The Madagascar 2012 Expedition will follow 14 years of world travel and community projects organised by The Coopers' Company and Coborn School. In 2012 a group of 34 year 12 and 13 students will spend one month in Madagascar, with the aim of completing the building of a secondary school block in the Merina village of Andranosoa. Pupils will also spend time experiencing the vulnerable wildlife, people and landscapes of what is a unique country by travelling to the west coast via a 3 day canoe journey along the Tsiribihina river, visiting the Tsingy de Bemaraha, Kirindy Forest and the Avenue de Baobab. As a team, we are hoping to raise £20,000 to cover costs for the charity project. The aim of this blog is to provide information about Madagascar, the team and the fund-raising project. Please visit the pages shown on the right to learn more about the expedition.

Tuesday 12 April 2011

Mr Cornish in Madagascar Days 2-3

I have just spent the past two days in the village of Andranosoa organising the school building project. I was able to borrow a 4x4 from a friend and drove there with my interpreter and project manager, Roland.

Andranosoa is a village 20km to the East of the capital Antananarivo with a population of 1,700. The village shows signs of development with community water taps, electricity supply and an extremely full primary school. Most of the villagers are poor farmers; the main crops being rice and manioc. Currently there are 20 secondary pupils who get up at 5am to make the 1 1/2hr journey on foot (some barefoot) to the nearest secondary school 10km away. We found many more pupils of school age who were not going to school because of the distance.

I was honoured to stay in the house of the President of the village who wanted us to see for ourselves and understand the need for a secondary school. During the two days Roland and I carried out the following:

- Met with the village elders to understand their concerns over the lack of a secondary school
within 10km
- Made a fundraising video highlighting the problems faced by one boy- Mamy
- Made a video to give a background to the village
- Took lots of photos for promotional materials
- Visited the planned site for the new school
- Visited the primary school in the village
- Visited the secondary school 10km away
- Met with the vice-mayor of the area
- Interviewed students that go to school and those that don't.

After all of the above, I can categorically say that there is a huge need for a new school and that we have the backing of the students, villagers, village elders and mayor. All that needs to be done now is a decision on when the designs will be completed and building started. The following photos were taken during our stay. Please click on them to enlarge.

The skyline of the village is dominated by a rocky hill which is used as a burial area for previous members of the Malagasy Royal Family.

Andranosoa is on a hill, surrounded by rice paddies and fields.

Most of the houses are in the traditional style of the Merina tribe- two story, two rooms wide, made of wood and plastered with soil. Houses often have outbuildings for cooking or to keep animals.
The village has a medieval feel with the ox-carts and building design.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)