Twenty years of building a future for children in Madagascar, stone by stone
Two orphanages, a school, a bridge. From a small town in western France, a handful of volunteers turn every donation into something you can go and stand in front of.
in Madagascar
built
every school day
by one bridge
no paid staff
Shelter, schooling, a future
Three commitments that depend on one another: a roof without a school leads nowhere, and a school without meals stays empty.
Shelter
Two orphanages built and maintained — in Toliara, also known as Tuléar, since 2009, and in Fianarantsoa since 2015 — giving a stable home to children who have lost their parents or cannot live with them.
Schooling
A school next to the Fianarantsoa orphanage, taking between 250 and 300 children, with a free canteen meal every school day.
A future
A well, a bridge, a perimeter wall, computers, two shops: the infrastructure that makes everything else possible and lasting.
Toliara, then Fianarantsoa
Two orphanages, a thousand kilometres apart, built one after the other over fifteen years.
The first orphanage
Started in June 2009 as an emergency, to rehouse children from another orphanage closing on 31 July. They moved into two rooms on 30 July. The orphanage was officially opened in June 2010 and completed in 2012.
Total cost: €20,000
The Marie-Louise Labaud orphanage
We bought the land in 2013–14 and started building in 2015. Work stopped in 2017 for lack of funds, and the orphanage opened in 2018. The wall and the gate followed, through to the end of 2024. A school stands beside the orphanage.
Cost to date: €35,438
The Friendship Bridge
Three villages were cut off every rainy season, and food from the fields no longer reached the orphanage. One volunteer, Gilles, spent the summer of 2008 on site running the works.
He kept a diary, day by day: stones broken by hand, tree trunks carried out of the forest on men's shoulders, cement running short, snakes in the foundations. Much of it is reproduced here.
Read the site diaryWhat we are working on now
In Fianarantsoa, from the first brick wall to the finished gate.
The school and its canteen
Between 250 and 300 children, with a free meal every school day.
The well
Begun in 2022, now suspended for lack of funding. Water is carried to the site by hand every day.
The wall and the gate
Finished in late 2024. They finally enclose the site and keep the children safe.
The well has been at a standstill since 2022
Digging began, then stopped: the money ran out. Until it is finished, water has to be carried to the site every single day, for the orphanage and for the school canteen.
We will reopen the site as soon as the money is there.
Help us finish the wellYour donation becomes a wall, a meal, a well
We are all volunteers. What you give goes straight to the work in Madagascar, and comes back to you as photographs and figures on the Our work page.
The French government recognises AMBEOKA as an organisme d'intérêt général — broadly the French equivalent of charitable status. If you pay income tax in France, you can reduce your tax bill by 66% of what you give. Donors elsewhere are just as welcome: bank transfer details are on the donation page.