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Our operations area

The geographic area where our operations take place was chosen with care. The Menabe Region is one of the poorest in Madagascar. Aboalimena is a remote village, with little to attract the tourist industry although not very far of the “Great Tsingy”, a natural curiosity. It is not easy to reach by road. The main road links Antananarivo to Menabe by Antsirabe, Miandrivazo, and through a rather poorly maintained section to Malaimbandy, Mahabo and Morondava. The journey by daily minibus lines from Antananarivo to Morondava lasts 12 hours. A 4 hour- driving from Morondava to Belo Tsiribihina is followed by crossing by boat the wide Tsiribihina River. The last part, a 70 km trave,l is made by truck, or possibly by an ox-driven cart, a traditional means of transport. In the raining and hurricanes season, from December to March, most of the roads are cut off. This situation explains why international aid or government programmes cannot reach Aboalimena.

Aboalimena is a 8,500 inhabitants-village, the district being divided into 8 Fokon’tany. Some hamlets belonging to the village of Aboalimena are 10 km away from the centre, connected by ox tracks. The council hall is situated in the village centre, as well as the local “hospital”, a primary healthcare unit. There is neither water supply in Aboalimena, nor electricity, or waste water drainage. Most inhabitants are farmers or cattle breeders. The main crop is paddy, rice being the staple food in Madagascar, but the changes in the River Manambolo bed due to the hurricanes have dried most paddy fields. Other crops are maize, groundnut, manioc or sweet potatoes. Cattle breeding is usually a family trade, oxen are used for transportation and as a saving stock. People are generally very poor, as an example, the mean salary of a school teacher is about 100,000 ariary per month (about 40 €)

Nazarena-France Chairwoman, Suzanne Chazan-Gillig had been in the Menabe area in the 70s, and she has come back to Madagascar every year since 2002. She had the opportunity to build up trustful relationship with the local project promoter, Dera Haidaraly, with the Aboalimena council and with traditional lineage top men. Already in 2006 she could measure the positive effects of Nazarena-France’s support. This aid was brought to the people who live in Aboalimena mainly thanks to our members‘ donations, with -up to now- few other subsidy.

Supplying new means for sound projects

Nazarena-France’s projects reliability is supported by our thorough knowledge of the operation area and our regular participation to the life of its inhabitants. We pay much attention to the output of our actions and we ask full co-operation from the villagers in order to avoid a situation of a one-way aid with no involvement.

New developments since the creation of the NGO in 2005 are:

Cultural activities and skill improvement (from 2008)
Building a farming school in Aboalimena for out of school youth (from 2007)
The development of experimental vegetable crops (2006)
A healthcare and mutual drug supply system project (from 2006)
A paddy storage operation (2005)
Support to local associations

A Farming School in Aboalimena

The creation of a farming school in Aboalimena is our most challenging project. The school will deliver farming education and general teaching to young men and women who otherwise would have no opportunity to follow a regular teaching course. Thanks to the village council support and its wise men board, a 4 hectares field has been devoted to this school, situated not far from the village centre. This field was cleared for cultivation and building, and a 165 square meter two class-rooms building has been achieved in July 2008. The school building is made of locally available material and commoditieswith a concrete floor, a wooden frame and a corrugated iron roof. The building site was supervised by one of our members who is an architect and it answers paracyclonic construction standards. Our projects have been submitted and approved by local government officials, and we expect this will allow The Ministry of Education in Madagascar to deliver an agreement to alow the school opening. It is our intention to start building new classrooms as soon as our subsidies will allow it, hopefully in 2010 or 2011. An allowance will be reserved for school furniture (benches, tables, blackboards, books and possibly little office automation), and farming tools (tools, a plough, a handcart, watering cans) Another project is to install solar power taking advantage of the sunny climate and local availability of unexpensive equipment. A concrete lined well was sunk in 2009 and fresh water was found at a 11 m depth (during the dry season).

The development of experimental vegetable crops (2006)

One of the first projects implemented in Aboalimena was developing a one hectare field for vegetable crops. With donations from Nazarena-France this field was cleared, fenced, and a 9 meter-deep well was dug to reach the ground water. Nazarena Madagascar was provided with farming tools and free seeds (tomatoes, local pot herbs, onions, peppers and eggplants). A first crop was reaped in 2006, and pot herbs could be sold to the neighbourhood, as well as peppers and eggplants, and hot red peppers which are very much appreciated on the local market. However, due to unavailability of transportation, the commercial output was a failure. This diversification experiment will be included in the farming school programme and possibly extended to “bahiboho”lands, flooded lands situated on the river banks, allowing farming when the water level drops.

A healthcare and mutual drug supply system

An enquiry was done in the surrounding hamlets of Aboalimena during the 2006 dry season, which showed that the healthcare system was far from being optimal and did not correspond to the needs of the inhabitants living in remote hamlets or temporary encampments. Medical assistance was supplied for urgent needs, including some drug delivery or presbyopic second-hand glasses, but our intention was to evaluate a mutual drug supply system. However we felt that under the present conditions (no trained person in charge, no secured supply and medicine chest) it was too early to launch this operation on a larger scale. This healthcare operation was renewed in 2008 and 2009, one of our members being an M.D., and it will be repeated in the future. As a contribution to the welfare of disabled persons we had the opportunity to bring some wheel chairs given by members of the French Disabled Persons Association.

Cultural activities and skill improvement

Nazarena-France implements new schemes of local development and cultural opening. In 2008 treadle sewing machines were donated and transported to the village. Lessons in cutting out and sewing were provided to a group of women, with the intention of creating a local cooperative. The first dressmaker class was established in 2009. Other activities included a pottery workshop, although there being no traditional pottery in the western part of Madagascar the earthenware objects quality was poor. Dictionaries and books were brought and a regular co-operation has been installed with the elementary school teachers. Our intention is to create a small library, hopefully with audio-visual methods as soon as solar power would be available.

A paddy storage operation (2005)

Two years running, Nazarena-France bought paddy rice on the local market in order to organise its storage for the shortage period when the new crop has not been harvested. The paddy distribution was entrusted to the local women’ associations with variable success. Although this operation allowed the poorest people to be helped, as soon as getting paddy became less expensive, the intervention was ended.

President : Dr Suzanne CHAZAN  (Anthropologist, Madagascar specialist)
Honorary- President :  Mr Dera HAIDARALY ( Malagasy researcher, Chairman of Nazarena-Madagascar)
Vice-President  : Mr Bruno ROYET (honorary architect)
Vice-president  : Dr Julie PEGHINI (Anthropologist, Project manager,FUA in Antananarivo)
Secretary  : Mrs Françoise COUTOU ( Psychologist )
Treasurer  : Dr Jean Bernard CHAZAN  ( Medical doctor ) 
Deputee Secretary : Dr Emamnuel FAUROUX (Anthropologist, Madagascar specialist)

Nazarena-France, 144 rue de l'Arnel 34070 Montpellier France, phone/fax (33)467 20 12 59, mail to info@nazarena.org

Note : This page is not a miror image of Nazarena-France web site, but a shortened presentation for the benefit of our foreign visitors