By Markus Faigle | Volunteer
Dear friends,
Some of you read about Madagascar in the news and contacted us, so we wanted to send a short message. Thanks to email, text messaging and Skype we have been in constant contact with our partners in Madagascar and they are fine. One thing becomes obvious: we have to increase our efforts in rural participatory development and education.
Zahana has been focusing on making village life more attractive and livable so people don't have to leave their village in the first place in search of a better life. This can be done for example by providing development partnerships to built access to clean water or a school for their children.
Almost a decade back Madagascar experienced a very tumultuous political situation and as a result many people fled the cities in search of safety in countryside. In the case of the village of Fiadanana, Zahana's pilot village, its population increased by 20% and after the political situation stabilized most of the newcomers decided to stay, since they discovered the advantages of the rural over the city life.
We encourage you to frequent your trusted news sources for more information. We find http://www.newsnow.co.uk/h/?search=madagascar&searchheadlines=1 very useful, since it lists many languages as links.
Please write to us directly if you want more information. Please use the email provided at the bottom of the project description.
Zahana has conducted an assessment of solar cookers currently available in Madagascar in December. Having chosen a first model for testing in the school, the teacher traveled to the capital of Antananarivo in February for training in using this model. Unfortunately the political instability caused the training course to be canceled and he went back to Fiadanana as soon as possible, since busses stopped running regularly. Living in the countryside he also had no idea of the turmoil in the capital and was all too happy to be able to leave for home again.
Unfortunately for Zahana we need to wait until trucks are willing to transport the cooker to the village once again and another training for the teacher can be scheduled.
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