Planting 15000 trees in Madagascar

“Dadaleva, the tradipractioner (traditional practitioner), passed away in the night of 8 July 2016. Having permission and blessing from his family we went through a simple Zahana celebration a months later (see the photos). The celebration was held in his house. Even he himself didn’t know his own age, and he used to say “more than 60” for the last two decades. But I think he was older than my mother who passed away at 89 a few years ago, so he must have been way over 90 years old. The Famadihana, a traditional Malagasy funeral service was held in the village itself with his entire extended family” [A big event when Malagasies wrap again the bones of their deceased loved one with new shrouds] Dr. Ihanta

Lovingly referred to as the ‘father of the village” by our founder Dr. Ihanta, Dadaleva was not only the heart and soul of the village but also our biggest Zahana supporter. Our work would not have been possible without his unwavering support and blessing from day one, way back in 1998 when Zahana was founded. In 2005 he donated the land on which Zahana’s first school still stands. He was an amazing traditional healer whose skill and ability was sought after from people hundreds of miles away. It was an open secret that when Western doctors in the area “ran out of options” they recommended to see Dadaleva, because if he could not help, nobody could.

We will dearly miss this amazing healer and humble wonderful human being. He has been in many photos over the years, since he was pivotal for many events. Always discretely in the background shying away from the camera, you see him always wearing the traditional Malagasy lamba, regardless of the occasion.

Jeannette and Markus

The dream of reforestation has been a driving force behind our participatory community development efforts. More than once we have learned trees take their sweet old time to grow at their own pace. Planting is one thing, but rain, weather, and all too often in Madagascar, bush fires are factors that need to be taken into consideration.

Reconstructing a picture from the same angle always poses a challenge, but we hope, better than with any words, we can illustrate what successful reforestation looks like. The proximity to the school and tender loving care by our students makes these efforts successful (2007 versus 2016). The same applies to the health center in the middle of the village, where watchful eyes can share the burden of watering the trees or keeping the cattle at bay if need be (20014 versus 2016).