Economic Growth Madagascar Project #4497

A dedicated micro credit fund for rural Madagascar

by Zahana

Project Report | Feb 8, 2026
Festivities in 2025 and Prospects for 2026

By Markus Faigle | Volunteer

Feeding his ducks bought with the microcredit

The last site visit carried out in 2026 , December 19 to Tuesday, December 23, in our community site consisted of various tasks, also focusing on a routine follow-up on all ongoing activities. Here are some highlights in detail:

An active reforestation action as it is the planting season and reforestation has become an integral part of our Christmas celebrations every year.
The Christmas festivities in the school grounds.
Our the first official meeting of the local team with the newly elected mayor of Bevato to outline the association's projects in his constituency.
Finally, monitoring the progress of construction work on the new medical clinic in Bevato, for which ZAHANA contributed significantly in obtain the funding (separate report coming).

It is worth noting the importance of the presence of the Mayor of Bevato and his wife at this Christmas meal offered by the Zahana Association.

Even more important was the mayor's participation in discussions about Zahana's activities, including rural microcredit and the training that goes with it. He expressed a keen interest in leaning form our microcredit experiences. Having a chance to see it in the village first hand (e.g. ducks) gave him a good introduction in our approach.

He also visited the location and learned about the concept of our rural university, which is increasingly taking shape thanks to the various conferences and training courses it offers. Last but not least the opportunities provided by the internet, the only minor obstacle being connectivity in a region where sunshine and access to solar power will enable farmers to no longer be forgotten in the march of history!

However, in the immediate term, the need for more structured training for the members of the leaders' committee has become obvious. It will be established with terms of reference that specify their rights and obligations. The mayor will participate in the leaders' committee meetings in the future.

As for the Christmas celebrations, they took place, as has become a tradition, in our school grounds. It is a good space large enough to accommodate so many people and the trees provide much needed shade. The enthusiasm and jubilation were joyious, thanks to the distribution of clothing, cookies, and food packages received from donors for school children and some children from needy families. The festivities with Christmas carols and skits concluded with a simple meal for everyone, including children, parents, and members of Zahana

The main outcomes of the mission included, in terms of reforestation, the planting of 200 eucalyptus, acacia, bibasse, and coffee trees, and other species. Students from the two ZAHANA schools used the seed-ball technique, which involves throwing about a hundred balls of soil filled with plant seeds onto pre-selected reforestation areas (see video).

The experiment with seedballs was repeated because it had already proven successful in the recent years. Two new processes (Zahanas green approach and the fox hole technique) were also tested on a trial basis and will be the subject of a detailed report at a later date.

The last major part of the site visit was to monitor the construction of the new medical clinic in Bevato, for which the mayor is the primary local manager from the start of construction, together with the Zahana Association and building technicians from both sides. In addition to the monthly visits made by members of the association, the building technicians will conduct weekly reviews on site or remotely.

Zahana Association wishes you a HAPPY HOLIDAY AND NEW YEAR SEASON

Seedlings from the nursery ready to be planted

Dancing and waiting for the gifts

Students got some treats during the celebrations

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Nov 24, 2025
A second community driven pastry oven is ready for baking!

By Markus Faigle | Volunteer

October 2025: building a new pastry oven

In our larger community wide evaluation workshops in November 2025, with a major focus on reforestation, we also had enriching discussions with teachers, students, and the surrounding community on a variety of other topics or other activities: such as raising rabbits, ducks and chicken as local sources of protein and income. (We have covered ducks, rabbits and chicken in prior report and our website).

The biggest innovation for income generation is the new community oven in Fiarenana. The newly built pastry oven is now housed in a converted storage room on the school grounds, giving the building a second life for income generation. It part of the rural university that uses the school and its buildings after the students are gone for the day.

Tsaramandroso has been using a pastry oven for a few years now to generate income successfully, selling baked goods and taking orders for festivities beyond their community.

This training aims to improve family income
Building on Tsaramandroso experience the community in Fiarenana can benefit from their lessons learned, now that we have a second oven for baking on a community level in Fiarenana. Practical training in baking was provided already (and in the future) with simple recipes focusing adapted to local resources available to the community.

GivingTuesday is coming up:

GlobalGiving’s 2025 GivingTuesday campaign will last 36 hours, from December 2, 2025, at 00:00:00 EST to December 3, 2025, at 12:00:00 EST. The 2025 GivingTuesday campaign will have an Incentive Fund of $500,000 USD.

The Incentive Fund will be distributed to participants proportionally based on final fundraising totals. This means that, at the end of the campaign, the projects that bring in the most dollars will win the largest portion of the Incentive Fund and every project that activates donors will win something.

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The finished pastry oven

Baking workshop for the community

Creative re-use of tools at hand

Samples of the baking workshop anybody?

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Sep 6, 2025
A microcredit program for cell/mobile phones

By Markus Faigle | Volunteer

As part of the teacher skills development program for teachers at our school, assessments were made with written responses to questions relating to their respective responsibilities complemented by on site interviews with teachers and parents.

Some of the responses and suggestions have a direct link to our microcredit efforts and are listed here.

Recognizing that Zahana's microcredit program focuses primarily on agriculture and livestock farming (duck, piglets, fish or baking goods), teachers have requested the creation of a dedicated microcredit account to purchase cell phones. A cell phone for every teacher could greatly facilitate communication between the teachers and the ZAHANA management team. (Some of the schools are more than an hour walking distance from each other, and just ‘dropping by’ is challenge.) While cell phones are also widespread in Madagascar, their price point makes it out of reach for even our teachers, if they are not provided by an outside donor.

Following this line of thought, teachers expressed their desire to learn foreign languages such as French and English via the internet. This desire, given its scope and innovative nature, reflects a keen interest in learning new technologies, such as the internet. The vast knowledge that it allows us to acquire is enough in itself to convince us of the usefulness of this idea. But mobile data, while available, is not cheap in Madagascar

Such a valuable suggestion calls for serious reflection on its implementation and the funding combined with the security of the equipment required that is involved to make this successful. (Note: the mobile phone tower on top of the mountain now offers direct access to the internet in Faidanana, something we could not even dream of in 2006 when we built our first school).

The scope of this project is big, and shared computers as part of a microcredit project are being explored.

The 2025 Passport to Purpose campaign is a special fundraising opportunity exclusively for organizations registered in countries most impacted by the USAID funding cuts. Madagascar unfortunately qualifies.

GlobalGiving’s Passport to Purpose campaign will last 103 hours, from September 8, 2025, at 10:00:00 EDT to September 12, 2025, at 17:00:00 EDT. The details can be found here: https://www.globalgiving.org/leaderboards/passport-to-purpose/terms/

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