(English) MfM Fortieth Anniversary events

Money for Madagascar 40th Anniversary: 2026

Hazo tokana tsy mba ala, Ny firaisakina no hery

One tree does not make a forest – Together we are stronger

This coming year, our 40th anniversary, we are living our values of strong collaboration and mutual support: ‘firaisakina’ as we say in Malagasy. Together, we have planned a host of events which will be led by our supporters and communities in Madagascar and the UK. Some will be open to everyone, others will be run by communities for their own local celebrations. We are sharing information about five events in which you might like to get involved overleaf, and about every event online, so you can see everything that is happening. Please get in touch if you want to support our events!

Our celebrations fall under the following titles and we hope there is something for everyone.

Local Community Events and Competitions in Madagascar: Throughout 2026, our communities have planned events to spotlight and celebrate their achievements, so their work is recognised locally. MfM partners and local communities will organise celebration events, competitions and short promotional films, to celebrate achievements. Competitions include best vegetable garden, best community savings group, most successful solar light library, and best school ambassador for children’s rights. By highlighting and celebrating their achievements, our partners hope to inspire others to join or replicate their work.

Cultural Exchanges: In keeping with our values, many of our birthday events will be opportunities for mutual learning and sharing. MfM partners will gather at the beginning and end of 2026. The launch event in January will set the tone for a year of extra-special collaboration- launching plans for shared cultural events across the regions of Madagascar, as well as between our communities in Madagascar and Wales. Communities will be connected as they create songs, dances and poetry on the theme of ‘Ny firaisakina no hery’. These creations will then be shared in a final jamboree in Madagascar in October 2026. Links between the events in Wales and Madagascar are under development. We are keen to enable an exchange of artists/poets between the countries in 2026 or 2027, but even without this, we will connect workshops and performances in each country online.

Main Celebration Events in Madagascar: There will be two main national events in Madagascar: a launch in January, and a Final Jamboree/Grand Finale in October. Both will be near Antananarivo. The launch will include representatives from MfM projects, MfM staff, media and dignitaries.

The Finale/Jamboree will be a larger gathering: more representatives from MfM communities and each partner team will meet for a week of sharing and celebration ahead of the public Jamboree. A wider guest list of supporters and dignitaries and media will be invited.

Main Celebration Events in the UK: The main confirmed celebration events will be the Friends of Madagascar event on 18^th April in Kenilworth, and a Welsh-Malagasy concert event near Swansea on 11^th July. The Kenilworth event will be by invitation only to Friends of Madagascar and MfM supporters. The Swansea event will be open to the public, with priority places going to MfM supporters, friends and members of our partner the Union of Welsh Independents (UWI) and friends of the Welsh and Malagasy performers. Additional public events in Lancaster and at Friends House, may also take place, but could happen in 2027.

Learning Events: will be extended to a wider community of MfM supporters and Madagascar enthusiasts. We hope to host discussion workshops in person at the SKOLL Conference SideBar in Oxford (UK) (21^st to 24^th April 2026) and the Wales Africa HUB conference in September 2026. You would be most welcome to support us at these events, but pre-registration would be required. With your help, we plan to create an online event to bring together experts and interested parties to share more about MfM’s work and to facilitate an exchange with other experts; those with expertise from experience and academia. This may be developed in 2026 to take place in 2027. Do let us know if you would be interested to be part of this.

MfM Archive project: We have started creating an archive of interviews with MfM founders, early partners and other important people from our history, as we work to understand and share our origin story more widely. We are liaising with Friends House to connect this work with a wider archiving project to celebrate the deep links between British Quakers and Madagascar.

Friends and supporters are welcome to join this project to help capture oral history and archivable items of historic interest that can be shared also with our Malagasy friends. This work may launch in 2026 and continue beyond.

We will provide regular communications throughout the year by e-mail and on our website and social media.

We hope you will enjoy following special features, articles and videos about the best work of our partners, as well as updates about the celebration events.

The following five MfM 40th Anniversary events will be open to the public. We would love to see you there, or work out how we can come together in and around them. See below for how to find out more about these and all our planned anniversary celebrations!

January 2026: Official 40^th Birthday Launch Event, Madagascar

Join representatives of MfM communities, partners, staff and select media and dignitaries, for the official launch, where our official anniversary dance and song , created for MfM by Akany Hasina, will be performed.
Our birthday appeal and competitions will also be launched at this event.

18th April 2026: Friends of Madagascar Event, Kenilworth, UK

The 2026 Friends of Madagascar event will be dedicated to celebrating MfM’s 40th birthday, and we’d love it if you can join us, in person or online! Speakers will reflect on highlights and insights from 40 years of MfM, and our CEO, Lova Rasoalinoro, will share her vision as she leads MfM into the next chapter. Come along to join in discussions, food, friendship, music and dancing. There will be a Madagascar-themed programme for children and young people at this family-friendly event, open to FoM members and MfM supporters. Advance booking will be required.

21st-24th April 2026: SKOLL Conference SideBar, Oxford (UK)

We invite you, our conservation and development allies, to join us to share experience and expertise and plan collaborative actions at our workshop at the SKOLL SideBar—a community-led fringe running alongside the SKOLL World Forum. It is open to all who register free at www.theside.bar. Please tell us if you plan to come!

11th July 2026: Celebration Concert with Ny Ako, a UWI Chapel, Swansea area, UK

You are invited to this showcase of traditional Welsh and Malagasy songs and dance, featuring the Malagasy performers ‘Ny Ako’! The event will include talks from MfM staff/founders/partners and a short film about MfM’s work. It may also include performances of Malagasy and Welsh poetry created in a separate Welsh-Malagasy poetry exchange.

October 2026: Grand Finale/ Jamboree, Madagascar

Join us for this gathering of MfM staff, partners, community members and invited guests. We expect this to be hosted near Madagascar’s capital at Akany Avoko Ambohidratrimo—a fitting place for our final jamboree, as AAA has partnered with MfM for the whole 40 years we are celebrating.

To find out more about all our planned anniversary events, please contact our staff team at admin@moneyformadagascar.org or via our UK or Madagascar offices.