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A quarter of all Malagasy children are out of school, and the figure is far higher in the remote countryside where we work. There are no school buildings or if there are they are unsuitable. Teachers are unpaid. With no facilities, most children work in the fields instead. But education is hugely important to the Malagasy. Children dream of going to school and parents make huge efforts to help them attend. In the most cohesive communities parents pay for extra teachers and make superhuman efforts to build and repair their own schools. We believe in primary education for all, and secondary and adult education for all who want it. Our educational projects have been extremely successful, and thanks to them 12,000 children are now educated every day in spacious, well-equipped classrooms Schools We build and kickstart schools, providing planning, materials, permissions, and technical back-up, while the community provides the labour and the will to make them work. Setting up a school cements our relationship with communities in every sense, building trust and momentum for lifelong learning and collaboration. The result is a hugely positive and cost-effective system for creating new educational opportunities:
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School Reserves Our first school, in Sandrakely has now sent over 200 pupils to secondary school. Many former pupils have gone on to university and even into government careers. Today, Sandrakely School also manages 13 hectares of forest, a first for a school in Madagascar. The forest is owned and managed by the school for environmental education and study. |
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Youth Centres Youth centres act as meeting places, libraries and training centres for courses such as our adult literacy programme which has now helped over 600 people. Ambohimahamasina Youth Centre (Centre des Jeunes) is big enough to serve as a meeting place for the entire village. It contains a library, sewing machines, materials for training in agriculture, environmental management, sexual health and sanitation. It also hosts several clubs- an environmental club, an English club, a music club and a theatre group. |
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Scholarships For certain students who come top of their class but cannot pay for secondary schooling fees we offer scholarships to support them through the next stage of their studies. This ensures fairer and more diverse opportunities for students who would otherwise have left school and never been able to achieve their full potential. |
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