Azafady and Ailie Judd in the Vodafone World of Difference Final – Votes needed!
Posted on 21 July 2010 | No responses
At what’s such a difficult time for Madagascar, Azafady is in with a good chance of drawing wide public attention to the situation there through Vodafone – but we need your help! Azafady’s HIV specialist Ailie Judd has been selected from some 2500 applicants to go through to the final voting stage of the Vodafone World of Difference competition: if she’s successful, this will finance the implementation of her essential project working with Azafady on methods of preventing HIV in pregnant and married women in Fort Dauphin. In addition The Vodafone World of Difference campaign has a staggering amount of publicity and media clout behind it, which, if focused on Madagascar, will be of great benefit.
But whether this project goes ahead actually hangs in the balance, depending entirely on a public vote on facebook. So Azafady needs you to visit the facebook site and vote for Ailie Judd, and spread the word - invite all your friends, family, and mere acquaintances to vote! Every vote you can bring us counts.
All you need to do is go to: http://www.facebook.com/worldofdifference?v=app_10531514314&ref=ts , sign in to facebook, click on ‘vote now’, allow the polls application, and VOTE FOR AILIE JUDD! And please forward this email on and send a message to all your friends on facebook.
If Ailie, with your help, is successful in this public vote, there’ll be huge benefits to the communities Azafady works with in Fort Dauphin. With over 40% of women already having an STI, and with HIV on the increase at double the national average, this project, if funded, will help to prevent what could otherwise soon be an epidemic. Ailie’s project will specifically target the group Azafady have found hardest to reach with our HIV/AIDS awareness programme – pregnant and married women.
This is a target group which other bodies working in other areas have similarly identified as difficult to reach. Ailie will set up the first ever antenatal group and train women to become leaders in their community to provide information and support about sexual health care and services. Her project will also work towards establishing a taskforce of health care providers and other stakeholders in the town, to coordinate service delivery and enable lessons around best practice to be shared and disseminated. This building of institutional capacity at community level is especially important given the extremely limited capacity and activity of any coordinating body at government level.
Success in this public vote would make a huge difference to our ability to continue providing the range of interventions we currently do with communities in Anosy is huge – but as a relatively small NGO, we are urgently in need of all the support we can get. Previous recipient organisations have experienced wide-ranging benefits of an increased focus on its work through the attention the competition brings, and seen a generalised mobilisation of the public to other issues and initiatives within the host country – something Madagascar could so badly do with.
So please help Azafady to win this public vote and make a world of difference for south east Madagascar – vote for AILIE JUDD here: http://www.facebook.com/worldofdifference?v=app_10531514314&ref=ts and please pass it on; we are relying on you – friends of Azafady – to pass the word around and mobilise votes for Madagascar!
Be quick! We have less than 7 days - voting closes at midday on Wednesday 28th July.
What you can do:
- Vote yourself on facebook
- Publish the poll on your facebook with a message to vote for Ailie Judd
- Send an email to your contact list asking them to vote for us too
- Post the link on your facebook/twitter and encourage everyone to vote for AILIE JUDD!
LEMUR TRANSECTS with Xaali
Posted on 15 June 2010 | No responses
S.-Xaali O’Reilly Berkeley was a Conservation Volunteer with Azafady on the Lemur Study module for 4 weeks in April 2010
“Woolly,” whispers the forest guide, stressing the last syllable and lengthening it in an almost french manner, while pointing into the midst of forest cover. “Woolly – see?” And before you can spot the first Woolly lemur, he’s gone slightly off the transect line and found another. How the Malagasy guides manage to spot the back of a small grey-brown lemur clinging to a tree trunk ten – maybe more or, if you’re lucky, less – meters away from the direction in which we are walking, through a mesh of leaves, bark, palms, and vines, remains a mystery to me and certainly still seems to amaze even Azafady’s conservation staff.
After noting down the number of lemurs, their sex, their activity and reaction, and other details such as information about their surroundings and the day, it’s time to move on and continue walking slowly and silently along the previously marked transect line, stopping every 50 meters to write down GPS co-ordinates and the time.
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Reza’s Cycling Fundraiser in Nepal for Azafady’s Project Sekoly
Posted on 9 June 2010 | 1 response
Reza Pakravan joined Azafady’s short-term volunteering community construction programme and helped build a school for 2 weeks in April 2009 as a break from his career as a financial analyst. He was so inspired by Madagascar and Azafady’s work in the southeast that, since returning, he has continued to raise funds for Azafady’s Project Sekoly; building schools in the southeast of Madagascar. Last month Reza completed a 1000km cycle across the Nepalese Himalayan mountains and he has raised an amazing £15,000 (so far!) for Project Sekoly – here is an extract from an article from Ekantipur(a Nepalese newspaper) about his amazing achievements…
What does it take to convince yourself you want to do something for society? Is it money? Or power? Or rather, simpler motives such as enthusiasm, determination, and generosity?
The Volobe School Opening by Lomba
Posted on 4 June 2010 | No responses
Lomba (Mahalomba Hasoavana) started working for Azafady in July 2001 as a guide on the Pioneer volunteer programme. In 2006 he was made Team Leader of the Pioneer guide team, a job which he did until the summer of 2009. Lomba then coordinated the Ausaid urban health & sanitation project, and now he is the head of the new construction department. Here are his thoughts on the opening of Azafady’s recently built school in Volobe…
On May 13th I travelled with two Azafady colleagues to the beautiful but remote Volobe. We were going to attend the official opening of the school we completed there last year. As Head of Construction I felt it was important for me to go to show my support for the school particularly as its remote location meant many people would be unable to attend the celebration.
A Day in the Life on the Azafady Conservation Programme
Posted on 7 May 2010 | 2 responses
A Day in the Life of a volunteer on the Azafady Conservation Programme – by Jenn Beard, USA, Volunteer in April 2010
Today is my 17th day as an Azafady Conservation Volunteer. Although no day is the same, I can at least give you an idea of what a typical day might be. We are awakened from our tents by the sun rising and Vira, one of the cooks, banging a spoon on the pot of breakfast rice. While out in the bush we are also treated to dough balls, banana bread and bananas. If it’s your turn for dishes, you and your “sick buddy” (someone to help you stay well and nurture you through illness or injury) fetch water from the well and get to washing up.
Extract from Chrissy’s blog about her time on Pioneer January - March 2010
Posted on 16 April 2010 | 1 response
“Hard to know where to start …. but they say at the beginning is usually best. As some of you know, i finally left the UK 8/1 after 2 cancelled flights due to the snow. Arrived in Fort Dauphin a little jaded after all the flying but ecstatic to finally be in Madagascar. The nothingness, beauty and contrasts of the landscapes flying in really struck me, so fantastically different from home. Met by a huge beaming smile from the lovely Tsina, a Malagasy woman whom I now know as the ‘Mum’ of Azafady who makes most things.. no I’d say everything happen.
Met the other volunteers and got to know each other over a few beers and days in the town. Joined by several short term volunteers for the first project - constructing a 2 classroom primary school in a small village called Ebikika only about 35 km from Fort Dauphin but about 3 hours in a clapped out old mini-bus that you can’t believe can possibly survive another puddle come river crossing or pothole usually big enough to bury a small farm animal in! Dodging pigs, chickens and villagers we finally arrived where we set up camp in the chief of the villages back garden.
Coming up - Ed Kashi’s Exhibition of Photos from Madagascar
Posted on 29 March 2010 | 2 responses
The time has almost arrived for us all to be able to see the incredible pictures that Ed Kashi took at the start of the year as part of the Prix Pictet commission. I hope that you’re all as exited as I am to finally see these pictures in print. The exhibition will open on the 20th of April at the Diemar/Noble Gallery, London, and will run until the 1st May 2010 and we’d love all supporters of Azafady and Madagascar to come! Ed’s an artist who was not afraid to get his hands dirty and get involved on the frontiers of sustainability - and I think that this clearly shows in the amazing photos that he has produced.
A Day at the Office in Madagascar & Waves of Culture Shock
Posted on 26 March 2010 | 4 responses
I do completely adore the unpredictability of working for Azafady in the head office in Madagascar, but on occasion experience waves of culture shock at the levels of social and environmental deprivation here. I have worked for Azafady for 5 months in the HIV department conducting research and supporting the team with data analysis and monitoring requirements. During this time I have made regular trips to the bush to visit Pioneers (Azafady’s international volunteers), project sites and to generally explore. On several occasions throughout this volunteering experience I have been stopped in my tracks and forced to reflect upon a wave of culture shock.
Project Mampisaina Update 3: Voluntary Counselling and Testing
Posted on 22 March 2010 | No responses
Whilst one of Project Mampisaina’s main goals is to educate and raise awareness of HIV/AIDS, the project ultimately aims to support and encourage young people to make informed decisions about their sexual health and adopt safer sexual health practices. Testing is a significant part of this process as individuals are encouraged to actively take responsibility by getting tested and knowing their status. Since 2008 Mampisaina has distributed free voluntary testing and counselling (VCT) tickets to young people that have participated in HIV information and education activities, whether in the form of a focus group, workshop, home visit or mass mobilisation. The HIV test is quick and simple requiring just a few drops of blood to be taken from the finger or the arm and results can be given between 30 minutes and a day depending on the test and the clinic.
Singing in the rain for International Women’s Day
Posted on 8 March 2010 | No responses
After four days of torrential rain the roads of Fort Dauphin resemble muddy urban mangroves, however the persistent rain failed to dampen the celebrations of International Women’s Day in Fort Dauphin. At 8am women from across the town congregated outside the local high school and the matriarchal rhythms of chanting and booty shaking began.