèmes de la solidarité, de la citoyenneté, des Droits et Devoirs de l’enfant.

Nos missions    –    Nos équipes