(English) Dream home – savings and loans for permanent homes

Mae’n ddrwg gen i, mae’r cofnod hwn dim ond ar gael mewn English.

‘The GSC has allowed me to escape poverty. Today, I can dream bigger.’

The Resilient Forests and Livelihoods programme, to which all your DOUBLED donations made through the Green Match Fund from 12pm GMT Tuesday 22 April to 12pm GMT Tuesday 29 April, will go, works to protect the unique Malagasy environment, for the benefit of us all, while also improving lives and livelihoods, helping Malagasy people lift themselves from poverty and escape food shortage.

We’d like to introduce you to Noeline, a mother of three who used the opportunities given by RSF to lift herself and her husband from subsistence-level day labour for others, to become a business- and home-owner.

An MfM project in the Resilient Forests and Livelihoods programme has enabled one family to ‘make their dreams come true’ – building and owning a permanent family home.

Noeline Ravaoarimalala, 34, is a farmer and mother of three. She lives in PK7, in Andasibe, where the Mitsinjo Association has been working as a Money for Madagascar partner for the last decade.

In 2022, as part of the RSF programme, we launched a Community Savings Group (CSG) in her village: a savings and loan organisation, in which the community itself invests money, chooses projects to support, and benefits from those projects’ success.

Noeline was a founder member, and as she explains, her life at that point was hard. She said: ‘Me and my husband survived by working each day in fields belonging to wealthier families. We only had enough money to cover our daily food needs. We were anxious every day in case something happened that would require or cost money. We couldn’t possibly afford it.’

In 2022-23, the CSG had 24 members including Noeline (23 women, one man), and had a minimum weekly membership fee of 300 Ariary (5.1p Sterling).

After nine months in which she saved her share of the profit the CSG-supported projects made, she accumulated 130,000 Ariary (£22.05), with which she bought rice, which she was then able to sell on for 240,000 Ariary (£40.71: 79.9 per cent of Malagasy people live on less than £1.73 per day).

She said: ‘My husband and I used this money to start a dream. A thing we never thought would be possible. We started to build our own permanent home.’

Noeline continued to take part in the CSG in 2023-24, when the group had 30 members (28 women, two men), and a weekly membership fee of 500 Ariary (8.5p). This time, she received 170,000 Ariary (£28.84), which she invested in buying gold, which could be sold for twice the price she paid.

She saved what she earnt, and she and her husband continued to build their house.

Today, she is still a member of the GSC, paying a membership fee of 800 Ariary (14.1p) each week. The increased amount from each member is a reflection of their earnings through the scheme, and enables the group to invest more in the projects it backs.

Her house is built, and she plans to move in, with her husband and three children, this month (April 2025). She has 1.5m Ariary (£254.43) and is preparing to open a savings account at the Adasibe post office.

She said: ‘Thanks to my savings, I’ve been able to make my dreams come true.

‘Since joining the group, I’m no longer short of money and I can meet my family’s needs. The GSC is a real solution to our daily problems, and I’m proud to be part of it.

‘I thank Mitsinjo for choosing us as beneficiaries of this project. I hope to go even further in achieving my goals.

‘I can say that the GSC has allowed me to escape poverty. Today, I can dream bigger.’

Our Resilient Forests and Livelihoods programme works to give Malagasy people like Noeline the training, advice, support and tools they need to lift themselves from poverty and food shortage (79.9 per cent of Malagasy people live on or below the global poverty baseline of £1.73 per week; 80 per cent gain all their access to food from farming, including subsistence farming, and 50 per cent of Malagasy children suffer stunting due to malnourishment).

It also works to give those people what they need to protect and expand the vibrant, spectacular Malagasy rainforests on which we all rely.

And you can help us.

From 12pm GMT on Tuesday 22 April to 12pm GMT on Tuesday 29 April we will be part of the Big Give’s Green Match Fund.

Everything you donate through the Green Match Fund website between those times will be doubled in value, and we will use it in our Reslient Forests and livelihoods programme, to progress development and the environment: providing a platform for Malagasy people to improve their lives and livelihoods, and protect and expand the vital rainforest on which we all rely.

To help us reach our target of £60,000, at this point you can:

• Save the date: only money donated through the Green Match Fund website https://donate.biggive.org/campaign/a05WS000002BcYfYAK between 12pm Tuesday 22 April and 12pm Tuesday 29 April will be doubled

• Share this information: copy and paste this web address to a friend, share our Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagra, Twitter/X and Bluesky posts with colleagues and family: your help getting the word out now is a vital part of Malagasy people saving and improving their lives, the rainforest, and the plants and animals within it

• Visit our main campaign page at: https://moneyformadagascar.org/get-involved/the-green-give-22-29-april-2025/green-give-forests-farms-and-lemurs/