By Markus Faigle | Volunteer Project Director
Jean is Zahana’s first gardener.
Way back in 2009. We had just started working with our second village: Fiarenana. Jean had been trained in gardening by an NGO that had stopped working in his village years earlier. He approached us with the proposal to put his knowledge to good use and work for us. The fruit trees, many not common in the region, growing in his village, were almost all planted by him. The brand new position of a Zahana gardener was created. The rest is history. (See website).
Jean’s role and contribution to Zahana is amazing. We are very grateful for his ideas and green thumb. Without Jean there would be no reforestation projects. Or Bary, our second gardener in Fiadanana, who he trained. Or Mamy, our third gardener who was trained by Bary.
During the pandemic in 2020 Jean informed us that he was ready to retire, and suggested his grandson as his successor. He had said jokingly: “it is much easier for me if it is my grandson, because I can tell him what to do”. Jean promised to stay on for quite a while to train him side by side. After a good year this training period is coming to a close and Prosper, his grandson is ready to take over after about 14 years of Jean the master gardener.
With the start of 2022 will have a young, strong new gardener in Fiarenana, who in case of doubt can always ask grandpa for advice.
Monthly donors - the sweet smell of holiday candy
Thank you to all of Zahana’s current monthly donors!
Here is a sweet deal: GlobalGiving’s monthly donor drive from December 13 to 17, 2021
Every monthly donation pledged in this week will be matched 200% in April 2022. This means you donate for 12 months, but Zahana actually get 14 months out of the year 2022. How sweet is this candy cane, buy 12 get 14?*
Monthly donors, people who give a small amount every month, have become the backbone of our work in Madagascar. It gives us a reliable source of donations every month. It allows us to plan or budget for ongoing expenses such as salaries for our teachers and gardeners.
Monthly donations frees us from the stress of having to raise our budget for 2022 in the month of December. Traditionally, in the USA over 80% of donations are made in December. Just imagine: you might get one big paycheck in December and have to make it last all year long. Plus, you don’t really know what this paycheck may look like until Dec 31, the big tax-day for end-of-the-year donations. Plus, if some other emergency (or a pandemic) gets all the attention in December, we at Zahana might just fall through the proverbial cracks.
Please consider becoming a monthly donor for Zahana from Dec 13 to 17. Thank you.
*Monthly donations are capped at $200 per month, and have to be actually made for 4 months to qualify, to avoid shenanigans.
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can recieve an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
