Life is suffering that is clear!
There is no more basic, irrefutable truth.
Daily I ask myself: ”What should be done about that! How do I stand to make a difference somehow and change suffering to Hope!?
My simplest, most obvious answer is to pursue pleasure. To follow my impulses. To live for the moment. To pursue what is meaningful to my life.
These thoughts & emotions took me all the way to Andranginy, Southwest Madagascar this year.
Being meaningful, my wishes emerged beautifully and profoundly, everything that I hoped for came together.
Transforming Education in Africa as long-term improvement is not a win, but I know by doing it myself with the help of the locals, Andranginy will soon have a remote school looking more like an actual school!
Andranginy is about 3 hours walk from Anakao, south of Toliara.
This is a real authentic and peaceful Vezo village where its habitants are simply so welcoming and all smiles! A pure bliss to enter the village by ”charette”, the local way to travel on land here. By sea is the pirogue.
Prior covid, in 2019 a cyclone destructed their remote school.
Since then, they kept being moved from one hut to another. on the sand. no furniture’s. zero school supplies… Not even sure if they ever had school supplies really.
After coming across some lost UNICEF fabric, the village decided to rebuild a wooden frame and to make walls and a roof with it. Many holes but there is no rain in this part of the coast.
Hope it can last a bit longer…
Getting the adequate funds to rebuild will be a Dream… For now, with the only resource I have from the proceed of Mada collective sales and 2 donations of $200 from home, I decided to furnish the inside so the kids and teachers can feel like at school and bring a little more comfort.
With a massive Team effort as I write now, I can say it’s happening!
Andranginy remote ‘tent’ welcome 123 kids. There are 3 teachers (Sandra, Jeanne-Lise & Faravavy) + the school principal Mr Mariot.
All teachers are volunteers. Shame on the president, andry rajoelina (who does not deserve a capital to his name) and who has the nerve to put his photograph on second page of every schoolbook in Madagascar and everywhere else in fact in the country and do absolutely nothing for its population to overcome poverty!
They live the harshest daily life, and they volunteer! Incroyable!
I always base myself in Andramandeo at Camp Vezo, and with the help of my friend Philippe Lecadre, he helped me beyond my expectations!
Doing anything so remote is a mission itself, but with Philippe all became possible. And my dearest local friends Mamia & Hermane who helped me find a carpenter to build furniture’s and a seamstress to make little bags in their natal village of Andranotohoky.
This morning, I met with Mangary, the carpenter. He’s renowned to be a real gem Artisans for this remote part. The production of 10x desks with attached benched of 1m50 long is now under way… They are going to be crafted with Palissandre wood sourced in a forest located a couple hours walk from the village, cut and hand crafted by Mangary. True craftman, no screws needed, all inter-locking together. Made to last. Unbelievable!
Back in Antananarivo I have already purchased basic school supplies + all the supplies donated from home.
Kids now needed a little bag each to carry they book and pens, so I had the idea to make some little pouches.
Mamia & Hermane took me in their Charette and off we went to their village in Andranotohoky to meet with a local seamstress there to design this basic little pouch. Her name is Soaina, she was so happy to get work.
She welcomed the idea with a huge smile and much gratitude.
With the help of Philippe giving away old sheets and pillowcases she is making 123 little bags.
My goal is to ALWAYS use the locals to make any charity work I do. It is so rewarding to bring Hope to a whole village by doing so.
There are 3 years levels ”in the tent”: 3 to 5yrs | 6 to 8yrs | 9 to 11yrs, some mixed by what I saw…
Each class has up to 33 to 35 kids. So, everyone will have a sit.
Today Sunday, April 28th I had the delivery of one desk to agree on the design, totally happy of course!
WEDNESDAY MAY 8TH 2024, the day to deliver the news to the kids and bring all the Goods with us to share and display.
I woke up my heart racing of excitement to experience the Joy on these kids’ faces.
Mangary had already 6x desks ready, the other 4 and teacher desk and chair will come soon enough after I am gone.
The mission to get these heavy desks from one village to another was another dilemma but again Hermane pulled up all the magic with 2 charettes, they were delivered today.
With Philippe and help of the locals Martine, Mafale and Touv we walked for couple hours to carry school supplies through the spiny forest and the mangrove.
We arrived in Andranginy to be welcomed with many waves and families saying ”Salama (Hello) Caroline” from their households, their gratitude was heartwarming, to hear my name like that made my heart melt!
What a feeling it was this morning!!! Thank you to Tiarison for his wisdom and charisma. He’s now retire but he has been helping all the remote school on this coastal stretch South of Tulear all his life. He was there to help me get all the kids name on the lists and translate the whole story.
Last time we travelled by Pirogue in 3 villages further south to help schools, he was equally as responsive, and everyone admire and respect him. Without him will be a whole lot harder and I know that all The Goods am trying to put in place will have follow up because of his presence.
I have been incredibly lucky to meet the most incredible locals in such remote part of the planet, we all have mutually so much respect & trust, language barrier does not block the right emotions, I can assure you that!
Once all the names where on our list, 123 of them, I gave away each bag for each little Vezo students.
It was quite a process, but the kids were so well mannered & stoked, i had an interaction with each one of them, my regard connected to each of them to let them know I truly love them and to let them know they were such beautiful kids, and they deserve this!
If only I had the fund to get them a proper roof and 4 walls…
During my arrival, walking to the tent, i noticed this beautiful girl, on top of the sandy hill, she was walking on her knees, trying to roll down in the sand to get closer to me and the school. She had a piece of fabric around her foot. She made it inside the tent. I was watching her, experiencing the suffering from her foot in her face…
When Tiarison was getting the list sorted I decided to go and check on her foot and asked her to remove the fabric.
As you can imagine the outcome was not pretty! A nail came through her foot. First thought i had of course was she needed a tetanus shot. The incident happened days ago; her foot was super infected.
I asked for her mother straight away, a local went to get her in the village.
She had no husband, no money. To go and get medical attention and help is at a cost here.
Which no one can afford! This is a sad reality. There are no doctors in Andranginy , the closest is in Anakao, 3hours walk (not possible for this little girl) so I organized a pirogue and told her mother I will pay for everything, to not worry and to get her on the pirogue as soon as I finish here.
The little girl’s name is Sounike and her sweet Mama is Danina.
She ended up staying at the dispensary in Anakao for 3days, tetanus was already there, but doc says she should be in a healing journey now. The pain she endured trying to get all the infection out of her foot was just dreadful, her foot was so infected that anesthesia would not work, so sad! But she is now home recovering.
You can only imagine what would have happened if I didn’t show up miraculously in Andranginy.
I was here for a reason and to help Sounike.
My local friend there will go check on her next week once I head back to Antananarivo to make sure she’s doing ok.
My local friends in Andramandeo & surroundings have become my family, I have so much respect!
The excitement to see all these kids sitting on their desk made my heart sing.
It’s only a matter of time for the rest of the furniture’s to be finished.
No matter how good it has suddenly become in Andranginy, it can get better and better and better and more deeply forever in the future.
I do this with my heart and soul because look how beautiful these kids are!
This is why I created Mada collective, to help people out of sight geographically, people who live the harshest life without complaining.
If only I had more sales more could be done… The after-covid made it really challenging as a business owner, especially as a single mum, but I don’t give up that easy!
Thank you to all my clients, 5% of each sale goes to my meanings.
You have made this possible, I am so grateful you are choosing Mada collective products, all made by hand one at the time in rural Madagascar, by Artisans that I visit myself.
Each will bring such unique vibe to your decor. Priceless!
Please consider where you shop. It can really make a difference in someone’s life.
Big shops like Kmart will only bring chaos & disorder into your household.
Shop locally and support ethical hard-working people, choose handmade!
I trust resilience in such remote part of the planet will come from guaranteeing access to education, in Andranginy it’s a start… yet small but for the parents of Andranginy, is a proud moment for their kids to attend remote school with appropriate basic needs.
Africa has the youngest population of any continent.
For this reason, you think an education system needs to function continually under any circumstances, without interruption. Well… Madagascar is so far behind, just like many other parts of Africa… So much to be done.
So little help coming their way. Somehow always forgotten… corruption always present…
Education enables people to survive and thrive and I like to think is the most effective investment in the fight against poverty.
My deepest appreciation for Philippe and its Team at Camp Vezo.
For now, I am heading back to Tana in my 29 hours straight bus trip to get Mada collective production under way.
And soon, Home to my beautiful little girl, Gemma that I missed so damn much!
Terribly hard to be apart but she has been part of my journey and has taken each step with me to make this happen.
Till my next meaning… to a path of a more abundant life, a place I live guided by Love and speaking Truth…
I hope my message comes out of my humble stories of my passionate life because there is habitable order to establish and beauty to bring into existence, there is suffering to ameliorate and myself to better.
Thanks for reading!
Caroline.
October 2024 – School in Andranginy!
