ACCESS TO EDUCATION

Our Access to Education Programme supports children and young people attend school, purchase their school supplies, school books, transport and more.

Resulting in:

  • Increased number of young people who can read and write

  • Improved basic numeracy skills

  • Higher number of students completing secondary school

  • Increased opportunities for young people (in employment and further education, like university)

  • More young people achieving their full potential

How the Access to Education project began…

The project started when we were sat with budding entrepreneur and English teacher Djamel at Manga be cafe. We were about to head to our English class in Dzamandzar when Mahefa stopped by on his way home from work to say hello to Djamel. They spoke to each other in Malagasy and afterwards Djamel explained how he knew Mahefa and how he had lost his parents in recent years. As a result, he had to leave school and start working as a brick layer to support his aunt and the family. Unfortunately, this isn’t uncommon in Madagascar, as child labour is a big part of the lifestyle and often necessary to ensure food is put on the table.

We soon learnt that no education is free in Madagascar and even when you can afford school, there’s a lot of extra costs like school uniform, books and more. Having heard Mahefa’s story we wanted to help, he only had one year left of school, before he could get a better job or consider going to university. To help Mahefa through this next year we:

  • Paid his tuition

  • Took him shopping to buy all new school supplies

  • Purchased his books

  • Purchased a new uniform

  • & Gave him some money for lunch

We also went and met his wonderful Aunt who welcomed us into their home with open arms. Mahefa was where this project began, and we are incredibly grateful to have met him and cannot wait to see him flourish as the years go on.