Economic Growth Madagascar Project #4497

A dedicated micro credit fund for rural Madagascar

by Zahana

Project Report | Jul 31, 2013
The Minister of Health visits the villages

By Markus Faigle | Volunteer Project Director

Waiting for the Minster of Health to arrrive

July 2013: This is the report we got from Madagascar. We did some slight editing, but wanted to keep it as close as possible to the original.

The visit of the honorable Madame Minister of Health Dr. Johanita Ndahimananjara was the biggest event in the history of the village of Faidanana. In this photo Madame Minister of Health of Madagascar is laying the foundation for the new Health Center in the village of Faidanana.

Villagers were informed about the upcoming visit ahead of time. If a minister in Madagascar announces such a visit, she travels with bodyguards. Representatives of other ministries and dignitaries at the region and local level, accompany her as well. Villagers were notified ahead of time, especially about the presence of bodyguards, so they would not be afraid.

For such and occasion the entire village (yes everybody) comes and lines the street waiting for the distinguished visitors. There is an official welcome of the Minister by the village elders and such visits are always accompanied with speeches and official announcements.

In this picture of the visiting dignitaries are: the Minister of Health Dr. Johanita Ndahimananjara, and her husband (the tallest man with glasses and cap). Representatives of Minister of Agriculture, the Ministry of National Education, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Public Works, Ministry of Communication and other departments. The Chief of Bongolava Region (standing besides the minister with blue shirt). They were joined by the mayor of Bevato (the district administrative center).

They all came first to the village of Fiadanana for the groundbreaking of the new Health Center by the Minister of Health (and breakfast in the village). After the formal reception and welcoming ceremonies the people who planted the most trees in the village were honored by receiving their award from the Minister of Health personally. She also presented awards to Zahana’s teachers and gardeners.

After the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Health Center, they all proceeded to the second village of Fiarenana. Also received by the entire village, the Minister of Health gave a speech and again gave awards for the most trees planted, the teachers and the women’s soccer clubs. After the ceremonies the villagers in Fiarenana served soup to their guests.

Last but not least they went to Bevato for inauguration of the new maternity ward. Bevato being the administrative district seat has a major for the region and all regional dignitaries attended. The official ceremonies took all afternoon.

The day was very busy.

The entire community waiting with anticipation

Visiting representatives and politicians

Inaugurating the health center

The three reforestation awardees

A solar cooker as the award

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Jul 1, 2013
Our village will have a Health Center soon!

By Markus Faigle | Volunteer Project Director

Looking at the drawings for the Health Center

We have very exciting news! Through the tireless efforts of our Malagasy team, we were able to partner with another organization to build a Healthcare Center in our village of Fiadanana.

We are very excited that our small organization was able to build such a partnership that will benefit many thousands of people in the region. Zahana has been working in the village of Fiadanana since 2005. Since 2006, due to our participatory development efforts, the village has a clean water supply bringing clean water flowing right into the village. This will be the only Healthcare Center in the area that can pride itself to have a clean safe water supply. Since Zahana sees access to clean safe water as public-health priority number one, this is a crucial element in providing healthcare services.

A team of our partner organization (with the long name “Association Pour que vive Maroala” or 'Maroala' for short) visited our village in May 2013 to discuss the plans of the Healthcare Center with the community and choose a location. Groundbreaking was envisioned to take place by the end of June or in July, when our schools are on summer break. The pictures are from this community meeting. In the formal picture with the four people you see (from the left) the president of `Association Pour que vive Maroala` Abel Legendre, Raleva our traditional healer and community elder, Mprany our head teacher and the representative from Maroala holding up the blue prints of the Health Center.

The very latest news is that the Minister of Health of Madagascar has announced that she will pay a visit to the construction of our Healthcare Center next week!

She will be in the area for the official inauguration of the first maternity ward ever in the district center of Bevato. From there she will take the hour-long journey over dirt roads to our project sites. That an official of such a caliber can witness firsthand the activities of rural transformation taking place by working collaboratively with our villagers is just simply amazing. We are honored by this recognition, but also see this is an incredible opportunity to show participatory development in action, because we believe our results tell more than pictures or words.

Stay posted for more photos and news soon.

Ihanta and Markus

Community meeting about our Health Center

Listening to the guests

The foto celebrating the meeting

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Mar 28, 2013
The Rice Seed Fund and the Women's Groups

By Markus Faigle | Volunteer Project Director

Rice Paddy in Fiarenena Madagascar

The rice project in Fiarenana is going really well. Zahana gave the women's group one ton of rice as a loan, and they give back 1.650 tons. The women's group decided, that instead of selling the surplus in October when the so-called “époque dure” or “hard period” starts, which is a nice expression for a period of famine, they will be distributing some of the “surplus” rice among the members of the women's group. Each person will receive 38 kg, so their families have something to eat. This should tide them over for the next two months. (See website for more information about the rice microcredit project with the women's group.)

But in the real world not all projects go as well as this one. In the other village, the women's group rice project’s harvest was successful as well. The biggest difference was that they distributed all the rice, including the initial one “seed fund” ton from Zahana among themselves and ate it. They did this unilaterally without checking with Zahana first. After quite some probing of what happned to the seed fund, they admitted that all the rice had been distributed indeed.

Their rationale was: “this rice belongs to Zahana, and if Dr. Ihanta would have been here, she would have given it to us anyway. So we took it.” While this is an interesting rationale or explanation, it still means, that they did not keep their end of the agreement. Just taking and distributing all of the rice, without keeping the initial one ton provided by Zahana as the seed fund, is not what this project is all about. So we have decided to discontinue the rice microcredit project with a woman's group in the village of Fiadanana for the time being. This was not an easy decision for us, but after working with his women's group for over five years, there have to be some consequences if decisions are made unilaterally, without consulting their partner Zahana. This decision is guaranteed to start some lively discussion, because Zahana will continue to work with the women's group in the other village with their successful rice seed fund. Once we get a new proposal we will of course consider it.

Ihanta and Markus

Madagascar Rice Paddy at harvest time

Harvested rice - hulls are the coatings of seeds

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