Mananjara is a poor village located on the road between Antsirabe and Lac Tritriva. As we drove passed Mananjara, the children were singing and waiving. I knew in my heart this would be our third village, so we turned around.
I include the boy in the center in this image because it drives the point home that these children just needs clothes. They don’t know our Western stereotypes of pink and blue clothing etc. They wear whatever clothes are donated and fit.
I really liked the village when I discovered the Chief is a woman! Vohangy gave us a tour of the village before heading to the town hall to meet.
Notice the structures in this area seem much nicer that the houses in other villages. Homes are built out of whatever the earth provides in each area. This area in Madagascar has a lot of clay and they can build better structures. But inside the homes, it isn’t much different than the homes in Ankevohevo, Ifosina or Ambalafeno.
We met with Vohangy and other city council members Haja and Nivo to discuss the village needs and devise a plan for giving to the children the next day. One of the things on their wish list was sending 4 little girls to school. They were the only 4 children in the village who were too poor to attend school. So we requested to meet with the girls and their parents.
We asked the girls, Valisoa, Vero, Senia and Sentia, about their commitment to school. We discussed the importance of school with the parents. Feeling good that they would make the most of the opportunity, we agreed to send the girls to school for one year.
Please see our page Update on Mananjara for an update about the girls’ progress in school.
Another item on the list of needs for Mananjara is new vegetable seeds. They had seeded and re-seeded from the same crop over and over again. Now their production has dwindled considerably and they have heads of cabbage the size of baseballs. We returned on the third day to bring some new vegetable seeds. It’s not much but it’s a start.
After my visit to Madagascar, I was given a wonderful gift of 500+ packets of non-GMO vegetable seeds from Cowtown Grangers in Denver. I am in the process of categorizing the seeds so I can send the appropriate paperwork to the Minister of Agriculture of Madagascar to approve bringing them into the country. Fingers crossed they will approve the gift!
Please see our page Update on Mananjara for an update about the community garden.
Please read the other sections about Mananjara to learn more about this village.