Dear friends,

For all of you who take interest in our fight for extreme poverty, which has been lasting for 26 years now, with this movement we created in 1989. We want to introduce you to our new website, a modern way to keep you informed of what’s happening here, and spread the word of our action here, what we do each day for the thousands of kids and families we managed to wrest from the dump and from the streets, our work for the people whose dignity has been violated by each and every government that came in power for the past 55 years, here, in Madagascar…

Our call for universal solidarity…
At Akamasoa, we decided to tackle this hopeless situation head-on, and little by little we transformed those places ruled by violence, disregard, and jealousy into places of solidarity, work, mutual respect, fraternity and self confidence. There is still a lot to do with all the good will that can be found in this beautiful island of Madagascar. I would like to put forward the missionaries, catholic and protestant sisterhoods, as well as all the NGOs which operate throughout the island. Together, they do a great job in favor of the forgotten, from the slums and rural areas, to the most secluded parts of the forest. Thanks to their work, hope remains in the most difficult lives. Together with the state, the new government, the Churches, the civil society and all NGOs, we must hold hands and we must keep on working towards the elimination of extreme poverty in the next 15 years, make our realizations concrete, build schools, hospitals, roads, farming cooperatives, and so many other things.  

… to find a solution to extreme poverty
This poverty, which is in so many leaders’ mouths, can be truly eradicated only by working amongst the poorest, out of the paved ways of 5-stars hotels symposiums and meetings. You can fight poverty only by being amongst the poorest, and nowhere else. The slums of Madagascar’s capital city are a shame for us all. The living conditions of its habitants are worse than those of the sticks. For all of those rotting in extreme poverty, there is a solution.  We must take up this challenge, find the will and the courage to enter ourselves into those places of human misery.

A website to share
We want our website to be opened to everyone. We are aware of our weaknesses and have no ambitions of being a model. We have no interest whatsoever in criticizing others; we prefer to put our own house in order first. If people can see the good in what we are doing, it can be translated into the Malagasy proverb: soa fianatra, all good is good to take and to receive. Whether small or big, we all have something to share.

Thanks
I would like to thank all the organizations that support us and have created websites to be the relay of our action. Please see this website as a new way of working together. You are free to reuse all the material you may find useful.
I am particularly happy to know that this website will be managed from the same place where we fight poverty from, here in Andralanitra, by young Malagasy, in a place that was, just 26 years ago, a living hell, a place of desperation and total chaos.
Finally, I want to thank Pascal Mennesson, his company Maltem consulting, and his employees Loïc and Chafik, who helped us design this website, who gave their time and know-how to serve a humanitarian cause, along with two young French, Thomas and Benoît, who were passing through here at Akamasoa, who cooperated with them, and helped train the young people at Akamasoa to use and manage this website.
Please feel free to send any comment you may have, keeping in mind that nothing can be perfect. We simply want to convey the message that there is still hope, and that there are people willing to do good all over Madagascar, this beautiful island of Madagascar which will witness in the near term –we sincerely hope it will- with its youngsters, progress and development worthy of its citizens.

Father Pedro