Project trip August 2024 (Toliara to Antananarivo) – A report by Esther Schirrmacher
In August 2024, I went on a project trip with Christine and Thomas Schirrmacher, as well as the tour guide Andreas Rapp, through Madagascar, the second largest island nation in the world in terms of area, with around 30 million inhabitants. The African state is one of the least developed countries in the world today, with more than three quarters of the population living in extreme poverty.
The group was led by Andreas Rapp, Director of Operations at the IDEALTOURS travel agency, who has shifted his focus from South India and Sri Lanka to Mauritius, La Réunion and Madagascar, where he is responsible for organizing, implementing and accompanying tailor-made small group and/or individual trips that are tailored to the specific interests and needs of customers.
August 1, 2024
The trip began with a flight from Mauritius via La Réunion to Antananarivo, Madagascar. In the capital, we first visited the Rova of Antananarivo, the former royal palace of Madagascar, with a tour guide. It is located at a height of 1462 meters on the highest elevation of the capital Antananarivo and almost 200 meters above the districts of the lower city, which can be seen well from up here.
August 2, 2024
After a night in a guesthouse in Antananarivo, we left for the airport the next morning to take a domestic flight to Toliara in the very south of the island. The small propeller plane takes 90 minutes to cover the distance that would take us three full days by jeep to drive back to the capital (920 kilometers). When we arrived in Toliara, we visited a few families in the area around our hotel with Andreas Rapp. These families are supported by donors that Andreas has acquired through his community. Andreas asked the women, all of whom were single parents, questions about their everyday lives and the future of their children. Many of them were between 14 and 20 years old, having been abandoned early by the fathers of their children. The young women often earn a few euros a month by washing clothes; otherwise, they have no prospects.
August 3, 2024
The next day we distributed food in the greater Toliara area. The aid organization Gebende Hände donated money for basic food worth 1000 euros for a small community in the south of the island. Together with Andreas, we distributed rice, lentils, vegetables and other food to families that the village chief had carefully selected beforehand. The food distribution took several hours, but before that we had the opportunity to talk to two families and get a brief insight into their difficult everyday life. We continued by car in a northerly direction, passing the Isalo National Park. Some of the island’s most famous rock formations can be found here, as well as some of the baobab trees, one of the landmarks of the African island.
August 4, 2024
The next day of the trip began with the sighting of some lemurs, which are endemic to Madagascar. In the evening, we visited a project in Fianarantsoa that has been supported since 2023: In a simple, single-story building, seven women have found shelter, all of whom care for several children and would otherwise have to live on the streets. The children had already greeted us with screaming and dancing in the shelter. The women here produce, among other things, bars of soap to earn a small additional income. They, too, have no prospect of getting a good job or giving their children a better future. We also visited a side project for which sewing machines were financed for a small group of women, enabling them to earn a small income.
August 5, 2024
The next day was a full day of travel to cover the last part of the long route back to the capital Antananarivo. The road network in Madagascar is very poorly developed, many roads are not paved and in a miserable condition. Since traffic is not regulated in many places, you often lose a lot of time waiting for oncoming traffic or motorcycles that you encounter. We arrived back in Antananarivo around midnight.
August 6, 2024
On August 6, we returned from our guesthouse in Antananarivo to the airport. Madagascar will remain in our memories for a long time as a country with a very reserved and friendly population, biodiversity, poverty and breathtaking beauty.
Bericht-Madagaskar
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