By Markus Faigle | Volunteer Project Director
The happy occasion is a big day: A few days ago, Santa visited the villages in Madagascar with gifts. Christmas is the big day children at our school await all year in great anticipation. This one special day they get their very own package of cookies (see photos.) Our team said: “just seeing excitement in their eyes as their faces light up, makes you happy to be part of it.”
But there was also a very special prize: the 5 best community gardens got awarded a bucket, cooking oil, salt, coffee, and soap. But the best prize was a lamba, or a sarong, made specially for the occasion. People in Madagascar wear lamba all the time including in the evening or for official occasions. To be fair and acknowledge all the 4 gardeners for their amazing reforestation efforts, they got the same useful gift as a reward. In addition, they also got new clothes, something that has become a Christmas tradition by now as well.
Another beautiful tradition is that Dr. Ihanta’s colleagues had been collecting clothes for Santa’s visit in the village all year long for quite a few years now. Despite the pandemic and they now being her former colleagues, they have been keeping up this tradition after she retired and many of the clothes you see on the gift table are from them.
Thank you for your support that makes out work in rural Madagascar possible.
Happy New Year
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