Madagascar
It is called the red island, after the colour of its soil. It is where the association works, and where most of its members come from.
in the world
on one island
is under fifteen
a month
from Paris
An island the size of France and the Benelux together
Madagascar covers 587,000 km² in the Indian Ocean, 300 km north-west of the Comoros, 400 km off the African coast and 800 km from Réunion. It is the world's fifth-largest island, after Australia, Greenland, New Guinea and Borneo.
The population is thinly spread — around twenty people per square kilometre — and very young: almost one Malagasy person in two is under fifteen, and one in four lives in a town. Life expectancy is fifty-three.
Our two orphanages are in Fianarantsoa, in the central highlands, and in Toliara — also known as Tuléar — in the far south, on the Mozambique Channel. A thousand kilometres and two days' driving lie between them.
Earning a living
The average wage is €24 a month, a little higher in the capital than in the provinces. It is the figure to hold in mind when reading the sums published on this site: the €1,750 the bridge cost is six years of an average wage, and the €50 of a bicycle is two months of one.
A decent hotel room costs around €10, a meal less than €1 in the countryside and about €5 in town.
The towns
The capital, Antananarivo, has 1.7 million inhabitants. Then come Antsirabe and Mahajanga with 170,000 each, Toamasina 160,000, Fianarantsoa 150,000, Antsiranana 80,000, Toliara 60,000 and Tolagnaro 20,000.
Fianarantsoa is the capital of the Betsileo highlands. Its name, as the 2009 diary translates it, means “the town where good is learned”.
Belief
Reverence for ancestors runs through the traditional religions, though all the major faiths are present. The association works with pastors and parishes without proselytising: these are the networks that exist, and that hold.
Travelling there
Ten and a half hours' flight from Paris. Money is easily changed in the larger towns, which also have cash machines that take international cards.
For health, the association's own guidance lists tetanus, polio, hepatitis A and B and typhoid, with antimalarial cover useful in the east, and advises against swimming in fresh water, particularly near dwellings. This is guidance written by the association for its own travellers, not medical advice: check with your doctor or a travel clinic.
Madagascar is a safe country, for all its poverty. It is worth learning a few polite phrases before you go.
Welcoming visitors well is the first quality of the Malagasy people. Tolerance is the second. It is a country where you are still treated with humanity.
Reserves, beaches, and cleared forest
These pictures were taken on the way between building sites, between 2005 and 2011.
The music
The association does not only build. In Laval it gives concerts, introduces the marovany — the Malagasy box zither — and performs traditional songs. The president sings; several members play.
This is not a sideline. Making people in western France fond of Madagascar is what fills the hall at a fundraising evening, and the fundraising evenings are what pay for the building work.
€24 a month
That is the average wage in Madagascar. It is also what a gift of €24 from here is worth there.
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