Annual Report 2024
Dear Benefactor Friends of Akamasoa,
As every year, we want to share our joys and sorrows with all people of goodwill, sensitive and generous, who have trusted us and helped us achieve numerous projects throughout the year.
We started this year 2024 with immense hope that we would be able to provide work for our thousands of workers and improve, as much as possible, their daily lives and standard of living. We have managed, despite challenges, to maintain our goal thanks to all the parents and young people who fight every day, with ideals and passion, for a fairer future and a more dignified and fraternal life. This is not achieved through letters or speeches but through daily efforts to set an example and encourage, against all odds, the 5,000 families living in Akamasoa to stand strong and resist the temptations of an easy life, moral decline, and individualism.
In the field of education, we have achieved a record number of enrollments this year like never before. A total of 20,843 students are studying at different levels in Akamasoa! This is a great vote of confidence from parents and a responsibility we fully assume. We are happy to announce that our students worked well during the past school year. We especially want to congratulate the students of our four high schools who achieved a 96% pass rate in the BAC, while the national average was around 55%. This demonstrates the seriousness of our education, the dedication of our teachers in teaching, sharing, and transmitting knowledge, as well as the diligence, will, and enthusiasm of our students.
This year, we also celebrated an extraordinary event: the 35th anniversary of Akamasoa’s humanitarian work. We began celebrating this anniversary at the beginning of the year by printing a small booklet for everyone containing a prayer, a list of efforts to be made throughout the year, and the “Dina,” which outlines the “laws” to be followed in Akamasoa. This booklet also included beautiful photos of several villages we have built. Every Sunday at Mass and every Wednesday at 8 PM, each family recites the prayer from the booklet at home to unite even more in this human and spiritual adventure that has lifted us from extreme poverty.
On the anniversary day, Sunday, October 20, we held a grand celebration with a Thanksgiving Mass for all the blessings received by each family. In the afternoon, Akamasoa students and our choreographers presented a group performance involving more than 6,000 young boys and girls, which was stunning and of the highest quality. Many important personalities attended this magnificent celebration: the President of the Republic, Mr. Andry Rajoelina, with his wife, the Ministers of Education, Health, and Police, the Apostolic Nuncio, the French Ambassador, the Dean of the Comoros Ambassadors, as well as many business leaders who support us. This festive day will remain in Akamasoa’s history as a day full of joy and fraternity. The day before, we had heavy rain, but thanks to God, on the day of the celebration, a radiant sun shone on the 30,000 people present at Saint Pierre Stadium in Andralanitra.
Every year, we experience joys but also sorrows, suffering, and difficulties in this country. We acknowledge the pastoral letter from the Bishops of Madagascar in mid-November, strongly urging the leaders of Madagascar to address the lack of water, electricity, poor road conditions, and the pervasive corruption in nearly every sector. They also challenge Christians, asking where they have hidden their faith in the face of such injustices inflicted upon the poorest, their brothers and sisters, and fellow citizens. At Akamasoa, we reflect on the Bishops’ message to apply our faith, solidarity, and generosity within our villages. We strive to be more truthful, just, fraternal, and courageous in fighting against corruption and injustice, starting with our own community.
Dear benefactor friends, we want to share our work and results from the year 2024. We built 80 homes for the most disadvantaged families. We constructed four primary schools in Bemasoandro, Vohitsoa, Antolojanahary, and Ambatobe-Nosy Varika; two middle schools in Mahatsara and Vangaindrano; and three high schools in Ampitafa, Marillac Fort Dauphin, and Beloha. We built a library and a hospital in Antolojanahary. Additionally, we constructed a new kitchen for the canteen in Bemasoandro, as well as a dispensary and maternity ward in Ambatobe-Nosy Varika. We also planted over 10,000 trees in Antolojanahary and Fanomezantsoa.
Here are our upcoming projects for 2025. We plan to build 100 more homes, establish three new primary schools in Ranomena, Andralanitra, and Safata, renovate the hospital, and complete the fencing of the Safata Hospital Center. We will maintain around a hundred houses by replacing old roofs with more durable metal sheets. We also aim to create new boreholes and water supply systems in Manantenasoa, Antolojanahary, Mahatsara, Andralanitra, and other villages. We will build dozens of latrines for schools in Manantenasoa, Bemasoandro, and Mahatazana. Furthermore, we will construct a multipurpose hall for the university, a university restaurant, and pave several hundred meters of roads in Manantenasoa. Our reforestation efforts will continue, with plans to plant another 10,000 trees in Antolojanahary and surrounding areas.
We will begin the new year 2025, a Holy Year, with Faith, Hope, and Love. We will continue to fight to create spaces of truth and fraternal sharing. During this Holy Year, we will make a greater effort to persevere in transforming our lives and mindsets, preventing us from becoming more truthful, just, and happy together. We will seek and find new ways to help those who are still hesitant to take responsibility in their families and villages. We will make the Common Good the foundation of our shared life! We will save ourselves together, never alone. We are all connected by love and truth to overcome poverty and selfishness. We are on Earth not to take advantage of and deceive others but to support one another and create a better and fairer world—not with words, but with concrete actions. As responsible adults and honest individuals, we must care for the poorest, especially children and the elderly. God’s Light, transmitted through Jesus, illuminates our lives and actions, guiding us to mutual forgiveness and encouraging us to live in truth, sharing, and love for our families and children, who are the future of Madagascar.
We thank all our donors for their support and urge you never to give up. A better world will not be built without you.
Keep giving!
Now more than ever, we need your help.
USAID is gone.
WHO is deserted.
You can help replace them.
We are talking about the survival of millions of people.
