2. School Nutrition Programmes Madagascar 2007/2008
Background
An estimated 130 million children in the world are not enrolled in school due to hunger and malnutrition.In Asia, Africa and Latin America, 170 million school-age boys and girls receive no food during school hours.In the thirty developing countries where the United Nations experimented with pilot school lunches, enrolments doubled within a year.Children who used to be too lethargic to walk to the village school and then sit through six hours of teaching, started to look forward to the experience.Academic performance, enjoyment of learning, athletic ability and overall health improved dramatically when empty stomachs were filled with nutritious meals.It is a scientific fact that a child ill-fed is dulled in curiosity, lower in stamina and distracted from learning.
During The Corporate Goat's recent visit to Madagascar, we were hugely concerned at the impact on school children of malnutrition and feeling hungry.Whilst a very small number of schools in the poorest areas have some food provided, this is not generally the case.Teachers told of children arriving at school exhausted and then going to sleep.Teachers in a primary school talked of children deprived of food, because of the destruction of the rice crops by the recent cyclone, eating the leaves on the plants in the field by the school.A teacher in a secondary school told of finding a twelve-year old boy quietly sobbing at the back of her classroom because he was too hungry and weak to walk home.He asked her for food but she had nothing to give him.
The Corporate Goat therefore determined that for each school build project it recommends to donors for financial support, agreement should be sought with teachers, parents and local officials, to include a sustainable plan to provide the children attending the school with a meal during the school day. This may, for example, involve growing potatoes, rice, or/and vegetables or/and buying hens, cows or goats.We consulted widely on this suggestion and it was generally considered to be feasible provided assistance was available as a contribution to start up costs.Everyone with whom we consulted felt that children would be better able to learn and concentrate if they ate during the school day.
School Nutrition Project 1
Provision of a 12 week emergency feeding programme for the 171 malnourished children in Mahazina Primary School in the Rural Commune of Sahamadio.
Implementation of a long term food security programme by the local parents association which will involve planting potatoes, beans, vegetable gardens, maize, rice and fruit trees.
This project is funded by Osborne Properties: £3,681
This area is inhabited by the Vezo fishing tribe and suffers from intense poverty.The women are not educated and traditionally have concentrated on supporting their husbands and children.They are, however, very keen to develop new skills, become more economically active and develop their role in their community.The Sisters of the Saint Paul of Chartres who will deliver the project have already delivered similar projects in the villages of Anakao and Soalara.The women will be trained to produce garments, tableware and embroidery with a view to selling the items they produce in order to generate income.
Projects Seeking Support
Womens Project 1 - Antsirafaly and Ankilimivony (South West Madagascar)
To purchase, and transport to this remote area, 20 sewing machines.The Congregation of the Priest Assomptionniste will transport the machines from Antanarivo to Toliary and then ship them on dug outs to the villages.
The Corporate Goat Target Investment: £890.This represents the full project cost.
Womens Project 2
To purchase cloths, fabrics and required materials and tools - scissors, threads, needles etc to supporttraining requirements
The Corporate Goat Target Investment: £405.This represents the full project cost.
Womens Project 3
To contribute to the cost ofthe training/ supervision provided by the Sisters of Saint Paul of Chartres.
The Corporate Goat Target Investment: £100.This is a nominal contribution to meet essential costs.The nuns are volunteering their time as part of their commitment to encouraging and supporting the empowerment of the women in these villages.
Note:One organisation may adopt this composite project in total for the all in cost of £1395.
4. Teachers/Tutors for Street Children, Teenagers and single Mothers - Madagascar
Sisters of the Good Shepherd
Background
The Sisters of the Good Shepherd (Soeurs du Bon Pasteur) organise a number of activities targeted at women and children from their small centre in Antanarivo, the capital of Madagascar.
Some 10% of Madagascar's population of 17 million are estimated to live in and around the capital. Up to 70% of the population live on less than 1 dollar per day.
The Sisters provide schooling for around 180 street children age 3 to 12.The children are provided with breakfast and lunch to encourage them to attend school as an alternative to begging. For most, this is the only food they get. Many spend their nights on the streets. By getting the children used to attending school and helping them to achieve a reasonable educational level, the Sisters get the children into State schools, providing them also with the required uniforms, pens and paper.
Education is the first crucial step in giving the children the chance of a better future.
The Sisters also provide food for undernourished babies and provide training for 105 single mothers and other teenagers in areas such as dress-making, craft, home arts and languages.
The training improves the opportunity for young women to find employment or start small businesses in order to support themselves and their children.
Projects Supported 2007/2008
Teachers/Tutors Project
5 Part-time teachers have been funded to date at £230 (£1,150)
This project is funded by Osborne Properties: £1,150
The Centre Communautaire Fifampandrosoana is a community centre based in Isotry, a poor area of Antananarivo the capital of Madagascar.
The project helps the desperately poor people living on the streets of the capital.What is most inspiring about this project is the holistic approach it takes to dealing with the causes of homelessness. Through outreach work, homeless parents are assisted in finding work and accommodation to get the whole family back into a stable home.
For street children, the key to escaping abject poverty is education.The Centre provides destitute children with food and an education. Courses include: pre-school, basic literacy & numeracy, and vocational training. Many street kids don’t have a birth certificate, or a certificate of residence and are therefore excluded from school. Social workers from the centre help children and their parents (if they have any) to get their official paperwork so they can study and, eventually, work. Once children enter mainstream education the Centre continues to sponsor their educational costs until they gain their Baccalaureate.
For teenagers who have never been to school the approach is different.It is tough for a teenage girl to survive on the streets of Antananarivo.With no identity card and no qualifications it is impossible to get official employment. Prostitution is one of the few ways teenage girls get cash simply to eat. The Isotry Centre provides medical attention, food and vocational training courses in dressmaking, computer skills and embroidery for these young women. Meanwhile a social worker helps them to get their identity cards and accommodation, so that once they have a their diplomas they can secure employment and have a real chance of a different life.
The Isotry centre is currently supporting 1000 children and their families.The Centre is run by a few paid social workers, a doctor and a large team of volunteers.It is led by an inspirational woman called Pasteur Helivao.
The Corporate Goat has undertaken to meet the cost of training 116 teenage girls for 3 months in needlework skills and provide each girl with a lunch each day.The total project cost is £1,223
Gordon K Hairdressing, Newry: £300
Newry Clinic: £250
Osborne Properties: £240
5. Water Projects (Madagascar)
Projects Supported 2007/2008
Piping system for clean water to cummunity in remote village in Ambalavo District
This project is funded by Osborne Properties: £8,437
La Source is a little school for children with learning difficulties.70% of the population of Madagascar live in abject poverty and thousands of street children living in appalling conditions in Antananarivo.In common with other desperately poor countries where resources are severely limited, those with disabilities suffer most and have no chance to escape poverty and hunger.
La Source was set up and is run by a kindly (and inspirational) Pastor and his family.The school educates children with disabilities, many of them from very poor families or from the streets and gives the children some food each day.For some it is the only food they get. The school then provides vocational training programmes for the older students enabling some of them to move into employment.It is currently opening a little shop by the school so that the crafts and other goods made can be sold, generating personal income for the students making them. In this way, boys and girls without hope are given the chance of a better future.
La Source receives no state funding and has, therefore, to meet all of its own costs.The children with families are asked to pay very modest school fees and to pay for their food.Charitable donations are sought to pay the fees of the other children and the school is deeply grateful for any help.
Harold's Cross Greyhound Stadium: 100euro
To invest in one of these projects please contact us info@thecorporategoat.com or call 028 417 54777
: £6,472
