Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Fianarantsoa (Agenzia Fides) - There is growing urbanisation in Madagascar as more and more individuals and whole families move from rural areas to towns and cities in search of a better life and future. However these expectations are seldom met: in cities living conditions are miserable, work is hard to find and badly paid. This situation has serious consequences for the family. Very often young girls who leave villages to work in the city break all ties with the family and finding themselves in situations of extreme difficulty are forced to make a living with all sorts of means: many become pregnant and cannot keep the child, many die giving birth leaving their new born baby orphaned. In the past in most of the country a social clan system meant that an orphan would be cared for by other relations. Today this is no longer true, especially in cities. The orphanage is the only haven.
Urbanisation is most serious in Fianarantsoa, the second largest city in Madagascar, where consequently abandoned children are numerous. Some decades ago a good woman opened an orphanage in the centre of the city. When she could no longer run it, she offered it to the diocese and in 1990 it was entrusted to the Nazarene Sisters who had a community in the suburbs.
The Italian periodical “Informazione Vincenziana”, tells how Sr Annunziata, then regional delegate of the Nazarene Sisters, convinced the diocese to purchase 5 hectares of land outside the city. In 1993 when the first buildings were ready she took the children there. Besides a kitchen, dormitories, classrooms, church hall, rooms for the nuns and staff, and an infirmary the project included a vegetable and fruit garden, a stable and hen-house to supply food for the inmates of the orphanage. Today Blessed Marcantonio Durando Orphanage at Fianarantsoa is a village: it is home for 451 people: 382 children, 56 staff and 13 sisters. The needs are in proportion to the number of people: 125 kilos of rice every day, and a ladle full of herbs, beans and meat and for the adults a bit more; bed linen, clothes, repairs to buildings including the school for 220 children, primary, secondary and a few higher classes. Madagascar is poor and the authorities cannot contribute to the upkeep of the orphanage. Half the expenses are covered by the European Community and other bodies and organisations as well as many private benefactors, mostly Italians. But the needs are never ending. (R.F) (Agenzia Fides 9/6/2006 - righe 44, parole 497).
