Here is packed with the Letter of ENM n ° 10 that one can load HERE (french PDF file )
About the situation in Befokata in August 2009
By Nicolas Sersiron for ENM
Abdul, the mechanics
Abdul is an outstanding personality in Befotaka through his Arabic ancestors , his know-how, as well as through his friendship with Meline and the miscellaneous services he has done ENM. For instance, he is the one who drove us to the villages of Antanibaribe and Mrotomboay to visit the wells in his old Mazda covered lorry. What an adventure to ride on the trail to Ambolobozo peninsula in a vehicule other than a four-wheel drive or a zebu-drawn cart!
A special donation was made to ENM to buy car mechanics tools. These were bought in France by Jacques D and taken to Bekofata by two young osteopaths, Romain and Elvina in July.
Those tools had been requested by Abdul as he wants to open a car repair garage, something which has long been missing on this part of the RN6. It would have been impossible for him to get these tools since they are far too expensive in Madagascar. In exchange, I asked him to train apprentices, which he has agreed to. (to be continued)
The three wells
Positive points: At Tsiningya, the well is working quite satisfactorily, even though it often requires mending : weldings, broken bolts, suffering wooden bearings . It is well maintained and is locked except during the regular opening hours which are well enforced. The water is good quality .
Negative points: at Marotomboay, the pump of the well is deeply rusted. It looks as if it has been here for over 20 years, the concrete part in front of the well has a hole about 20cm x10cm, the water is hardly drinkable due to its strong rusty taste. Villagers prefer to take water from the nearby pool when it has not dried out. At Antanibaribe, the wooden bearing next to the crank is broken as well as its strap (?)The pump is out of use also because there is currently no water (early june 2009).
I met Arsène Raveloson who is in charge of Taratra Association at Tana : he has promised to have the two wells mended. As for the well at Tsiningya, he told me that it was certainly inappropriate to the number of users and that it would have to be changed for a more powerful one.
The community Clinic
Positive point: The physician, Patrice, now paid by the government after being paid by ENM for over a year, is efficient, hard-working and very serious, says Meline. I share her opinion. Since Jacques showed him how to practice emergency dentistry, he has regularly gone into the bush with Meline to take out bad teeth.
Lights and the solar fridge set up by ENM over four years ago are in working order. The maternity ward building is now also lit. We changed a battery in June, the fourth one! It would be worth replacing the 24 volt fluo tubes by LED tubes which consume less energy and which last three times as long. It would certainly allow to reduce the number and the power of the batteries which are extremely costly. Indeed, a 100 amp 12 volt battery for a lorry is 150 euros, a price similar to that of 2.500 acres of land not 1 km from Befokata.
Zara, the charwoman hired by ENM regularly keeps on with her work. ENM still provides the medicines in large quantity (big packaging) given by “Pharmacie Sans Frontières” and taken to Befokata by whoever goes there. Going through the customs sometimes proves to be quite an adventure! Meline keeps the medicines at home and hands them out free according to the doctor’s prescriptions. The government-appointed male-nurse, a father of 25 children, has quit drinking.
Negative point: The midwife–nurse, called Bienvenue, who is paid by the government, has been stealing medicines from the clinic for over three years to sell them to her own profit. Besides, she uses solar energy for her own needs, uses the fridge for her own fruit juice and yogurts and plugs it off, unnoticed, with vaccines inside -- I witnessed it myself-- whenever the inspector comes to deliver the necessary fuel for the UNICEF fridge. The monthly 40 litres of fuel are then sold away to her own benefit.
She asks for money to hand out the free mosquito nets given by UNICEF (malaria can be fatal to the foetus in its mother’s womb) Only 4 or 5 confinements are monthly performed at the clinic because it appears that this midwife is too rough with the patients. While Meline was acting as midwife, there were about 15 confinements a month. This would tend to mean that about ten problem- confinements are being performed by matrons in remote villages.
Temporary conclusion: the “Catholic Misson”-- yes, that’s its very name just as in the 19th century in good old colonial times--, which is located 300 yards from the public clinic , has just completed a magnificent private clinic. It’s very large, decorated with 5m-high colour fresco of Mary the Virgin but was still without any medical staff , so wasn’t yet open , in June 2009. There are two reasons why such a thing is actually damageable : first, contrary to the public clinic, all services there will have to be paid for, as is the case for the school of the same Mission, and no doctor will ever be present there, at best there will be a religious nurse. Secondly, it may lead to the shutting down of the public clinic which is not so beautiful, not so new, which is crowded with people waiting for hours but which is jolly efficient, with the means it has, in terms of public health in the area, prevention and night emergencies.
While I was there, Meline understood that the mess Bienvenue had created was such that the community clinic, SBN2, might well disappear. She responded exceptionally well . Patrice, the doctor, had already been to Antsohihy to inform the inspector of how serious the situation was. He had been told that He, Patrice, was indeed the problem and should leave rather than the midwife! (Some sort of intelligency story or whatever, nobody knows but the inspector was obviously in league with Bienvenue)
That’s why Meline decided to summon to her office in the clinic all the fokontany chiefs available, the village elders, all the medical staff in charge, some women from the “Women, Wake up!” association and disclosed all the misdeeds and the disastrous habits noticed within the clinic. That was a shock!! For in Madagascar, as is often the case elsewhere, things are not overtly said . The male-nurse congratulated Meline for daring doing such a thing. He himself was aware of the situation but was unable to take steps as it was too dangerous. In the restricted circle of a small village, Meline ran a great risk of being rejected. I think that my presence and the unfailing support of ENM enabled her to achieve such a profitable step. Then three official representatives of the citizens, Soufou, Norbert, and Albert Velotombodo, solemnly promised before Meline and myself to control the management of the clinic. Meline had made it clear that first the fridge and then the solar batteries might be removed, should things go on as before.
The library
Only positive points . Justin, the salaried librarian, keeps on with his good work : well-enforced opening hours , book lending, and the upkeeping of the place, everything is done very seriously, almost too seriously sometimes. The library, with its furnished 60 square metres and its 9,000 books, is a place like no other in Sofia province, even in the big towns in the area: Antsohihy and Ambanja.
Teachers come from afar to borrow books useful for their lessons .That was a use we had not imagined. Justin gave me a list of high-school textbooks that we could send to him. Whoever knows how to get some should please get in touch with ENM. The room is also used as a meeting place and also as a study room in the evening during the weeks before exams , when the neighboring mechanics , our friend Abdul, gives some power from the generator of the district. I had the operating times modified so that they might be better adapted to young students and school children. On Justin’s request, toilets have been fixed outside in order that children might not be tempted not to go back to their studies after relieving themselves “in the bush”.
ENM-paid teachers and primary school teachers.
On the whole there are no problems with the four teachers and primary school teachers. I met Eliane who is the new primary school teacher in Andrafiabe, 6 km north of Befokata on the N6. This school was built by schoolchildren’s parents in 2008 with our financial support. The schoolteacher is paid by ENM. The school is attended by 60 children. The village authorities have not yet bought the furniture so, up to now it’s a temporary make-do situation in the classroom.
SRI and market gardening
Just now, it’s extremely difficult to assess what surface of paddyfield is SRI-grown in the area. It would require a whole month’s stay, strong feet or a BMX motorbike. It must also be said that old peasants tell the young ones who embark on such revolutionary agricultural methods that it is “fadi”, meaning taboo. Some of them quit. Nevertheless, I visited two SRI paddyfields on Ambalasoutry fokontany , 12 kms from Befokata : Biorana’s and that of Tonindrazana, the young fokontany chief.
On Tonindrazana’s paddyfiled, on a haphazardly chosen plant, Meline counted as many as 26 stems, thus 26 ears for each rice grain sown. This young peasant proudly told me that he had used only 3 kapocks (1 kg) to sow the 1,250 acres ( ½ ha) of the paddyfield according to SRI. Just to compare, with the traditional method, 15o kgs are necessary for 2,500 acres (1ha) and a rice grain only produces one or two ears. Besides, Biorana and his family have heartily taken to market gardening with profitable results.
A young salaried advisor for ENM , recently out of Befandrina Agricultural College, locally follows through the SRI and organic market gardening, supported by Borgia who regularly comes from Tana.
If ever we could find an organic market gardener in Yonne or elsewhere willing to take part in the befokatarian adventure through occasional visits, it would be a great advance .There’s a great lack of knowledge in terms of composting or recent organic methods, more particularly as regards hot tropical market gardening which raises specific problems . Diversity and available seeds are also crucial issues. Through Kokopelli and other sources, ENM can take part in the research of solutions.
Market gardening is a real success. For the women, among others it provides some kind of independence through the sale of surplus as well as a means of feeding their family. It could be more widely spread through the supply of seeds and techniques. This is a matter we still have to work on. In June when the temperature was about 35°C and over, the tomatoes which were sold at a very high price on Befokata market came from Tana, 750kms from there. Which means that there are interesting possibilities of developing the sale of market gardening products .
The Students’ hall and boarding place for students from the bush is building.
It all started very fast. While I was there in June, Meline found then bought, in the name of the “Women, wake up!” association, a 5,000 acre-plot of land about ½ mile north of Befokata city centre . ENM paid 240 euros for it, a “friendly” price granted to Meline by the owners who were touched by the idea of building a students’ hall and boarding place. This choice was preferred to what Nestor, the mayor was offering: a free plot of land whose area had gradually been reduced to 1,800 acres in exchange for the digging of a well for the town at our own expenses. Such a small plot had become inapropriate to our plans.
Not long after, Meline had a well dug, which was essential to the building of cob walls. As luck would have it, the water was there, at a very shallow depth. In the future, the well will have to be turned into a closed one with a pump and drinkable water.
In mid- August 2009 the second house for the secondary school students was nearly completed. It was done after some free-hand plans I had drawn for Damon, the mason who built the library. Each identical house will permit to accommodate 8 students, boys or girls. The area, shape and building techniques are similar to what is done in Befokata in 2009. The houses are at street level , 7x4m, 30 square metres inside, so that 8 mattresses can fit inside. In the centre of the house, there’s a large working table for homework and on either side, between windows and doors, there are falaff shelves hanging from the framework and an awning to the north. It is planned to build 6 houses to accommodate 48 students, boys and girls, and more if possible.
In a first time, our aim is to build four 30-square-metre houses, two for 16 students, one for Meline and one for storing food and accommodating travelers. These houses should be completed before the rain season starting in early December 2009. Damon set the price of 1,200 euros for a cob-walled house covered with surrogated iron .
A part of the plot of land will be turned into an orchard. A score of trees have already been planted. Another part will be used for market gardening, both for food and a pedagogical purpose. Vegetables already grow in 30 square metres of this lot ,( once) covered in high grass. I reckon, that the youths must have put a lot of energy into this project, working during their holidays.
Our plans:
Then in 2010, if we can afford it, if we are granted extra allowances, we could build:
- With our own resources and a little outer aid : one more 30-square-metre house, plus Meline’s house( with her contribution)as she will be in charge of the students’ hall and boarding place . It would thus leave one more house for the students and a community kitchen. So, in 2010, the hall could accommodate 24 students.
- Provided we can find bigger funds, we could consider building a specific house for travelers and a kitchen with a storing place for food. The four houses built in 2009 for the youths would then be entirely theirs and could accommodate 32 students.
- In 2011, there would remain to be built the 80-to- 1000 –square-metre common room , where all schoolchildren could work from 6pm to 10 pm, where they could also have their meals together. It would be lit by photovoltaic panels and LEDs . The well will also have to be completed and concrete toilets built not too far away, with solar drying of faeces. The orchard and the market gardening area will have to be enlarged, two more 30-square-metre house added so that 48 students from the bush could attend Befokata state secondary school. Some Tana Unicef officials suggested increasing the number of secondary school teachers to share in our effort. (to be continued)
It would be necessary to purchase a 2,500 or 1,250 –acre paddyfield next to the students’ hall : it could be used as a pedagogical area but also as a source of production and a show-case for the SRI.
By 2012, if everything has worked out as planned, if our funds are still high enough, it would be consistent to purchase a plot of land in Antosohihy and build a house to accommodate the students from the bush who are willing to move on to high-school.
We had been dreaming of a long trip… but where, why? And how?
By Romain David and Elvina Gorecki
Meeting Jacques was decisive. Hearing someone talk about a village , about its inhabitants, and about his own action for them with so much energy and passion could not but set our mind on Madagascar.
We left Paris in July, each of us with 10 kgs of medicine, a generous gift from Pharmacie Sans Frontière, and a few tools, quite weighty indeed , for Abdul, the Befokata mechanics.
Spending a week-end with Meline allowed us to get acquainted with the village before starting our work at the community clinic. In our luggage, we had what was required to nurse people but what we were going to do with our hands, we didn’t know.
After the town crier had informed everyone of the arrival of the “vazaha doctors” the clinic was crowded with people waiting for medical care. Each of us examined one person at a time, helped by Meline and her son who did the translation. Lots of pathologies are due to parasites, malaria and high blood pressure-induced troubles. Lots of diagnoses are hard to establish because of the lack of advanced testing (X-rays, echography, biological analyses)
Whenever we suspected the patient needed to be medically taken care of, we asked Patrice, the clinic physician. If it was possible to soothe the patient’s pain by manual techniques, osteopathy proved how useful it was.
While we were there we examined about 150 people and did our bit to set up the vegetable garden destined to the students that Meline will soon be able to welcome in the houses which are being built. Indeed, aware of the malnutrition troubles, she strives to grow varied fruit and vegetables whose seeds are supplied by ENM. In our luggage, we also had an amount of ENM money which enabled us to provide some financial support to the parents’ association in order to build the roof and the walls of the future classroom in Befokata. There are often over 60 students in a class. We were also able to pay for a part of miscellaneous gardening tools and to pay for medical tests (X-rays, echographies) for some of the very poor villagers.
Our stay in Befokata was marked by the meeting of most endearing people and unforgettable moments such as the meals with Meline’s family, endless talks with our neighbours Stephane and Farah, games with children at the well, Apollinaire’s history lessons, Fiamina’s lively breakfasts by the roadside, walks with Meline, visits to Abdul and that particular last day spent preparing the farewell party where all the village had gathered to see us off.
Click on the picture to enlarge it !
