Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Antananarivo (Fides Service) – Every year thousands of country people pour into Antananarivo the capital of Madagascar in search of work. Most have been driven to the city by dire poverty caused by severe drought in the southern part of the island. This masse of people settle in makeshift abodes in shanty towns in the city outskirts hoping to find a job, which is more often than not an illusion.
Concerned with the plight of the people, ten years ago Franciscan Father Jacques Tronchon started a programme to help re-settle rural refugees. The programme consists in formation course for three years at the end of which the poor families are assigned a piece of state owned land in an untouched area 15 km from the city. Groups of 15 to 20 families settle to form small villages and they are given rice fields to cultivate and animals to rear.
To provide support to the new villages, within reach a medical centre, a technical workshop a school and a church, dedicated to the Holy Family of Nazareth, have been built. Water pumps have been installed and solar panels provide clean cheap power.
Father Tronchon’s project has the support of the Raoul-Follerau Association because the aims are in keeping with those of the Association’s founder: to alleviate the suffering of the poor. The results obtained speak for themselves: families once separated for reasons of work are re-united; people once unskilled are now qualified; destitute families now have a home and a livelihood.
But Father Thronchon is not satisfied. He wants a convent of Poor Clare Sisters near the villages because he says: “The Church is not properly installed unless there are contemplatives!”
The project is all the more laudable because Antananarivo has decided to dismantle its shanty towns and demolish the pitiful dwellings. LM (Fides Service 16/7/2003 EM lines 28 Words: 313)
