A community school for all (children) in Fiarenana

- To be continued 2 -  Please see the prior report for context

Context: 
As part of the teacher skills development program, assessments were made with written responses to questions relating to their respective responsibilities and onsite interviews with teachers and parents. 

Feedback from the ZAHANA to teachers: 

• Teachers should set aside regular time for discussion to encourage and motivate each other and to be able to work in a true team spirit. 
• In addition to continuing with planting and tree seedling spreading methods (e.g. seed balls), Zahana schools will experiment with the foxhole model (Ecosia reforestation approach). This method consists of identifying and protecting the spontaneous regeneration of floral species that have become rare or are endemic to our region. 
• Experimentation with seedling sleeves made from reconditioned plastic bottles that can be re-used almost indefinitely, instead of plastic black bag bags, which are pricy and more difficult to manage. 

Teachers to ZAHANA: 

• Bonuses for teachers who make tangible efforts to support extracurricular activities are needed. Even though they are teachers during the day, they still remain farmers who cultivate the land and raise livestock in order to eat. Recognizing that Zahana's microcredit program focuses on agriculture and livestock farming, teachers have requested the opening of a dedicated microcredit account to purchase cell phones to facilitate communication between the teachers and the ZAHANA management team. Some of the schools are more than an hour walking distance from each other, and just ‘dropping by’ is challenging. 
• Organized trip: even though Madagascar is an island, most people, including our teachers, have not had the chance to experience or see the ocean. It would be dream come true for many of them to see and experience the ocean for the first time. 

GlobalGiving’s Passport to Purpose campaign is in full swing, from September 8, 2025, at 10:00:00 EDT to September 12, 2025, at 17:00:00 EDT. A generous additional donation had increased the matching funds available for all donations made in this period to at the time od this writing about 30%. The 2025 Passport to Purpose campaign from GlobalGiving is a special fundraising opportunity exclusively for organizations registered in countries most impacted by the USAID funding cuts. Madagascar unfortunately qualifies. 

The details can be found here: https://www.globalgiving.org/leaderboards/passport-to-purpose/terms/

As part of the teacher skills development program, assessments were made with written responses to questions relating to their respective responsibilities and onsite interviews with teachers and parents. 

The results of these assessments revealed the need for periodic refresher training for our teachers.

The first stage of the requested refresher trainings will take place between now and December 2025. At the end of which the next assessment will take place. 

The assessment also allowed teachers to express the need for parents to improve their management of the family budget.  It is often the reality of the family budget that accounts for school absences or even children dropping out of school due to poor the costs of household expenses. Training in home economics for parents is therefore being suggested and considered as part of the curriculum. 

To diversify household income beyond farming, training in baking (cake, biscuit, or other baked goods) using dry heat is planned.

What distinguishes teaching in a Zahana schools is our effort to link rural life with the content of education in our curriculum. For this reason, all technical modules taught by our trainers must now be included in the school's weekly timetable. 

To encourage competition, the products of the technical education will be used to for the sales and purchasing activities at our annual school fairs. The proceeds will go back to the schools that made the products. 

- To be continued - 

The 2025 Passport to Purpose campaign is a special fundraising opportunity exclusively for organizations registered in countries most impacted by the USAID funding cuts. Madagascar unfortunately qualifies. 

GlobalGiving’s Passport to Purpose campaign will last 103 hours, from September 8, 2025, at 10:00:00 EDT to September 12, 2025, at 17:00:00 EDT. The details can be found here: https://www.globalgiving.org/leaderboards/passport-to-purpose/terms/