Action Madagascar : Mahabo school in progress

Help for equipping the Mahabo school

On 2023, Ecoliers du Monde decides on financial aid of 2000 euros for the purchase of school supplies, mattresses for the little ones' naps and for the redevelopment and equipment of the play area.

On 2024 this aid is renewed with 1500 euros for purchases of educational materials and uniforms, as well as for building maintenance work.

A member of the association's board of directors became aware of the personal and financial involvement of Doctor Honorette who created this school more than 10 year.

Admiring his commitment and his seriousness but also aware of the needs that remain to be met to improve the daily lives of the children at the school, the board of directors decides to help this structure.

Particularities of the Mahabo school

This school, difficult to access during the rainy season, is located in the village of Mahabo in the commune of Sadabe, To 67 km north of the capital Antananarivo.

The school is free and allows disadvantaged children from the surrounding area to be educated..

This school begins operating for the school year 2014-2015, thanks to the commitment and funding of Doctor Honorette Andriamboavonjy who is an ophthalmologist in Antananarivo.

The building then had two classrooms: a class for preschoolers (medium and large sections) and another for the CP. There were three teachers for the 35 students.

Currently there is 85 students and 6 classes.

The success rates for obtaining the CEPE diploma and 6th grade entrance exam at the end of the school year are close to 92%.

Blouses (students and teachers) as well as school supplies are paid for by Doctor Honorette and by one-off donations that she may receive.

The school medicine box is used for the entire village and neighboring villages.

Doctor Honorette’s trip benefits the school but also the surrounding villages.

During one of his trips, she came accompanied by two general practitioners and a dentist.

This was an opportunity to consult 205 patients : 78 in general medicine, 46 received dental care and 81 an ophthalmological consultation.

Awareness of dental hygiene was organized among the children before distributing toothbrushes and toothpaste to them..

Projects and needs

Doctor Honorette has had the end of 2024 a photovoltaic installation old 10 years thanks to the donation of another association.

The needs regarding the maintenance of the school are numerous: it is necessary to install grilles to protect it and to repaint the buildings.

More broadly, Doctor Honorette manages this school and initiates projects there with the help of the educational community but she also helps the surrounding villages through the constructions that are being developed within the school and which will allow students and villagers to improve their daily lives : cellars, library, games room, multipurpose room for agricultural work, for medical consultations.

Doctor Honorette presents his vision of how this school works :

“I am starting to implement projects to ensure the financial autonomy of the school and its sustainability when I stop working.

This is why I launched the construction of a third building with four rooms:

– In the first room there is the rice huller which is now working.

Why a huller ? This is because the inhabitants are peasant farmers., and that the sale of rice should make it possible to cover part of the operating costs of the school.

– the second room serves as storage for the paddy (unhulled rice) which will pass through the huller and which will then be sold as ready-to-cook rice.

– the third room will be temporary accommodation when there are activities at school or medical missions that last more than a day.

for example, when I do the consultation there, there are not only the students and their parents but also the inhabitants of the village and neighboring villages. We are forced to block off a classroom to put the mattresses and all our personal effects and another room for the consultation.

– the fourth room will be a multifunction room : library and refectory, etc. Nearly a third of students eat their lunch at school because they live in the surrounding villages and are still too small to make the return trip morning and afternoon.

As I do not yet have the means to set up a school canteen, they bring their meals and eat on the floor using a large mat.

Another more or less long-term project will be the extension of the school into a farm school..

It will be a social project, economical and united which will bring together the surrounding villagers.

That's pretty much everything about my little school for underprivileged children.. Your one-off donations will be welcome and I thank the Ecoliers du Monde association on behalf of these children and all those who benefit from this school.”