Fundraising for Local Madagascar NGO Community Center (and other follow-up links)

The Peace Corps Volunteer who was in Amparafaravola with me, Teena, has launched a Peace Corps Partnership project with the local NGO "ONG Zahatra" to build a community center. Teena describes the project:

ZAHATRA plans to construct a center equipped with proper dining and lavatory facilities which will allow it to expand its services to 30 children and their families. This crucial intervention will not only restore the health of the children and give them the education they need to break the cycle of poverty, it will restore the dignity of their guardians by providing them with the vocational training, skills and materials they need to earn a living and provide for their children.

You can see her full post here. You can also go directly to the Peace Corps site to contribute here.
Longtime readers of this blog may recall my brief work with ONG Zahatra (about half way down, second paragraph under If a Coup happens and no one cares...). As a reminder, I spent some time playing with the kids and talking a bit about nutrition, brought them some educational posters and books, and trained the staff on moringa trees. Here are a few photos:

Henri teaching about nutrition

The kids teaching themselves

ONG Zahatra planting Moringa seeds

The Moringa trees starting to grow 

The kids eating their healthy meals

This organization is pretty special, driven by dedicated Malagasy who want to improve their own community. So take a look at the project and help out if you can!

A few other follow-up links from previous posts:
-Here is a link to the video from the Sudan talk I mentioned a few months ago.
-In case you are interested in the rice experiment I mentioned, here is a nice video showing the researcher using an Android tablet to determine fertilizer amounts:


-Nice write-up on Zimbabwe here, a good piece after my conflicted feelings from Mugabe and the White African.