COVID-19 APPEAL

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...

Marielle used to work as a domestic worker for a family in Antananarivo but ran into problems with the family.  She was placed at the AAF centre in 2017. She is a very well- behaved and hard working girl and wanted to take a cookery course.  She took up a place at La Restauration catering school in Antananarivo and from there, she was chosen to follow a waitress training course at the National Institute of Tourism and Hospitality (INTH) in collaboration with the Federation of Hoteliers and Restaurateurs of Madagascar. It is a two-year apprenticeship training combining classroom studies and...

We would like to thank the fantastic fundraising achievements of 11-year-old Dylan. He was inspired by watching David Attenborough’s Perfect Planet and wanted to do some fundraising for environmental conservation work.  He researched different charities and chose to fundraise for our tree planting programme in Madagascar. During the half-term holiday in February, he ran 5km every day and asked for donations.  He raised an amazing £560.00! Dylan decided to donate this money to buy:  2 woodlands  1 copse  2 trees Thank you and well done Dylan!

Money for Madagascar is a UK based charity, who have been working in Madagascar for 35 years.  We work with reputable Malagasy NGO partners, with whom we have strong relationships. There is now a famine in the South of Madagascar. here is a link to an impassioned plea from the World Food Program on CNN this week https://t.co/zd9st5UAnq?amp=1 MfM is appealing for help to step up our famine feeding response. So far we have raised £75K for our MfM famine response.  Next week we will double the number of children we are feeding to provide nutritious daily meals to at...

The programme to train local families in different techniques of rice and maize cultivation, planting fruit trees and composting has been successful.   The families who took part received seeds, saplings and tools so they were able to put their training into practice and they chose the type of saplings they wanted for their own land.  Unfortunately, the drought has meant the harvest has been disappointing but the skills they have learned will be useful and help improve production in the future.        10 hectares of degraded land were identified for restoration in Betombotsirika. This was done with the...

We have had a very positive report from our Topaza project.  Despite the pandemic, there has been a lot of progress. In September, we reported that the construction of the farm buildings was underway.  Since then two cows were purchased and a calf was born.  The amount of milk from the cows averages 35 litres per week and is a fantastic addition to feed the children and staff at the centre improving their health and nutrition. A litter of piglets was born with the intention of selling 4 and keeping the other 5 for 5 months so they could be...

We are very excited to start a new project, working with a school in near the Andasibe National Park.  The school has 96 pupils and work is already well underway to create a kitchen garden to provide produce for the school canteen. After starting at the end of November, the garden was planted with a range of vegetables including courgettes, green beans, tomatoes and peppers. Some crops have been more successful than others but topping the table so far has to be the 83kg of courgettes harvested to date!  In February the school bought three rabbits who are providing fertiliser...

Covid is now gripping Madagascar. My heart is aching for colleagues and friends that we have lost to Covid in recent weeks and with fear for more we may lose as the covid situation in Madagascar become very frightening . This time it’s not just a financial crisis for households in lockdown it’s a medical crisis. The South African variant is spreading fast. In a country with almost no medical infrastructure and very little help with medical costs or social security,  the outlook is bleak. Oxygen canisters are now extremely scarce to come by, and at £60 per canister they...

Our partners in the E4L projects have sent us an update about their progress in the eight schools run by AVM and Ankizy Gasy, Despite the pandemic, we are pleased to report that the work continues. Training has been provided for teachers on child psychology and improving classroom practice and management. School Principals had leadership training.  The teachers were very positive about the training and evidence of changed practice as a result has been observed. The children were thrilled to learn about worm composting on a school trip.  They learned how this helps improve the soil and in turn increases...