The Living Centre is located in the heart of The Complex, one of Antananarivo’s poorest areas. This is an ideal location because we want to be right where the children and families who need our support live.
These people come into our community hub every day for food, clean drinking water, showers, help with homework, health checks, English classes, IT programs, sewing classes and more!
The Living Centre welcomes the community
The Living Centre is managed by a wonderful and dedicated couple, Chantal and Paulin Rafanomezanjanahary, who ensure that all the programs run effectively. They personally supervise the breakfast program for 40 children. As the children enter early in the morning, Chantal and Paulin ensure they wash their hands, eat a hearty breakfast, clean and refill their bottle of filtered drinking water, and brush their teeth before leaving for school.
Many of these children live in unimaginable conditions: there is no running water or sanitation in their homes. They live in tiny, cramped huts with up to 8 people living in an area smaller than most of our bathrooms. Many of these children come into The Living Centre to have a shower once a week – they collect their own personal towel and soap, and wait quietly for their turn.
Chantal and Paulin run such an efficient program that while some are waiting to shower after school, others are downstairs using Thrive laptops and getting help with their homework. It is uplifting to see them able to access technology that is beyond the reach of most residents of The Complex.
During the day while the children are at school, Chantal and Paulin have some of their parents coming in for classes on primary health skills and business support. Our pilot micro-business program is underway for 10 families who are running catering, retail and sewing enterprises.
Thrive education program
There are so many young children running around in The Complex in Antananarivo instead of being at school. With the average family income at $1 per day and school fees being approximately $100 a year, most families with 4-5 children have little chance for their children to ever be able to attend school.
Thrive pays the school fees for over 120 children whose parents cannot afford to send them to school, and we would like to expand this program. For as little as $10 per month, you can pay the fees and school supplies for one child! For $20 per month, you can provide them with a meal each day! For $50 per month you can ensure they also receive regular health checks and clothing.
We are a hands-on accessible organisation. While our local frontline staff in Madagascar are on salary, our back end work in Australia is run by volunteers. This means your donations go directly to support our work in Madagascar.
Thank you to all our generous supporters who keep this oasis alive and growing.
Special thanks to Chris and Adelle Laing of the Ark Café Norah Head https://www.thearkcafe.com.au/. They are our main sponsors – without them we would not have The Living Centre.
Please help us by donating either through our website https://thrivemadagascar.org.au/support-thrive-madagascar-projects/ or directly into our account:
Thrive (Westpac)
BSB: 032570
Account No: 252118
All donations over $2 are tax deductible.
——
Brendan Singhdeo
and the Team at Thrive Madagascar