Education

A previous lack of access to education in early life has left many adult community members in rural Madagascar illiterate.

This puts barriers in place when it comes to securing paid employment, selling goods at market, understanding important health information, and voting; leaving people vulnerable to extreme poverty and exploitation.

For the adult literacy programme, we work with our partner Satraha, who facilitate training sessions over a 6-month period in up to 300 village-based locations per year.

Many of the trainers have themselves been through the programme, benefitting from newly acquired skills in reading, writing and mathematics.

Increasing skills has increased participants self-esteem and improved their attitude towards their children’s access to education. It has increased their ability to earn an income from a diverse source, meaning rural communities aren’t solely reliant on small-scale farming in a volatile climate.

People living in rural Madagascar often live below the poverty line, reliant on farming small plots of land. When devastating events occur such as crop failure, extreme weather events, or long-term illness, there is little to no support available.

Education for Life programmes within schools provide much needed learning opportunities, resources and support for the wider-community.

For the Education for life programme, we work with our partner, Money for Madagascar, to facilitate activities such as teacher training, establishment of school kitchen gardens to resource lunch feeding programmes, establishment of tree nurseries for food and fuel, and worm composting over a 3-5 year period of support.

The school acts as a training and support hub for students, teachers, parents, and the wider community.

The aim is for school to become sustainable, self-reliant and community driven. 

Madagascar is home to some of the most biodiverse rainforests on Earth, with over half of Madagascar’s species found in them, with 80% of species found in Madagascar found nowhere else in the world.

There are many rural villages that live in close proximity to these ecologically important areas, becoming ever more reliant on the resources found within them which is having an urgent and detrimental effect on biodiversity.

For the Agroecology project, we work with our partner, Feedback Madagascar, to develop ecologically sustainable, responsible, and productive model schools, moving towards green and self-sufficient communities.

The main objectives are to increase food security and self-sufficiency in sustainable fuel, triggering eco-friendly behaviour-change in the community.

Whilst story books are readily available in schools and childcare facilities locally, they are a luxury item for the primary schools we work with in rural Madagascar. 

Storybooks can provide children with new information about the world, developing their vocabulary, empathy, creativity, imagination, and concentration.

We work with the Madagascar Development Fund to distribute story book packs during their annual maintenance visit to each of the school locations.