Mirana's story

My name is Rasivelonoro Miranaharisoa Josephine and I am 12 years old. I am in grade 7 at the Lutheran secondary school in Ihosy.

I really love to read books, especially fairytales and other stories. We have some books at home, but most of them are in a foreign language, generally in French. Also nearly all of them are comics like Donald Duck or Lucky Luke. I often don’t know the language, so I just look at the pictures, but I still like it very much.

When I was in the 5^th grade in school we had some books distributed in class. That was the last time I read a whole real book. In school now, we sometimes have to read, and we go to the school library. The teacher tells us what to do and what to read. Mostly we only learn lessons in the library, and we don’t read books. In the library there are no books telling stories but only fact books.

One thing I really wish is to have a book on my own. My dream is that someone just gave me a book, even if it’s lust for loans. If someone did this to me I would dance of joy, and I would tell all my friends that I now have a book!

Children's atlas

Where is Antananarivo, where is Toliara and where is Mahajanga? Some Malagasy children don’t even know what the largest cities of Madagascar are called and where they lie when they finish primary school. Not because the teacher hasn’t told them, but because the long and complicated theoretical explanations are simply way too incomprehensible for them. They lack any kind of map or atlas, and without this equipment, the teacher can explain to them a thousand times, that Toliara is south of Antananarivo - they cannot even imagine what "south" means.

The solution is simple: the children need a handy children’s map book or atlas of Madagascar. It should be telling about every region and major cities with pictures and short explanations. This book should therefore be found in all the schools and homes on the whole island.

We in Vakoka Vakiteny want to write such a book. To achieve this, the illustrator has to travel all over Madagascar to take pictures. All maps must be remade to make them suitable for the children’s age. 

For around € 2000 Vakoka Vakiteny kan have this book written and illustrated, including all travel, and when it is printed the expense will be around € 4 per book (if in 1000 copies or more).

The association will collect all donations and forward them to us.

Malagasy children watch TV, but they don't read

In February Sophie Küspert-Rakotondrainy completed a questionnaire among 112 children in the 5^th grade at 4 primary schools in Toliara. These are some of the results:

44 % of the children watch TV every day

46 % of the children don’t own a single book

18 % of the children never read books

These results show that the children watch a lot of TV, but that they don’t read because they neither have books at home nor at school. It must be mentioned that these children live in one of the biggest towns in Madagascar. On the countryside they won’t have TV (or books), whereas it is normal with a TV in nearly every home in town.

Do you want to contribute to change this situation? Help us producing books for Malagasy children. Please contact the association.

Interview with Mr Ralay, headmaster at the teacher training college SFM

February 24^th we interviewed Mr Ralay, headmaster at the teacher training college, Sekoly Fanomanana Mpampianatra (SFM) in  Fandriana, Madagascar. He said the following about literature in schools:

Literature should be in a language that the children understand, otherwise it will a punishment for them. Unfortunately, this is not the case in Madagascar. Most literature is in French, if there are any books in the schools at all.

Schools usually do not have libraries, and if they own one, the books are all in French. Literature is not used in teaching at all, and the teachers do not know how to handle literature. They may be aware that children need fairytales, but they do not have sense for literature. Telling fairytales is the grandmother’s job.

To change the mother tongue teaching in schools in Madagascar is very difficult, but it is one of the most important tasks in society. It is the basis for development.

The same dream

Malagasy children are very different. They are rich or poor, living in town or on the countryside. Some have curly hair and some have smooth, some have dark brown skin color and some have lighter. Some like to play football and some like to sing. Some like fish better than beans and some like beans better than fish...

But they share the same language, and all of them want to be be proud of it. They want to use it and see it used. In books, for example. In funny books full of colored pictures and wonderful stories they can understand. And the best of all: It could be their book!

10,640,922 Malagasy children in need for books

The number of Malagasy children below 18 years is 10,640,922: ten millions six hundred and forty thousand nine hundred twenty-two! That is half of the whole Malagasy population which is 21,281,844.

Norway and Denmark’s whole population together would only give 10,191,880 which is 449,042 less than the Malagasy population under 18.

The median age, which is 18 in Madagascar, means that half the population is below this age, and the half is older. In Norway the median age is nearly 40 years, and in Germany it is 44.

Out of this facts from the world factbook (CIA), we can see that Madagascar struggles with many young people in need for education. Vakoka Vakiteny has distributed about 9,000 books. That means that we have reached only 0.08 % of the children!

Help us to reach more and contact the association for giving a donation!

Malagasy proverbs

Madagascar is famous for its proverbs, and they are being very much used in speeches and everyday conversations. The two proverbs we want to present here could be a slogan for Vakoka Vakiteny, but actually they are originally and traditionally Malagasy proverbs (translated into English):

• Words are like eggs: when they are hatched they have wings

• Words go further than bullets.

The words in our books give the children wings of joy and imagination even if they are not always accepted by the school as proper pedagogical and instructive (though this is a rather rare reaction). Through books the children can access a world they never would have seen, and literacy opens an immense range of possibilities for them.

A few children who have got books can reach a whole community of illiterate people, giving them a feeling that they are able to learn to read, and even that it could be fun.

So we can only thank our island Madagascar for the beautiful proverbs.