African Nights Fundraiser in Vancouver

Thanks to the support of approximately 200 attendees, the African Nights fundraiser held on September 21st was a great success! The fundraiser was organized by Rose Charities' Josephine De Freitas and was brought to life with the help of a dedicated team of volunteers.

The evening started off with mingling and munching on delicious hors d'oeuvres as guests perused the wide array of auction items on display. The generously donated items included original pieces of art, handmade jewelery and instruments, a plethora of gift certificates, weekend getaways and more! The room was buzzing as people eagerly placed their bids.


But things really started to heat up the moment Jacky Ensombe went on stage. Her voice permeated the room as she danced to the rhythm of the African drums. Jacky's energy was contagious and within minutes, people of all ages were moving on the dance floor. Jacky taught the audience some of her lyrics about kindness and friendship and asked the audience to sing along. It made me smile to see the room full of people singing Jacky's words, coming together to show their support for children in Africa.









What a fabulous evening! Not only did the African Nights event succeed in raising much needed funds for the Rose Charities children's projects, it also served to increase awareness of the work being done to help improve child health and education. It was a privilege to represent Rose Madagascar at this event and to meet the lovely folks from our sister organizations (Malambo Grassroots, Stand Tall Education, Brighter Smiles and Asolate). I look forward to our future collaborations to help improve the lives of children involved in Rose Charities projects overseas.

Emma Noble
Rose Madagascar

Note: photos courtesy of Jasna Stojanovic

Avy ny Orana!!! (It is Raining!!!)

Hello folks!

Well the rainy season has come early to the plateau this year and we've been having regular thunderstorms daily. With it comes short stints of torrential rain usually lasting and hour or two and turning the road through the village into a river, as well as spectacular thunder and lightning shows! With this great gift from nature known as rain we have been leading by example by setting up rain catchment buckets at the corners of the school building to cover our daily drinking and washing needs! In the next few weeks we will hopefully have fitted gutters in place to direct the majority of the rainfall to a few large barrels. This will then be converted into a hands-free hand washing station for the students, replacing the temporary tippy-tap stations as well as the need for bucketing water up the well everyday.

On our last report we didn't mention that we recently attended a grand ceremony in the capital city of Tana. The two of us, along with Bina, Rena (a teacher from Mahatsara), and four students- Daniel, Sedera, Felena, and Dina took a little trip to the National Stadium where we marched with our Mahatsara school sign in front of 700 other represented schools and 5000+ people! Being from the district of Andramasina, that put us alphabetically first in line which was quite the special honor! The ceremony was being held to mark the 15 year anniversary of the private education system in Madagascar. We also happened to be the smallest school which seemed to make the kids shine even brighter! On the trip to the big city which had not been done by Dina or Felena (the two younger students on our trip 10 & 11 respectively) we went for a tour to the University of Antananarivo. This was to give the students a look into the opportunities that can be possible in terms of furthering their educations. The sheer vastness of the University campus not only shocked Matthew and I but the students as well. It is quite a peaceful escape from the bustling madness that can be Tana!

Back in Tsarahohenana the wheels are still turning on the Mahatsara project! Some of our recent endeavours have been getting the bulletin board roofs sized up properly to protect the notices from these torrential downpours we have become accustomed to. Continuing our other projects has remained a priority as well with the culture/English classes for both the students and teachers being very productive. Participating in Phys. Ed classes has proved to be too much fun but also exhausting as these kids can run forever! Football is their sport of choice and barefoot has proved more effective than hiking shoes! We have also spent some time with shovels out in the fields getting muddy and turning fields, which in turn, has caused extensive blistering of the hands. Just need to build up some calluses like our Malagasy friends!

This past Saturday we were lucky enough to be invited to a wedding of one of the teachers at our school! Freddy, the current English teacher at Mahatsara was kind enough to have us attend his wedding with two of the other teachers at the school. It was a very nice ceremony and celebration and some of the best vary sy laoka (Rice and topping) we have eaten thus far in Madagascar! We have been very fortunate to be able to witness some of the traditional ceremonies of Malagasy people during our stay, and are very thankful to be able to be a part of all of them, no matter how different they maybe to our traditions back in Canada! Soakin' it in "Gasy Style" and lovin' it!

This is will be our last trip to Tana until we get ready to leave Madagascar in mid December so hope everyone is doing well and thank you for all the support back in Canada and abroad! It really does make a difference.

Veloma for now!

Jordan sy Matthew

Getting in touch with the Red Island!

Hello folks from around the world! Jordan and Matthew back in the capital with an update of our progress after a failed attempt last week.

After a short vacation for the two of us to Andasibe National Park in Eastern Madagascar, we are well rested and ready to head out to our lovely home in Tsarahohenana! We were very fortunate to be able to see many species of wildlife including chameleons, 4 lemur species, and many other snakes, lizards, and birds etc. Most of which we saw from above the rain forest canopy as we participated and learned the skill of proper tree climbing!

It was also very cool to see the other projects going on around Madagascar. Although our specific project is aimed towards development of the school and projects surrounding the village, the majority of the projects in Andasibe are focused on conservation and research. We were introduced to people from all over the world with different points of view about the situation of not only the rain forest ecosystems but also the integrity of the remaining natural areas around the world. It was great to see there were people young and old putting forth great efforts and huge personal sacrifices to keep these special places intact. I can see more clearly now how lucky we are in Canada to have such an abundance of untouched and protected wilderness areas.

But as for the school lets take a step back in time to see what has happened in the time since we last left a little note. Some of the activities we have stuffed into our daily routine have included plastic protecting books to prepare for the future library project (this entails 100's of books). We also worked with Melissa and the peace core ingenuity in making tippy-tap temporary hand washing stations for the children outside of the washroom facilities. When the materials are made available we will be constructing more permanent stations that aren't quite as prone to student negligence! haha! Really a great, simple and cost effective solution to dirty little hands! We also teamed up with Bina to put up the School and Community Bulletin Boards at either side of the village so that parents and community members, as well as children can get informed about what is going on in terms of projects, information sessions/lessons, parent meetings, and program itineraries for Saturdays when we work with Melissa to do participatory workshops with regards to the environment, health, agriculture, and even fun days with the kids!

As far as our teaching endeavours go, the classes with the 5th and 6th grade classes have been getting better and better all the time with a huge reason for that being the kids opening up to us as the comfort level in the class rises. We have taught them O Canada! and done a complete Malagasy translation which they enjoyed listening to as we tried to sing in tune and make the many syllabled words flow together. Also, along with Melissa we have done 2 AIDS Awareness classes with the older students to inform them of the causes, dangers, and prevention methods. We must say these students were much more well-behaved then a group of teenagers in a similar course back home. we were very impressed with the composure and interest they showed with such an "embarrassing" subject.

English has also become a major part of our curriculum for everyone involved with the school and the community for that matter! Its very humbling that we can go into a country and instead of expecting you to learn their native language fluently, they would in fact rather communicate with us in our language. This has translated into frequent after school English lessons for the teachers at Mahatsara for which they are taking their "leisure time" to attend. It is a different teaching pace working with the teachers as they are fully educated and their ability to learn is at high level, where as the students are still learning many areas in the Malagasy language and have to make huge steps to grasp the concepts of the English language. As most of you can probably tell, I (Jordan) am still trying to grasp these concepts and I'm sure it translates into this blog.

And last but not least, the program I am most proud of that is very new, is the lunch time vocabulary lessons that we started before our little vacation. We have made them completely optional to the students who stick around at lunchtime and the interest has been overwhelming. We actually had to switch to the biggest classroom in the school after the third day to fit all of the interested kids in! We have been learning around 30 words a day in the lesson, which covers English spelling, Malagasy spelling, and proper pronunciation of the word in both languages. This gives the students the ability to practice these words among their classmates, families and to try and impress us which they rarely fail to do with their ever expanding vocabularies! It also gives us a much bigger hat to pull words from in our everyday conversations with Malagasy people, instead of only Tsara Be! (Very Good!).

Anyways can't wait to get back to the students and our humble abode out on the upper reaches of the plateau so we will say goodbye until next time! Hope all is well in the Great North!


Veloma to all!

Matt sy Jordan

Matt(hew) and Jordan Arrive in Mada!!!

Hello all, it has been a quick but awesome first few weeks here in Madagascar! the ( ) around "hew" is because as we started to tell people about Matt's name, we quickly learned that "Matt" in Malagasy means "death" and resorted to his full name quite quickly! haha!

We were greeted with a very pleasant surprise when our new best friend Melissa the outgoing (english/malagasy speaking) peace core volunteer picked us up at the airport... language barrier broken, move ahead 5 spaces! A night spent in the capital city Tana and we were ready to move higher onto the plateau.

The second day of our adventure we made the 3 hr taxi-brousse ride to our new home in Tsarahohenana. Upon arrival we immediately got a full tour of the village and school and were introduced to the 120 reasons we made the trip to the other side of the world! The students at Mahatsara were curious, nervous, and excited all at the same time. Luckily we have been preceeded by amazing volunteers that have paved easy road for us gaining trust from the kids and the community.

Getting used to life in Madagascar for the first few weeks has consisted of many new experiences. Obvserving Melissa's community based projects at work was a great way to get integrated into the parents associated with the region. After gathering massive bags of clay from a source more than a km out of town as well as red soil and ash from the lunch program stoves we helped her in putting on a "fatana mitsitsy" (fuel efficient stove) building demonstration. This was attended by over 25 parents and many curious children and was overall a great success.

We have also had a great time teaching our 3x a week culture class. Such topics of study have included Canadian vs. Malagasy tradition, food, and sports etc. geography, and of course English which the kids love learning and practicing at every opportunity. School time or not!

Oct. 2 marked another first as we were given a lesson in Malagasy building. The new lunch room was to be constructed by a large group of dedicated parents, men and women! It was great to see the alternative yet effective methods of building with bamboo, eucalyptus trees, and strands of grass. The resourcefulness of the builders without having access to saws, drills, trucks or any electricity but only hammers and hatchets was awesome to see! Such a fun day to be a part of!

We have also got our hands dirty and everything elso on our bodies for that matter, painting the kindergarten chairs and tables as well as the washroom facilities which was capped off by a huge Daft Punk dance party in the sun with the students!

To cap off the last 3 days before our journey back to Tana today we were invited to and attended the Famadihana "turning of the bones" ceremony/celebration. Eating everything to mogo gasy, to goose, to cow stomach (which treated us nicer than it did Martin a previous volunteer), to more rice than I thought would ever see, let alone eat! A mind blowing experience as we went from dancing the night away to the following day being taken into a tomb with traditonal Malagasy music being performed in the seemingly distant outside and scarve wrapped bodies at our sides... Quite and introduction to this amazing country, culture and people.

Sarah with some new clothes.
Our last day at the school, everyone saying goodbye.
A cutie very happy with her new toothbrush.

Mama ny Daniel taking us on a tour of the Artemisia plantation.
The Grade 1 class, happy to learn...with a smile!
Two youngsters in the Kindergarten class.
Ginah and Sarah living the life of a Malagasy street child.
Ginah (4 years old!) pretty happy to have a new little dress; now all she needs in glasses!

Well folks, this is Luke and Cheryl Anne here with a quick update from the beautiful red island, Madagascar. Unfortunately, the end of our visit is fast approaching, and this will be our last blog update from within the country. Our last month of work in the village of Tsarahonenana went incredibly well. We tackled topics such as the volunteer program, we signed, stamped and sealed Mahatsara’s 2008/09 operating budget, and we got a much better handle on Mahatsara’s 10 year plan of development. When we weren’t busy with the aforementioned discussions, Cheryl Anne and I took advantage of the beautiful country side and started going for many more exploratory walks. The one thing Malagasy people do best, aside from cook rice of course, is walk. The country side is like a giant spider web, with each silk thread representing a walkway that connects one small village to another. Needless to say, one could spend a lifetime walking along rice paddies and scrambling to the top of large granitic monolith outcrops.

One sunny afternoon, we walked to a nearby village with one of the older students from the school. His family runs a successful potatoe farm, but also grows and sells artemisia. Based on my little understanding of anti-malarials, artemisia is one of the latest and greatest drugs on the market, although last time I checked, it was not yet available in Canada. All that to say, it was incredibly interesting to see the process of growing and drying this valuable plant.

Back in Tsarahonenana, the participation and enthusiasm of parents and community members in regards to helping out at the lunchtime nutrition program and Mahatsara work-B days, continues to amaze us. Not only are they keen to help out, they are also keen to learn. 49 enthusiastic community members attended a training session held by a nearby Peace Corps volunteer, Melissa, who is specialized in local environmental and agricultural practices. She demonstrated the process of making cook stoves and hot boxes, while discussing the economic, environmental and health benefits of these two appliances (I use the word appliance loosely, but I can’t think of a better one at the moment). While some actually showed up with pens and paper to takes notes, others were up to their shoulders mixing mud. Mahatsara also invited a couple local doctors to give an information session on personal hygiene, clean drinking water, and most importantly, contraceptions. The session was attended by 53 people, both male and female, young and old (and we musn’t forget the family of chickens that so diligently attend all of these gatherings).

Last Saturday was another great Mahatsara work-B day in the garden. We spent the morning with students and parents planting sweet potatoes, which was followed by a very pleasant surprise goodbye gathering for Cheryl Anne’s and my departure. After a number of speeches, members of the community started filling our arms with gifts. We received all sorts of fun authentic Malagasy presents, from a bag of potatoes to a handmade “tam tam” drum. For a group of people that seem to have so little, they sure do give a lot. When we couldn’t possible accept any more, we all headed to the nutrition program for one last meal together. After a quick goodbye to the kids and teachers at the school, we locked up the volunteer home, and loaded our stuff on to a taxi brousse. We waved goodbye to the relaxed little village that we called home for the past three months, and headed in the direction of the bustling capital, Antananarivo.

In Tana, one of the first things we did was head downtown to find the two kids living on the street that Cheryl Anne mentioned in last months blog update. We brought the two little girls some new clothes to replace the rags they had been wearing for who knows how long. It was the least we could do, but might actually help keep them warm in the fast approaching winter months, where temperatures have been known to drop as low as 0 degrees Celsius. All we can do is keep our fingers crossed.

Well, that leaves us with only a few more days before we jump on a plane and are Canada bound. After a quick day in Singapore to round up some luggage we left behind, Cheryl Anne and I, for the first time in 3 months, will head off in our own directions. Since we are both unsure what it will be like to be on our own, we have made plans to meet up the next day in Vancouver. We wish you all the best, and hopefully we get to see many of your shining faces when we get home.

Until then,

Much love, Luke and Cheryl Anne

Dadabe and his huge smile

Compost training with a local agricultural NGO. Members of the Mahatsara parents association came out to learn about local sustainable agricultural practices.

Luke drinking coffee in his speedy mouse shirt.
A group of moms after a day of gardening.


Cheryl-Anne working on a stove in the new Mahatsara outdoor kitchen. The round section is made out of a mud mixture that helps to better insulate pots and cut down on the amount of fire wood needed.