Child Rescues
Partners for Madagascar aims to give marginalized, abused, and abandoned children a chance at a full life. These are Malagasy children that would otherwise die, or be subjected to human trafficking or prostitution.
Who are these children?
–Tribal taboo endangered infants (twins)
–Children marginalized by tribal traditions (those conceived during Sambatra ceremonies such that the father is unknown)
–Kids abandoned because of tradition (those blamed for the mother’s death during childbirth, or born under an unlucky astrological day)
–Kids abandoned because of economic hardship
Twin Taboo Rescue
Some peoples of southeast Madagascar have a custom that revolves around the birth of twins or any kind of multiple birth. As animists, they reason that animals give birth to multiple offspring and humans give birth to single offspring. Therefore, in their view, twins have a human body and an animal spirit, what we would call a “monster” in Western folklore.
These infants are considered a curse on the whole community, so only by removal of the infants can the curse be lifted. In the past, and still into the present, these infants may be thrown into the Indian Ocean, into the rain forest waterways, or abandoned in the forest for dead.
PFM rescues these infants by:
- Hiring a local woman to talk with families to request she be allowed to deliver the infants to our Tanjona Children’s Center near Madagascar’s capital.
- Offering these communities education, literacy training, family planning, and youth skills training to have a long-term effect on changing this custom.
Funds ($14,000 of our $30,000 total goal) are needed to hire our local contact and to have a boat locally-built, in which the infants could be transported safely out of the forest.
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Tanjona Children’s Center
Tanjona Center is located in Ambohimangakely, a suburb of the capital of Antananarivo. It hosts 30 children recovered from abusive homes or rescued from abandonment.
At Tanjona Center, these children receive the following:
–an education
–health care
–moral guidance
–skill and talent instruction
–education about local stewardship for global concerns
–training in fair play and human dignity
Funds are needed to support this center in the amounts of $25/child or $9,000 annually.
Hope School for Children of the Urban Poor
Similar to Tanjona Center, Hope School hosts 11 children from the poorest families, and is located in Ankofafa, near the town of Fianarantsoa. Hope School provides these children:
–education
–hope
–play
–training in social graces
–moral instruction
–appropriate farming and animal husbandry training
–teaching in stewardship of resources
Funds are needed to support this center in the amounts of $25/child or $3,300 annually.