Adult literacy and Dam project Madagascar

Organisation: Satraha
Location:Androy, Madagascar 
Project:Adult Literacy 

Working in the Androy region in Southern Madagascar, Satraha respond to local initiatives and judge projects on their merit and how eager the communities are to move forward. 

According to Steve Lellelid of Satraha one of the real needs of the Tandroy people in the area is to be able to read and write, basic functional literacy. Mostly so they don't get taken advantage of when selling cattle, or establishing land rights, and to be able to read brochures and gardening leaflets that Satraha distribute.

Satraha did an Androy wide Literacy program with the World Food Programme a few years ago and 19,995 enrolled, for 3 months at 137 sites. Although The project had targeted 100 sites and half as many people, the enrollment swelled when the people heard that the teaching was in the Tandroy language using a Tandroy language textbook Satraha had developed.

Teachers go into villages and set up literacy centres where those interested can learn, simply in fornt of a blackboard and with basic materials.

This pilot literacy programme picks up where the previous programme left off, and the goal is to re-establish the project, learning from previous experience and establishing the level of need in the area with the aim of rolling it out to a wider audience in due course. 

This particular project was ran alongside a dam building project at Nikoly where villagers worked on the dam a few days and were able to learn in classes on others.