Money for all
Theresa Haine’s latest despatch shows why it’s vital that development is for everyone
I have recently returned from a month’s visit to Madagascar and whist I was there I had occasion to visit a town on the west coast called Maintirano. It is quite a large town but only big lorries can now negotiate the “road”, much of which is a series of rocks, ditches and mud lakes of unknown depth.
The only other access is by air and we flew there in a little three-seater plane. Planes are obviously rather infrequent as, on our departure, we discovered that the runway is also one of the main roads into town. A deafening siren goes off half an hour before any plane is due to land or take off and a man checks that all the bullock carts, bicycles, rickshaws, pedestrians, goats and the occasional lorry leave the road immediately – it could only happen in Madagascar!
The occasion for this visit to Maintirano was a three-day festival to celebrate 20 years of working with Money for Madagascar and thirty years of working with SAF/FJKM, the development department of the United Protestant Church.
When SAF was set up 50 years ago there was a feeling among many people that SAF development should only be aimed at church members but those on the SAF committee were adamant that development should be for everyone and not just for church members. This principle was made very clear to me on this visit when we met two groups of very friendly and welcoming Muslim women, supported by the SAF programme, who were raising money by breeding goats and ducks.
They showed us their flock of about 20 goats including several young kids and we saw more in a nearby field on our way out. The ducks were in a reasonably large enclosure with no pond but a tank of water for them to splash about in. The women had access to micro-credit and were very grateful for all the help that SAF was able to give them. The micro-credit scheme allowed them to pay for food and schooling for their children.
SAF, with funding from Money for Madagascar, is supporting 17 groups of mostly women who are planting thousands of trees, growing vegetables, running a covered market place, making beautiful baskets for sale and lots of other income-generating activities. It was a joy to visit them and to see how our money is being so well used.