Rural Communities

Rural Communities

Photo of approximately 20 children in SW Madagascar sitting on the dirt ground with pencils and notebooks
Children in Tulear, Madagascar are eager to learn, but are currently meeting daily outside and on the ground.
Photo of 6 Malagasy children smiling
Students have returned to school since PFM started its hot lunch program – freeing parents to attend to farming duties and guarding against child labor exploitation.

Background

Seventy percent (70%) of Madagascar’s 26 million people live in small rural villages without electricity and running water and live by subsistence farming (one or two cash crops a year). Because of these difficulties and the poor state of rural schools, many families are migrating to urban areas. This negatively affects the families and rural communities they leave behind but also the migrants themselves. Most of these migrants lack the educational or technical skills for employment in urban areas, and they may face higher levels of poverty.  In fact, many feel forced into lives of crime, prostitution, and child trafficking.

Those who remain in rural Madagascar desperately need educational and economic opportunities in light of agricultural and environmental challenges, as well as needing basic food, clothing, and healthcare. Our rural community projects aid Malagasy and their environment by empowering and guiding the communities closest to the environment.

In response, 80% of PFM’s projects and budget are committed to development of Madagascar’s rural communities like those described below, while 20% are dedicated to the urban context (upskilling rural migrants, fighting child trafficking).

Helps Solve:

–Urban migration by rural peoples
–Child-trafficking
–Teenage prostitution
–Urban poverty and crime
–Family violence
–Deepening of the cycle of poverty

Outcomes:

–Development of rural schools
–Preservation of Malagasy culture and heritage
–AIDS awareness and education
–Family planning training
–Preservation of the environment

Partner with Rural Communities >>


Rural Projects

outline of Madagascar in aqua with purple pin on Amboditanana (SE part of country)

Rural Village Restoration
in Amboditanana, Fianarantsoa

Students have returned to this school since PFM started its hot lunch program. These meals free the parents to attend to their farming duties, and they guard against child labor. Field technicians support rural farming practices and maintain transparency. $88/month pays a field technician’s salary, $500/month feeds all the children, and any amount contributes to farming tools. See details in the table below.

ProblemResultPFM SolutionNeedImpact
No local production of a food source, so children work with their families to afford daily foodFamilies miss only source of upward mobility - educationProvide hot lunches for students who go to school$18k ($6k/year for 3 years)Children return to school
No local production of a food source, so families seek quick money such as making charcoal from burnt forestsDamaged ecosystemsProvide farming tools, fertilizer, & meals to adopt farming$3kLocal food source; improved environment
No local supervision or accountabilityInjustice, low efficiencyProvide 4 local field technicians$12,672 ($88/mo x 4 techs x 12 mo x 3 years)Local and international transparency
Children drop out of middle and high school (too far to travel there and work for families)Families miss only source of upward mobility - educationPurchase a house in the town with the schools for the rural students to stay and study$0 (already purchased)Students have a place to study and sleep during school week
TOTAL NEED$33,672 

Partner on This Project >>

Classrooms for Mahafaly Kids

Students in Evovo Sud, Tulear, Madagascar on the SW coast value education as the only way out of their cycle of poverty. Because they are lucky enough to have teachers who were raised in their village, they are motivated to see the children do well. However, they have no classrooms or desks, so they meet outside on the ground for their daily lessons. Help us raise $2,500 to build classrooms for these students.

Partner on This Project >>