Cabra charity gifts school to Madagascar

A CHARITY set-up in Cabra just over a year ago to help desperately impoverished communities on an island off the coast of Africa has revealed details of its first major project.

DEIS (Development Education Ireland Sharing) Madagascar has announced the construction of a two-classroom school building at the village of Ambohibao.

The project will cost just over €9,000 and all of it is being provided by the charity that began after locals Bernard and Marie Neary volunteered in Madagascar and saw first hand the difficulties faced by locals there.

Madagascar is known mostly from the popular animated movies for kids or as a dream holiday destination but hidden beneath its beauty lies a dark secret.

Hundreds of the island’s  men, women and children live on rubbish dumps, eking out a living by recycling what they can for less than 50 cent a day.

Their plight touched the hearts of locals in Cabra and throughout Ireland, including students at Cabra Community College, who did an excellent project on the dumps and took a special shine to Madagascar.

The new school will be built in the rural area of Talatavolonondry and is 25 kilometres north east of the capital Antananarivo.

The local community will make their contribution to the project through the provision of sand and unskilled labour, so parents will have not just an interest in the project but a stake in the new school building.

Work on the ground is being carried out by a Malagasy NGO, Madagascar Development Fund (MDF), on behalf of DEIS Madagascar. 

Work is already under way and is expected to be finalised in the coming months.

Volunteers representing DEIS Madagascar will visit the project shortly, entirely at their own expense, to see how work is progressing.