This school is located in the central area of Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar. It is a Lutheran Church school which teaches girls sewing, embroidery and crafts. The girls are from very poor families, and some of the students come daily from other homes for orphans and street kids. I visited the school last year. Please read the report I wrote at that time. HERE
We will be shipping a large container of goods to Madagascar as part of a larger program that Rotary has in Madagascar. We will be shipping probably 8 to 12 good sewing machines, along with a large quantity of fabric and accessories. This container will arrive in the port of Toliara in May 2012, but it will not be unpacked until a group of Sydney Rotarians arrive there on the 11th June. They will immediately arrange for the machines and equipment to be trucked up to Antananarivo, and so we expect our equipment to arrive at the school on 12th June. Our sewing teacher team will at the school on the 14th June. You may be interested to read what the other Rotary team will be doing while we are engaged in our sewing program. HERE
Because of the distance and rather remote location, this will be one of the most expensive trips we have had so far. The airfare alone is approximately $1,800. It is not yet confirmed but I expect the accommodation will more or less be organised by the Rotarians in Madagascar, and so food and accommodation may not cost very much. However the Rotary team we are meeting up with, are spending the 22nd to 26th on Mauritius, which is a very nice holiday place, and this is likely to cost some $200 + a day. So all up we could be looking at $3,000 plus per person. Hopefully we are going to get some Rotary support. I will apply for some assistance from my Rotary district and perhaps we can get some support from clubs and other districts. I hope to be able to have something more definite soon.
I went on the survey trip to Madagascar and Mauritius last October. Madagascar and Mauritius are fabulous places to visit. There is only one flight a week and we are holding some tickets for the 13th June, and with an overnight on Mauritius we will arrive Thursday 14th June. We will then most likely join another Australian Rotary group, who will leave Madagascar on the 22nd and spend four days holiday on Mauritius, before returning to Australia on the 26th June.
Visiting the lemurs is almost a must when travelling Madagascar, although the park is a 5 hour drive each way from Antananarivo. Only chance I can see, is if we work hard on Thursday 14th thru Friday 15th, and then go to the park Saturday and Saturday night, back Sunday and work Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and leave with the others for Mauritius on Friday 22nd. As Sandra and I have been to the lemur park, we probably wouldn't go again, so we may be able to go on with some teaching on the Saturday. However these plans are all yet to be confirmed.
At this time we are not exactly sure what we are teaching. I am waiting for a large questionnaire I sent to the School to be returned to me. We will have a better idea then. I suspect we will be mainly teaching the teachers, but perhaps some of the senior girls as well. Dressmaking will definitely be one of the main things on the agenda along with how to use the sewing machines. We will most likely send an overlocker and perhaps even a coverstitch machine. They do a lot of hand embroidery but they are probably fairly proficient at this and so do not need a lot of instruction on that. Crafts? I am waiting for more information on what crafts they are currently teaching. Patchwork is probably something they will be interested in.
Sandra and I have just returned from Madgascar . It is a very interesting country, but also a very poor one. We have identified some Sewaid projects there, but there are some difficulties. I think the need is so great in the whole country that our normal program where we teach 15 to 20 ladies how to sew and make a living via our micro-loan program , would seem almost pointless in this country. So I think we must consider something that is more productive and has a larger effect. I visited a Vocational school in Antananarivo the capital and here they are teaching adolescent girls sewing and embroidery but almost without any equipment what-so ever, but it was amazing some of the articles- (even ball gowns) they had made, all hand sewn.
So if any teacher is interested to go to Madagascar next year, probably about June 5th with a team of Rotarians doing all sorts of other good work, please let me know. If you can also speak French, that will be a bonus! The date will be June 5th to 21st.
For more about our last trip, do see my Madagascar/Uganda report HERE.
Mother with children making clothes to sell, which are hanging up behind her
Ladies sewing with old style hand machine
We are going to Madagascar in September with a Rotary Group to investigate a request for sewing teaching that we have received from there. If everything is workable we could be going back with a Sewaid program in March 2012, and again at that time it would be also with a group of Rotarians going over to do other projects at the same time. Once again we will keep you posted on these projects.
This is an amazing project of Mr Peter Pearce and Gosford North Rotary Club. Peter, his daughter Katie, Bob Nelson from Taree North Rotary Club, Sandra and Tony Castley travelled to Madagascar to prepare for this project, which involves the sending of a large container of goods to Madgascar and following this by a team of Rotarians to visit there next June to distribute and assemble the goods.
Earlier this year devastating floods in Southern Madascar, destroyed many villages and farms. Shelterbox was there and installed a 400 tent city to accommodate some 4,000 of the homeless. Latest ShelterBox News
While the ShelterBox people were there, they were asked to please organise some ongoing aid programs to help these people get their lives back as well as to help in other parts of Southern Madagascar where they are suffering from extreme poverty. So we visited Madagascar in Septmember this year along with other Rotarians from District 9680 and we set in place plans for our container to be sent in April 2010 and then to be followed by a team from Sydney to go over in June 2012 to help distribute and assemble the goods and to teach some vocational skiills such as sewing. You may want to be part of the project team. More details on this later on.
You can find more information and photos of what this program is achieving over HERE
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