The amphibians and reptiles of the coastal forests of south eastern Madagascar are some of the most exceptional species on the planet! Madagascar as an island has a 100% endemicity rate of the native species of amphibians. Localised endemicity and diversity of threatened species are high in the south east. As a result, the Azafady Conservation Programme is focusing key research on the herpetofauna of the area.

A typical day collecting data involves walks through pristine forest fragments conducting sweep surveys, collecting habitat data or opportunistic surveys where a wide variety of amphibians and reptiles can be found. These include some of the largest and smallest chameleons on earth as well as some of the most endangered geckos on the planet. A wide array of brightly coloured frogs are also seen. During the night nocturnal species of frogs provide a chorus of vocalisations, sometimes melodious at other times the opposite, it is these that are often the dominant sound within the littoral forests!! During the day, sweep surveys include disturbing a specific area of forest to reveal the ground dwelling species where basic ecological data is recorded. During these sweeps it is not uncommon to come across vividly coloured snakes, chameleons and lizards. Some of the more exceptional species that can be seen are the fish scaled gecko that almost completely sheds its skin if caught by humans, giving it a sort of naked appearance, the Brookesia chameleons which play dead when they feel threatened and Uroplatus (gecko) species which usually resemble dead leaves or bark. It is also possible to see the critically endangered Phelsuma antanosy that is restricted to small patches of these coastal forests and is in urgent need of conservation.

Carrying out work in the field is always interesting and unique- there is no typical day when collecting data as the unexpected always happens and something new and different is always seen!

Click here for information about joining Azafady’s Conservation Programme and here to find out more about Madagascar’s amphibians and frogs from Mogabay.

Jennifer Carpenter took a break from her job as a Systems Analyst in Dublin to join the Azafady Short-term Community Construction programme in southeast Madagascar in April 2010 for 3 weeks, this is an extract from her blog about her whole experience:

I fell in love in Madagascar with a boy named Jamal. He’s about 7 years old and has the biggest toothy smile. He looks like he’s full of mischief and would squeal with laughter when I high fived him. He’s also a mean dancer! Needless to say the people will be the thing that sticks with me most on this trip…

I signed up for the Short-Term Community Construction project with Azafady and our mission was to build a two-room school in 3 weeks. I met the other short term volunteers at the airport and then we were taken to camp for the night to meet the 10 Pioneer volunteers we would be building with.

We all swapped a few intro stories and went to bed. The next day we packed up the bus and headed to our new home for the next 3 weeks, a village about 20km from Fort Dauphine called ‘Mahialambo’ which means ’skinny pig’ in Malagasy. Its a village of 700 people spread out over a few kilometres. The amount of kids was staggering and they all helped us unload the truck and set up our camp at the edge of the village, about 2 mins walk from where the school would be built.

Over the next 3 weeks we’d wake every morning for breakfast at 6.15. It consists of rice, banana bread, a dough ball and a banana. Lunch and dinner was also rice with either vegetables or beans. Weirdly I’ve missed rice since I left!

After breakfast we’d head to the work site. The first week was spent building benches and making posts for the frame of the school. There is no electricity so everything is done by hand. I had some wicked blisters but I can saw and hammer with the best of them now! There was Azafady’s local construction crew with us who were invaluable in helping us build the school.

Some days we’d have a Malagasy lesson before lunch so we could try to converse with the locals, especially the kids . We started off learning phrases such as ‘what is your name and age’. It was a great way to make new small friends!

We’d finish up the day around 4.30pm. Normally on these projects there’s a well where we’d fill buckets and have a bucket shower - but luckily for us there was a river nearby so we’d swim and soap up in there. All the kids were fascinated by this, we had an audience every day!

In the evenings we’d sit around under the stars on a clear night, satellite spotting and playing cards before retiring to our tents. We worked 6 days a week and had Sundays off so each Saturday night we’d play some local music and have a dance with the kids.

One of the Sundays off we went for a hike where we took in some stunning views. We could see 5km to the ocean from the hill we climbed. Another Sunday we went to church for a 3 hour service. There were a couple of baptisms, some confirmations and an auction. It all happens at church! And lots of singing too which was great to listen to.

At the end of the 3 weeks, the school was pretty much done. On the way back to town we were brought to a lemur reserve. I couldn’t go to Madagascar and not see a Lemur! We saw white, a few brown and loads of ring tailed lemurs, some of which climbed all over me when I fed them bananas.

I was leaving Fort Dauphin as the Pioneer volunteers were heading back out to the bush to start building a teacher’s house and I was very jealous. As time goes by, the wonderful memories are still very much with me. It just made me think I’ll definitely have to return to Madagascar again, and maybe as a Pioneer next time!

Jen

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:

1. Vote yourself on facebook
2. Publish the poll on your facebook with a message to vote for Ailie Judd
3. Send an email to your contact list asking them to vote for us too
4. Post the link on your facebook/twitter and encourage everyone to vote for AILIE JUDD!

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.

A great deal of the work I did whilst volunteering for Azafady’s lemur studies project consisted of lemur transects; sometimes it can be a bit frustrating – when after days of pushing through rainforest in the heat of the subtropical sun not a lemur has been seen –, but it’s incredibly rewarding when you do find, not just one, but maybe several in one morning. Whether you see any lemurs or not, however, transects are an opportunity to see what else the forest has to offer, and it is equally important to record any “unsuccessful” transects – although, after four weeks of them, both with lemur sightings and without, I am yet to label any so harshly – to know when species are most likely to be active and so try to better understand their behaviour and habits, their place in the ecosystem, as well as their needs and how best to protect them.

After a morning in the forest, a hearty lunch of rice and beans is served back at camp around midday, after which you have a couple of hours free time (once the dishes are done) before a Malagasy lesson and the afternoon “shift” – usually another forest survey, down a different transect line.

Usually there is time for a good bucket shower – which, despite the brown colour of the water you pump from the well, is surprisingly inviting once the day’s work is done – before dinner and dark, which usually coincide with applaudable precision at six o’clock. After washing up there’s time to chill out and, since there can be more than one conservation module running at once, time to debrief, so everybody is kept up to date. Occasionally there is the option to go on a night walk, an excellent chance to catch a glimpse of nocturnal wildlife.

Although there isn’t a “bed-time”, everybody – from volunteers to staff – tends to start retiring to their tent fairly early (in comparison to Western standards) to get a proper rest before breakfast at 6 AM and heading back out to work around 7 AM.

If there’s one thing I regret about my time volunteering for Azafady, it’s having signed-up for too short a time: after having spent four weeks in the bush, in such an incredible place, with its amazing people (whether Azafady staff, volunteers, or locals) and the astounding wildlife, I was gutted to go home and could have happily stayed another six weeks till the scheme’s end.

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?

For Reza Pakravan, an Iranian financial analyst living in London, helping others is as inseparable a part of life as doing laundry, or cycling to work. And while he continues working at Brit Insurance in the U.K., he also cycled around Nepal to raise funds for the construction of schools in Madagascar, an island just off the south-eastern coast of Africa.

Pakravan’s story begins last year, while he was volunteering with the NGO Azafady in Madagascar. Azafady, a registered U.K. charity, works in south-east Madagascar to help alleviate poverty, and improve the general standards of life. Pakravan was helping them build a school, and he decided to continue this effort on his own. He started his own fund raising campaign, Jellybabies on a Bike, to raise money for two more schools. He fondly recalls the reason behind the unusual name of an educational campaign: “I handed a pack of Jellybaby pastilles to children in Madagascar, and they started calling me Jellybaby because of that.” The on-a-bike part was easy enough to place: Pakravan cycles to work everyday in the U.K., pedalling 32km both ways.

In order to raise the £15,000 needed for the first school, Pakravan started off with donations from various people and his employers. He collected a total of £13,500 before he finalised his self-funded 1,000 km trip to Nepal, to raise the remaining £1,500.

Pakravan had an ulterior motive behind this unusual cycling trip as well: Not only would he raise sufficient funds for his trip, but he would also get to visit Nepal, widely considered a haven for mountain-biking. He was joined by his best friend Marco Gustapane, a cyclist himself, who wanted to help him with the fundraising.

Pakravan’s trip wasn’t as simple as it sounded though. It seemed to be plagued with misfortune from the very start. The eruption of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajokull meant that Pakravan, along with millions of other tourists, were stuck in airport terminals around the world. Plus, Nepal itself was going through political turmoil, and a nation-wide shutdown was in the pipeline. Due to the flight disruption caused by the volcano, Pakravan and Gustapane only managed to cycle a week together, after which Gustapane had to return home, leaving his friend alone to complete the task.

Despite these setbacks, Pakravan persisted, believing that the benefits far outweighed the risks. “It’s hard to believe, but children in Madagascar often walk 20 km every day to reach their schools. They have to cross crocodile-infested rivers, only to reach an already overcrowded school.” The money he raised would then not only help provide education, but also prevent the students from the risks involved in going to a faraway school.

Pakravan must be one of the few tourists who viewed the strike shutdown as a good thing. “Cycling during the strike allowed me to get in touch with ordinary Nepali people’s problems and made me realise their frustrations with what is happening in Nepal which hidden from tourists eyes,” he says. “I met a lot of interesting characters, and learned quite a bit about their lives as well,” he continues.

While cycling during a banda sounds appealing to some, Pakravan almost quit because of it. True, the roads are empty, but the shops are closed as well, including shops selling food and water. En route from Hetauda to Daman, Pakravan seriously considered quitting more than once on the 57km-uphill road. “Because of the strike, there was not a single vehicle in sight, and none of the shops along the sides of the road were open, and I had run out of food and water,” he says. “I thought I would stop and return more than once, but continued. Luckily, I met some masons who were having their mid-day meal, and as soon as they saw my condition, they eagerly invited me to join them.” Needless to say, the thirsty and starved Pakravan accepted their invitation. “I was saved by farmers while I was dehydrated and about to faint due to starvation. They shared whatever they had with me, including food, water and wine!”

Pakravan has managed to raise the required £1500. Now, his employers, Brit Insurance, have decided to match his effort with another £5000 pound as an extra fund. This money will be used towards the building of a third school in Madagascar. And though Pakravan has now returned after completing his commitment, he hopes to return to Nepal soon. “I was touched by the kindness, hospitality and culture of the people here. This country has a lot to offer.”

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.

The journey to Volobe took some time and effort. First there was the 4×4 as far as Mahatalaky, then it was motorbike to Ambatolahy, this is where the road ends so we then had a four hour walk to reach our final destination. The walk involved crossing ten rivers, including a waterfall meaning it was hardly worth wearing shoes and socks as there are no bridges.

The next day was the official opening and celebration. Watching the children arrive, all dressed in their new uniforms, I felt a little overwhelmed by how many there were. When we were building last year no one was attending the falling down school we were working to replace, so I didn’t know how students would want to attend the new school. We were told there was 360 children in the new intake. It was great to think that because of the school we built that many more children were able to receive their basic education, but I was also a little worried as I knew the school would soon be full and another one would be needed.

As I listened to the speeches I was impressed with everyone’s enthusiasm for education. The Head of the Parents Association spoke particularly passionately about the importance of education and the difference it could make. It was especially great to hear such positive speeches as the building of the school was one of the most difficult we had done.

The build was difficult as all the materials needed for the school, teacher’s house and latrines needed to be moved to the site by hand. These materials included 150 bags of cement, 400 planks of wood, 200 posts and 100 roof panels. The remote location also meant that staff and volunteers couldn’t return to town to see friends and family on days off. The two Pioneer groups involved worked so hard, and I hope they read this post and see the pictures to see the impact the school has had.

After the opening ceremony it was time for the celebrations, hundreds of people attended from the surrounding fokontanies (villages). During this time I was able to talk to some of the families about their hopes for the future; their thoughts are very much about improving the road access.

The next day it was time to move on, as we were due to visit the latest Pioneer built school in Mahatalaky. As we travelled back I thought about the changes our school building programme will have- by providing a good school building, complete with facilities, we enable teachers to teach so many more children and with the education the children receive they are better able to make positive changes in their own lives. I’m certainly very proud of the work we do and I hope all volunteers that have been involved are too.

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.

At 7:30, depending on your module, we head out to transect trees or lemurs, search for reptiles, build beehives, survey the community or teach at the school. When the morning work has been completed, we head back to camp for lunch, of rice and beans, and a siesta. During the high heat of the day it’s important to conserve your energy, so we use the daylight for a well-drawn bucket shower, to read a book, play a game or take a nap.

After resting it’s time for a Malagasy language lesson with one of our three guides. We’ve learned about simple conversations, navigating a purchase, how to count, tell time and sentence structure. Usually by 3pm we are ready to get back to work - either continuing from the morning or doing something else entirely within the goals of your module.

As the sun begins to set, we head back to camp to finish anything daylight is needed for and have dinner. After dinner dishes are done there is candlelit time for games, conversations and laughter in the long house. The stars shine brightly over camp and we all usually turn in fairly early to rest up for the next adventure awaits, but not before a trip to the long-drop toilet. Walking down the forest path at night is a little more unnerving than during the day and the sounds and reflections of animal eyes remind you that you have made it - you are in Madagascar!

Click here to see a new video of the April Azafady Conservation Volunteers – featuring Jenn

“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.

Ooh while I think of it visited Nahampoana, a reserve not far from town. A sad reality of Madagascar is that land has been so over farmed or burnt down for charcoal that you can now only find true native species of plants and animals in managed reserves. Not saying everywhere isn’t beautiful but it isn’t teeming with the wildlife it once was. We saw the dancing sifika’s and ring tailed lemurs so tame they jump all over you munching as fast as they can on bits of bananas, grabbing more from you as hurriedly try to peel them so they don’t loose interest and jump away. They have these amazingly soft hands perfectly shaped and adapted for climbing and jumping from tree to tree - despite feeling like you’re at a zoo without cages, it was a fantastic experience.

Back to Ebikika, we were welcomed officially by the chief in his front room before setting up our camp on about a 35 degree slope! Something you get used to as long as you head is at the top and your tent doesn’t flood during cyclones - luckily mine wasn’t on of them!

Took a team of 13 Vazahas (what the Malagasys call foreigners) plus about 8 Malagasy construction workers- the hardest working guys I have ever seen 3 weeks to build the school. They would start about half 6 and work until 12 when it was blisteringly hot and then start again before 2 until 5 sometimes 6! We all learned the art of sawing with blunt saws, hammering nails that would look like spaghetti by the time we’d finished with them. ‘Get it done’ was the general chief motto - ‘as best as you can’ was a close second. When I get somewhere with a better internet connection I will upload photos so you can see the progress and the finished building - a real sense of pride and achievement was felt by all. ……. “

Christina Beach, Pioneer January 2010

You can read the rest of Chrissy’s blog here!

From standing knee-deep in mud to capture the process of ‘mangosy’ (ploughing) to helping the fisherman of the lake Anosy bring in their meagre catch, Ed worked closely with local communities and Azafady staff to document the ongoing struggle to produce a livelihood from an increasingly exhausted environment. We’re very proud of the results and the fantastic association with Pictet and such a compassionate and prestigious artist. The exhibition from the 21st is free to attend and details can be found in the link below - enjoy and hopefully see you there!

Prix Pictet Commission Photographs to be exhibited at Diemar/Noble, London 20 April – 1 May 2010

Mark Jacobs, Managing Director, Azafady UK

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.

These have included meeting a pregnant 12 year old girl in the bush, watching two women scrape the top layer of mud from the surface of a dried up water hole for their family’s drinking water and being greeted on the path on my way to work by a child wearing a plastic bag for a nappy. These waves have usually involved a humanistic element as both my work and passion have always been drawn towards this area.

However today this changed. I was called by another member of staff out of my wooden hut to a small gathering of people on the road side. My attention was drawn instinctively to a young nondescript Malagasy man, wearing an old ripped t. shirt and cotton trousers. The man held a shaking, squawking basket which he opened to reveal a baby eagle. The endangered bird of prey had most likely been stolen from its nest and had now become this man’s only chance of income for the day. It was a moment of conflicting emotions - part of me wanted to buy the chick for the asking price of £7 and ensure somehow it was integrated back into the wild, but the practicalities of doing this along with the fact that without a mother its chances of surviving would be slim, the risk of encouraging an illegal trade of endangered animals felt too great. The situation provoked thoughts of other conscience struggles, like buying vanilla or jewellery from a street child who should be in school, or buying a wooden souvenir from a local artisan shop of unspecified and potentially unethical origin. These moments of self-reflection feel intensified in the social context of so few vazhas (foreigners), whose actions therefore risk being taken as typical of the West, combined with an ecosystem highly vulnerable to human impact ensure we are never far away from reminders of the consequences of our actions and therefore the need for mindful and responsible behaviour.

Contributed by Ailie Judd, Specialist Volunteer on Project Mampisaina at Azafady NGO in Fort Dauphin