Ambohimiara Sud Primary School
inauguration: April 26, 2024 🎉
Thanks to Adsum Foundation for financing this project ❤️
📍Location: The village of Ambohimiara Sud,
Rural commune of Ambohitseheno,
District of Manjakandriana,
Analamanga Region.
💡Objectives:
-
To improve access to primary education and increase capacity
-
To improve teaching/studying conditions
-
To contribute to the alleviation of poverty
-
To provide a healthier working/studying environment; to motivate the teachers, and give the pupils a greater sense of wellbeing
Built by Ghyslain RAKOTOBE's team.
Cost
1/ Three Classroom building: Ariary 111,109,550 (£ 22,222)
2/ Classroom furniture; 30 locally made school benches, 2 teachers’ desks and chairs ;bookshelves and cupboards;
Pre-school furniture; 32 locally made small chairs; 8 small tables and 1 teachers’ desk and chair ; bookshelf and cupboard and educational toys: Ariary 15,637,930 (£ 3,128)
3/ Latrines; Three compartments with boys’ urinals: Ariary 10,923,850 (£ 2,185)
TOTAL GRANT REQUESTED: Ariary 137,671,330 (£ 27,535)
BRIEF PROJECT OUTLINE:
Ambohimiara Sud primary school was built in 1972 by the villagers with funds raised locally – drawing on their own meager resources. The original building is a simple structure with only 1 classroom, and made from uncooked mud bricks. A second, built in 1983, provided a further 2 classrooms, also made of mud bricks with a corrugated iron roof. Both buildings are currently in a pitiful state. The walls are cracked, the classrooms have either very low or no ceilings, and all three classrooms have only one window – making them them permanently dark and extremely hot in the summer.
Due to lack of capacity, two of the three available classrooms are divided in two, making a total of five classrooms. Lessons are normally held only in the morning. But children preparing for their Certificate of Primary Education exams are also taught in the afternoon. But this is far from ideal, particularly during the rainy season (December to March) When it rains the noise is deafening, and if violent thunder storms are forecast classes are suspended and the children have to be sent home early. Conditions at the school are far from acceptable and fail to meet the government’s own standards.
Like most children in rural areas, the pupils of Ambohimiara Sud Primary School suffer great hardship during the inter-season period, (December to March) when both money and food are in short supply. The children have no access to safe, clean water. On their way to school they collect water in discarded plastic bottles from the rice fields. But they are heavily polluted, particularly during the rainy season, when animal and human waste is washed down into them from the surrounding hills.
The school has 4 teachers who are civil servants and paid by the government. The remaining teacher is paid (in principle) in cash and in kind (cassava and sacks of rice) by the Association of Parents of children who attend the school, and receives a small subsidy from the government
The 97 pupils registered at Ambohimiara Sud school find it hard to study in such poor conditions, and are clearly demotivated. Most parents make their living from agriculture, and are low earners. Despite extreme poverty and financial hardship the parents decided in 2018 to make the bricks needed to extend the school. But their efforts came to nothing when they realized they would never be able to buy all the materials needed to build classrooms worthy of the name. For this reason the Mayor, Village Head and the community turned to MDF for help in finding funds to improve conditions for the children and increase the school’s capacity.