A dedicated micro credit fund for rural Madagascar

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/