Every Picture Tells a Story

Ambovombe has been our home away from home for the past four weeks. Today we return to Antananarivo, leaving behind the staff and communities that we have learned to appreciate and have become attached to.

As a quick reminder, this was a project that started in September of 2023, involving 2,000 of the most vulnerable households in 31 different fokontany. It provides each family a monthly ration of 60 kg of rice, 10kg of beans and 4 litres of oil for a period of 5 months to bridge the gap to their next harvest. 

To help you more fully appreciate the depth and impact of this amazing project we would like to share a pictorial documentary with you remembering that “a picture is worth a thousand words”!

The project started with SAF/FJKM ‘s local staff (World Renew’s partner in Madagascar) visiting each of the villages to share the details of the project and how the participant families would be selected.

From each of the villages, a committee composed of two female and two male representatives, was chosen by the community. This ensured there was female leadership in the decision-making processes. Along with helping to choose the most vulnerable households, this committee helped organize the distributions. No easy job!

Each household received an in-house visit to obtain a detailed profile of the family.  From this, the 2,000 most vulnerable families were selected.   The selection criteria stipulate that a household cannot have any current source of income, may not own any livestock, and is eating only one meal or less per day.  Priority is given to households that are female-headed with children, supervised by a widow or widower, hosts orphans, vulnerable children, disabled or elderly.

For full transparency, the final list of participants was shared with the entire community and there was opportunity to challenge the selection.

A one-on-one base-line survey of 12% of the households was completed prior to the first food distribution to determine what type and amount of food that they were consuming and what types of activities and behaviours they had adopted to cope with the lack of food. Another survey will be conducted towards the end of the project to determine the impact of the project interventions.

How would you organize the distribution of 120 metric tons of rice, 20 metric tons of beans and 8,000 litres of oil to 2,000 families over a two-day period in a secure and organized way? This partner has it down to a perfect system!  Once started, each of the two distributions takes only three hours to complete!

The distributions are well managed, providing a safe and enjoyable experience for the recipients. The household representatives are separated into groups of 10 with the understanding that pregnant women, the elderly, or disabled will be attended to first. Areas are roped off to keep good order. 

Extended family members help to carry their food to a “zebu-taxi” (ox-driven cart) that they have hired. People are encouraged to travel in groups for safety and to share the cost of transporting the supplies. 

To ensure family well-being, there is ongoing monitoring throughout the entire project to determine how the food is being used and the impact it is having on the family.  At the same time, the Community Mobilizers monitor how well all the various trainings that are being promoted in the project, are being applied.

A complaint box is always available for participants to submit complaints or suggestions about any aspect of the project.  Alternatively, they can speak to a staff person or leave a phone message on a ‘complaint line’.  Each of these is thoroughly investigated and, where appropriate, corrective action is taken.

Of the 19 project staff members, 12 are Community Mobilizers (6 females and 6 males).  In pairs, they work within the 31 local fokontany.  In addition to managing the monthly food distributions, they visit each of the fokontany several times each week to teach and/or reinforce awareness-raising activities. These include topics on gender equality, GBV (Gender Based Violence), PSEA (Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse), the CRM (Complaint Response Mechanism), the fight against corruption and fraud, environmental issues, the importance of tree planting, nutrition, and the benefits of and procedures to establish VSLAs. 

VSLAs – Village Savings and Loan Associations were established during the previous project – with great participation and appreciation.  We heard individual stories of how using loans from the VSLA helped families to establish livelihoods to supplement their incomes when crops were disappointing.  There are currently 53 VSLAs in operation with a total membership of 1,305!

In our last blog you heard about the training done to prepare people for the tree seedling distribution.  The distribution took place this past Friday and Saturday with 6,000 tree seedlings being distributed to the 2,000 households.  They were carried home in small buckets, handbags and even in their hats!

Concerned with people becoming dependent on humanitarian aid, the local authorities encourage the beneficiaries to engage in community work for 10 hours per week.  One of the jobs was to improve access to their village. 

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This coming Friday we head home from where we will complete our report on the project over the coming weeks, as final survey results come in.   We leave feeling humbled and very grateful to God that we could serve Him in such a unique way. We have once again had the privilege of being immersed in this culture. Our eyes have been opened to see the uniqueness of the people’s lifestyle, their resiliency, their emphasis on relationships and their thankfulness in all circumstances.

We are sad to say goodbye to the wonderful and very competent staff we have been working with, headed by Cathia.  The team is incredibly conscientious in their work and have been so warm and friendly towards us.  We are also grateful for Danny, our translator who has been patient in responding to our many questions and educating us about the local culture. 

As we leave behind these people we have come to care about, we ask that you pray for a blessing on their lives and the work that remains to be done to complete the project.

Please also ask God to send sufficient rain to produce the harvest that will be desperately needed in this area after the project ends.

Harry and Annie