Planting 15000 trees in Madagascar

Happy New Year!

We got these great photos with the Christmas trees in our schools in Fiarenana and Fiadanana. We have so many beautiful pictures, it is hard to choose just six. We let them speak for themselves.

Since 2007 Santa has been visiting our schools in rural Madagascar. This year he brought gifts with him of cookies, sweets, bread and clothes. About half of the lucky ones also got a doll or a toy car. And yes, Santa is impressive. He is probably the tallest Malagasy the children might ever see in their lives.

If you are in a position to decide about your end-of-the-year donation, we hope you will think of our reforestation efforts in Madagascar and donate to Zahana. Thank you!

GlobalGiving offers options with just a few clicks:

Looking for a gift in honor of somebody? Why not consider a gift in her or his name (with an e-card or physical card sent to the lucky recipient by GlobalGiving)

GlobalGiving has an end-of-the-year campaign for 2014. To get one of the cash prizes, Zahana needs to raise at least $1,000 from 30 different donors for our reforestation efforts. You can do this with a few clicks and help us get closer to our additional monies goal.

And to sweeten the pie, if you set up a recurring donation to Zahana, the amount of your December donation will be doubled by GlobalGiving (up to $200), making your gift twice as big.

Or you may just click on the button “give now” below.

Thank you!

Sometimes it can be as easy as putting two and two together. Or, in our case putting picture and picture together.

A few weeks back, preparing a presentation about Zahana at the Waldorf high school in Honolulu, we wanted to visually bring accross the impact of our reforestation program and show some new slides, they may not find on our website as well. We had just received the latest pictures from Madagascar via email: A visit to our villages from November 2014. Lucky for us, one of the November 2014 pictures was taken in an angle similar to a picture taken seven years earlier. We showed both pictures in time sequence and, to encourage audience participation, asked: “do you see any difference between the two pictures?” Fortunately, from the perspective of the presenter, one student answered immediately: "the trees!.

Sometimes it is as easy as putting two pictures together. You just may have to wait and let it grow for seven years to do it.

Markus

PS: And yes, as the end of the year nears it is this season again when we and everybody and their sister asks for your tax-deductible donation.If you are in a position to support Zahana again, please consider us for 2014. Thank you!

To sweeten the pie GlobalGiving has end-of-the-year campaign and we participate in it this year. To qualify for one of the cash prizes we need to raise at least $1,000 from 30 different donors. So if you would like to support our reforestation efforts in Madagascar still in 2014 please click on the "give now" button below. To make it even sweeter (or spice it up is you already had too much sugar), all recurring donations set up and the amount made for December is being matched (up to $200) by GlobalGiving. Recurring donations count for the end-of-the-year campaing.

Thank you very much.