Voice

The last week has been very different from all of the rest. Demonstrations have been taking place in Majunga now too. Tear gas fills the street almost every day to deter the looters from unrightfully crippling family run businesses in the Mahabibo market. We have been having amazing classes but being sent home right away to stay out of the chaos. On one hand I feel very over cautious and ridiculous by keeping ourselves safe while the Malagasy people are exercising the only voice they have in streets - risking their own lives. On the other hand, it is irresponsible to put ourselves in an unsafe situation - this is not our battle to fight. These problems of inequality and corrupt leadership have been prevalent since the end of colonization in 1960, not to mention the nature of colonization in the first place. But, life must go on with or without political crisis. People have to work to live here so this fight can only be sustainable for a time and so class continues.
We have started our unit on NGOs and the Madagascar Action Plan (MAP) this week, my favorite unit so far. This has entailed paying field visits to schools, hospitals, and various NGOs. One of the places that impacted me in particular was a safe home for youth that have been victims of domestic violence. The staff reminded me very much of the staff at Project YES (the youth based NGO I have worked for in Lafayette). They were all very caring, knowledgeable, and clearly overworked for the cause they believed in. It was a very small center with few resources but overflowing love and kids everywhere! We found out that the center does not receive any funds from the government and there is only one other place in the entire country that offered similar services. The center was making a huge difference for those kids in Majunga and struggling to make ends meet like many other non-profits in the US right now. It reminded me how lucky we are to have government funded programs to provide services such as these that seem like essential human rights, not just an extra service that happens to be provided in the area if it can stay afloat.
Another very interesting thing we learned about this week was the MAP. It is a program implemented over the course of ten years to improve eight different categories including rural development, education, health and family planning, environment, and the economy. The program receives funding from many countries but mainly the US. I have been very skeptical in the past of USAid projects and it is really neat to see a program move closer to their goal with help from the US. I pray that this current political situation does not set Madagascar back from the steps it has made.