In 2017, the project ‘Focus on Madagascar’ enabled the construction of wells, tanks, kitchens, bread ovens and the plantation of trees.

The project is the outcome of all the measures taken by Mr Alain Guillez, as well as young in training, in collaboration with nuns from different Communities in the South of our island.

What is our goal for 2018?

Helping people reached by starvation because from now, wells from different places allow creation of vegetable gardens.  This further step concerns all citizens from the South arid areas (Androy) but also the lepers reached by extreme insecurity.

Who will benefit from our project?

The project I am introducing you will help former lepers, denied by their families. They are living in Mahatsara, a little village situated 3 km in the West of Vangaindrano, where is located our Community.

10 former lepers -5 men and 5 women- are currently living there with their children and grandchildren. The Community helps them but it’s not enough to provide a healthy diet. Two times a month we bring them food and clothing according their needs. We visit them 2 times a week to apply new bandages and provide some medicines.

Each family own a small rice field. However, all of them as well as many other people, are suffering from under nutrition because in our country malnutrition is a crucial issue. Food aid brought by the Community is not sufficient to feed the all family for two weeks which thus, must wait for the next delivery... To support themselves, the lepers have to sell wood charcoal, in other words they are forced to go begging.

How are we going to proceed?

There is a field where vegetable gardens could be created, it is the reason why we carry on this project about market gardening with the lepers. Mr Alain Guillez had really ‘appreciated’ these people when he visited them in 2017. In fact, he wrote us:

“I visited the lepers with Sister Mariette. They were apart in a hill with their children. In front of these little houses, not far from here, there was a swamp -with water all along the year- which covers several hectares. When I first saw those people in that place, I “fell in love” and I realized the non-disabled lepers could become market gardeners as well as their children. I wanted to get them out of marginality by offering them the necessary to fulfil their nutritious needs and don’t depend any more on a food aid which is by the way insufficient. If vegetable gardens are holding -another training for the former interns of last year- it will be possible to sow or seed: eggplants, tomatoes, peppers, courgettes, melons, watermelons, squash, green beans, onions, corn, millet, lentils, dry beans.
That’s how we would like to change the daily lives of those hungry people and bring back their dignity by working.”  

Planned actions

• • Market gardening whose aims are to provide edible vegetables, and to sell in case of harvest surplus.

• • A well rehabilitation to provide drinking water which could be used for cooking too. The water could be useful to do the laundry and to water the vegetable garden.

• • Continuation of youth training in an unknown field ‘market gardening’ -landfill of wastes, vegetable growing to avoid parasites, land fuelling by green manure, seed production and so on. To protect future cultivations from predators, the field has to be fenced. Then, a field of 20-25 m² per family will help the creation of vegetable gardens.

A sustainable project

This 2018 investment is a sustainable action which will benefit from the lepers’ family: a healthy diet will foster the heal of cutaneous sequels of the leprosy and will protect these lepers reached by several diseases such as tuberculosis, typhoid and other diseases related to under nutrition.

In the long term, we could plan two harvests during the austral winter while make sure the amount of water is sufficient. Selling the vegetable surplus will help these people to get money to meet other basic needs and fund small local premises. Those rejected former lepers are human people who have the right to live in dignity live everyone else. They should not go begging to survive!

At the launch of this project, a further food aid is planned to give it to lepers’ family. As they will work with Mr Alain for a month, they won’t be able to go outside and get food, that's why we planned this budget in the project: 10 rice bags, 25 kg of dry beans, 2 oil drums of 20 litres and fishes several times a week.

A Sister of the Vangaindrano Community will contribute to the realization and monitoring of the project, and during the 1st year the ‘market gardener’ will be supported by facilitator (Delphin) trained by Mr Alain Guillez.

To shape a brighter future for these families...
...Support this project! Thank you in advance!