A dedicated micro credit fund for rural Madagascar

It is a great pleasure and exciting for us to announce: Our second village and our school in Fiarenana now has clean water, too!

For many years, the well in our schoolyard was the only source of uncontaminated groundwater for the community. Solar water pasteurization had been embraced by our teacher to make the kids water supply save at their school.

So how was it accomplished? Our very active and engaged teacher had heard that Caritas, a Catholic charity, was accepting proposals or requests for a clean water system. He got hold of the application, applied for the project, and was successful. We are very proud of our teacher for being proactive and congratulate him on his wonderful success!

A team working for Caritas came to the village and built a pipe system from the nearby mountain all the way to the village. This is the same mountain that feeds the clean water system in Fiadanana for over 12 years now. Communal faucets throughout the village provide clean and safe drinking water for everybody. They also went the extra mile and put a faucet in the school’s yard.

This is an important milestone for us. It is the first time in over a decade that a third party undertook a major project, without financial involvement from Zahana. It is also a first that the request was initiated by one of our teachers who lives in the village.

Access to clean save drinking water is paramount for any community.

Happy drinking, washing and cooking with clean water in Fiarenana for years to come!

Ihanta and Markus

Links:

• Way back: Rebuilding the Communal Well
• Building a water storage tank high up in the mountains

Energy, or the lack thereof, is a major issue in everybody’s mind. This is especially true for Madagascar, with rolling brown-outs common even in the capital for most of the year.

In a country that does not have the means to just buy more oil or gas and burn it to produce energy, looking for alternatives has become a necessity.

Zahana has tried to address this as well, with improved cookstoves, solar cookers, and last but not least reforestation, to replenish the depleted (free energy source of ) firewood in the first place. A solar powered refrigerator in the health center, and solar flashlights or small panels to recharge mobile phones are becoming commonplace, even in remote places in Madagascar as well.

Solar energy, besides the prohibitive price tag, has of course its drawbacks in the rainy season.

On a national level but Madagascar has been exploring biogas, or biodigesters that can use manure and human waste as a renewable source to produce energy.

To explore this option, we hired two engineering students to conduct a feasibility study for a bio gas installation in our village of Fiadanana. The pictures you see are of the engineers busy at work, measuring and testing next to our CARMMA health center. And, as always in Madagascar, the shoes are a clear giveaway that they are outsiders.

Depending on the results of the feasibility study, you may see the biogas project on global giving one day.