2005–2024

Photo archive

Members of the association took these pictures on their visits to Madagascar. They are as old as the cameras that took them, and we publish them as they were taken: dated, located and unretouched. The earliest, from 2005, predate the association itself.

August 2008

Building the bridge

Built by hand, with stone from the site, between July and September 2008. The site diary records it day by day.

The first piers under construction — The first two piers

Laying rubble stone — Laying the rubble stone

The temporary crossing, during the works

The finished bridge — 15 August 2008 — the bridge in use

The carved plaque, set into the structure

Toliara, 2009–2012 · Fianarantsoa, 2015–2024

The two orphanages

The first in Toliara, the second in Fianarantsoa, a thousand kilometres away.

Materials on the Toliara site — Toliara, 2009 — The first materials

The Toliara building going up — Toliara, 2009 — The first two rooms

The courtyard at Toliara — Toliara, 2010 — The courtyard

Daily life in the courtyard — Toliara, 2010 — Life settles in

Children outside the Toliara orphanage — Toliara, 2010 — Outside the orphanage

Children at the table — Toliara — Mealtime

The finished Toliara orphanage — Toliara, 2012 — Finished

Brick walls of the second orphanage — Fianarantsoa, 2015 — The brick walls

The back of the building — Fianarantsoa, 2015 — The back

Rendering from timber scaffolding — Fianarantsoa, 2016 — Rendering

Masons on the scaffolding — Fianarantsoa, 2016 — The masons

Corridor before finishing — Fianarantsoa — Inside, before finishing

Cutting the ribbon — Fianarantsoa, 2018 — The opening

The wall and gate — Fianarantsoa, 2024 — The wall and the gate

Fianarantsoa — The well, suspended since 2022

A full classroom — The school: 250 to 300 children

Children at their desks — The canteen, free every school day

2005–2011

Life around Fianarantsoa

Markets, rice paddies, roads, villages. This is the country our work happens in.

Vegetable stall at a market — 2005 — The market

A group of villagers — 2005 — Meeting the village

Children sitting in the shade — 2005 — In the shade

A woman and three children standing in the doorway of a timber and thatch house — 2005 — Outside the house

Planting rice — 2005 — Transplanting rice seedlings

Terraced rice paddies — 2006 — Terraced paddies

Children with a handmade cart — 2006 — The cart

The village water point — 2006 — The water point

Mother and daughter by the road — 2007 — On the road

A woman carrying her child — 2007 — A mother carrying her child

Open-air clothes market — 2011 — The clothes market

A view over Fianarantsoa — 2011 — Fianarantsoa

In Laval

The fundraising evenings

The building work in Madagascar is paid for in western France.

The complete archive. The association's former website is still online. It holds the full photo collections from 2005, 2006 and 2007, the travel diaries of 2009 and 2011, and write-ups of our fundraising events in Laval. It is in French only. Browse the former site.

These pictures are twenty years of donations

The bridge, the school, the two orphanages, the wall: none of it existed before people decided to give.

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