FAMINE APPEAL

Following Covid, global inflation and crop failure from extreme weather, Madagascar is facing the sharp end of the ‘cost of living crisis’. Many essential goods such as food staples and medicines have even doubled in price over the last year. This crippling inflation affects everyone we work with. At the community level, we are increasing grants to absorb inflation so that all our activities from tree planting to school education can go ahead as planned.  In times of extreme pressure, we are also making extra emergency grants to help families facing acute hunger to purchase food to eat today and...

We are delighted to announce that we have expanded our feeding programme in schools in the area hit by the famine in Madagascar. With our partners ALT and Terres des Homes, we have started to work with three new schools in the area around the city of Betroka in the South of Madagascar.  We are especially pleased as in this area, many children work in the local mines so their family incomes are enough to buy food.  Providing meals in schools means that the children come out of child-labour, get an education and get a nutritious meal 6 days per...

We have managed to secure places on the guided walk across Morecambe Bay on Saturday 25th June 2022; it starts at 3:20pm to fit in with the tide. This is a really popular walk from Arnside to Grange over Sands.  The expert guides from the Guide over Sands Trust plot a safe route across the shifting sands of the bay and lead us from one side to the other.  Most of the walk is on sand but there may be channels to wade through up to thigh deep. The walk is usually 7 or 8 miles depending where the sand...

As part of our Education for Life programme, we are also improving adult literacy.  Parents of some of the students were concerned that they were unable to help their children with their school work due to their own low level of literacy.  Some of them were also embarrassed that their children knew more than them. The course delivered links literacy learning to rural development, focusing on teaching literacy in the context of improving educational outcomes for children by supporting literacy and business skills of parents at Education for Life Schools.  A local trainer delivers the course which means schools can...

We are delighted to let you know about our new partnership with Mary’s Meals.  Mary’s Meals is a fantastic charity which started with two brothers from Argyll who wanted to help victims of the war in Bosnia in 1983.  It has now grown and they work in 20 countries across the globe. Their vision is simple; every child deserves and education and enough to eat.  Their aim is to work in the world’s poorest countries so that every child there receives a nutritious, daily meal in their school as they recognise that children cannot learn if they are hungry.  Education...

Money for Madagascar’s Emergency Response. In January Tropical Storm Ana displaced 72,000 people in Madagascar.  Floods in the capital and the East swept away roads, crops and buildings, destroying lives and livelihoods in its wake. Money for Madagascar responded immediately with a recovery fund of £10,000 to assist the most vulnerable people in the communities we serve.  This rapid response fund is being managed by our Malagasy Country Office team to ensure appropriate aid reaches our projects and beneficiary communities without delay.  Emergency help includes making collapsed buildings safe and emergency feeding where homes and crops have been flooded.  ...

The last two years have brought previously unimaginable problems for the whole world but there have also been many positive stories from our projects in Madagascar.     Our friends at AAA recently sent us a report giving details of their success stories in 2021 and we would like to share some of them with you: All of the children who took the test to move from primary to secondary school passed. There were 24 young people at university and three graduated. 16 girls completed vocational training – 9 in hairdressing and beauty, 4 in sewing and 3 in agriculture...

  The village of Queniborough in Leicestershire came up with a novel way of joining our Tree Twinning Programme by holding a ‘Pianothon’.  The aim was to raise funds to protect and restore rainforest in Madagascar through playing music whilst also raising awareness of the threat to trees in Queniborough though a road widening scheme.  The community wanted to twin the trees on Rearsby and Queniborough Roads with trees in Madagascar.   Six pianists took turns and played the piano from 8:00am to 8:00pm!  Every hour had a different theme and there were also guest turns from a classical singer...

Our runner in the London Marathon pounded the streets of London last week, one of 40000 participants.  Maria had aimed for a time of 4 hours 15 minutes but she smashed that, crossing the finish line in 3 hours, 54 minutes and 40 seconds.  What an amazing achievement for her first marathon. Not only was it a personal challenge, Maria also set her self an ambitious target of raising £5000 for us.  Donations have been coming in but she has not quite made it.  Can you help her reach the finish line for this race too?  We think she deserves...

Recently, we have learned about some people who have chosen us as the recipient for their fundraising challenges. Freya Marks has heard about the drought in southern Madagascar and our famine appeal. She has set herself the challenge of running every day in September. Keep track of her progress on her Justgiving page. https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/freya-marks3 ———– Mary Edwards is walking the Gritstone Trail around the hills of Cheshire. It’s a walk of 56km and she will be sometimes joined by family and friends, sometimes on her own. Mary is also walking to mark the 5th anniversary of the death of her...

My name is Maria Hall, I am 32 and an Urban and Regional Planning Consultant originally from Dublin, Ireland but now living in Donegal. In my spare time you can find me surfing, hiking or on the local basketball court (pre Covid). My partner of ten years, Gordon, is the son of one of the Trustees and I have always admired the family’s involvement with the charity. I remember Gordon’s Grandad and Granny discussing their time in Madagascar with great fondness and I have always hoped that Gordon and I would go to Madagascar to do our own charity work...

Please help save a child’s education for just a few pounds.  Many parents are struggling to scrape the money together to pay for the obligatory enrolment fees for the start of the school year on 1st September.  This year, schools are opening early to try to catch up lost time when schools were shut due to the pandemic.  Many parents normally save this money over the school holidays but the pandemic has caused financial hardship; incomes have reduced and expenditure increased so children are at risk of being forced to quit school. It costs just £13.00 to pay annual school enrolment fees and their...