A community school for all (children) in Fiarenana

The children had been asked to draw pictures of objects or events that they associate with going to school. Misaotra on the backboard is ‘thank you’ in Malagasy.

Christmas is a very important holiday for our villages in Madagascar. A Christmas tree inside the classroom is part of the celebration.

For a few years now (since 2007) Santa Claus comes to visit the school children with gifts. This year Santa brought orange bags to both our schools with a toothbrush, toothpaste, a pencil, a ball pen, and soap. In addition Santa also bought a package of cookies and a sweet treat.

And yes, with the end of the tax year coming up, the tribute card challenge is still on until December 31.

Happy 2011!

Ihanta, Jeannette and Markus

A big Thank You to all of our donors who supported our school in Fiarenana over the years!

Supporting an ongoing school is vital for us to be able to pay the teachers and gardeners and buy school supplies. It takes somebody like you to see the value in ongoing support so children can go to school every day. You make it  possible. We could not do it without you! 

In the age of text messages (SMS) we can communicate with our Zahana contacts and our teachers in the villages on a regular basis at low cost. The minimalist report from December 15, 2011 for November reads as follows: [text in brackets is added to provide context for the readers]

Fiarenana:

• 48 students: 22 boys, 26 girls aged from 4 to 13 [attended school in November]
• 2 levels of teaching: level 0 (beginner), level 1
• Parents monthly meeting: 1st Saturday
• School garden: vegetables [are being planted by the students]
• Nursery: 1,199 baby trees (eucalyptus, papaya, bibasse, mango) ready to be planted, seeds of moringa olifera [ready to be planted again by our master gardener]

Fiadanana [our first village]:

• 90 students [currently attend school]
• School garden: vegetables [are being planted by the students]
• [School] Poultry project: 6 hens, roosters [this is a hands-on income or protein generating project for the students as part of our microcredit efforts]
• 106 baby trees and flowers planted around the school
• Environment: asking people to collect plastic bags spread in village
• Nursery: lot of baby trees [grown by our second gardener]

[Both] gardeners were told to keep all baby trees for Zahana [planting 15,000 trees] project.

- End text/SMS -

Did you know you can make donations to any our Zahana projects with GlobalGiving as gifts to friends and loved ones this holiday season? This gift in honor of someone might relieve you of the agonizing thought: what could I give her or him? (and help Zahana at the same time).

A gift in honor of somebody is easy: With a few clicks you can create a personalized greeting card via our project pages on GlobalGiving. Just click on the third giving option “gift or in honor of” right under the big orange “donate” button on any of our 4 project pages. We recently added the project: Planting 15,000 trees in Madagascar (#9470), which is eligible as well.

You can chose if GlobalGiving will send the gift recipient an email, print-at-home, or physical tribute card. For  details about the ‘tribute card challenge’* please visit our website. And even better the challenge lasts until the last day of the 2011 tax year: December 31.

Thank you for your support.

Ihanta, Jeannette and Markus

*GlobalGiving is awarding funds to the projects that are able to get the most donations made in honor or in memory of someone between November 23, 2011 and December 31, 2011. Prizes between $500 and $1,500 will be awarded to the projects with the most number of donations made in honor of someone.

Links:

• Planting 15,000 trees around our villages in Madagascar
• A dedicated micro credit fund for rural Madagascar (#4497)
• A community school for all (children) in Fiarenana (#3254)

We would like to share more photos with you. In a previous report we told you that seven students had successfully obtained the much desired CEPE, the primary school certificate (see our website). With the help of Zahana, three of the students from one family are able to attend the secondary school in Bevato, a small town about a 2 hours walk from their village.

To be ready for secondary school requires school uniforms, equipment (pencils, paper, etc) and bags, which Zahana bought for the students. Filled with pride and wonder about these amazing goodies you can see it being diligently inspected by the future students and their mother in the pictures. Since these pictures were taken, school has started. The students now live far from home with a host family, but they are doing very well in their new secondary school, making everybody in their community proud by being the first ones to ever attend a secondary school.

Ihanta, Jeannette and Markus

Links:

• The first school diplomas ever