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Quick Links to Zahana's activities in Madagascar: click on any image/issue below

The community builds a school in Madagascar

Communal rice and corn storage bulding in Madagascar

Improving Cookstove technology in Madagascar

Adressing food Security in rural Madagascar

Zahana's photo gallery about rural transofmation in Madagascar

Other issues addressed by zahana in Madagascar

Zahana's goal of rural transformation in Madagascar

ZAHANA is a non-governmental organization in Madagascar dedicated to rural development, education, reforestation, revitalization of traditional Malagasy medicine, and sustainable and environmentally-friendly agriculture. The goal of Zahana is to develop a community-based participatory rural development project focused on priorities set by the villagers themselves. Initial community meetings with the entire village population are held in each location and the villagers themselves develop their own list of priorities.

It is Zahana's philosophy that development must be based on local needs and solutions proposed by local people. It is important to start small and stay focused on local priorities rather than on or agendas set somewhere else by national or international bodies.

As a pilot project Zahana is working with the village of Fiadanana in the region of Bongolava. It is our vision that the lessons learned from this hands-on development experience will serve as a model for the expansion of the project on a larger scale. First in the neighboring communities that have been inspired by the example, and then, provided there is funding, on a larger national scale in all regions of Madagascar.

For a short outline of what we wanted to accomplish with Zahana's participatory development approach in 2005 please see the web page "Where do we work".
"Latest News" provides photos and links to the updated web pages that show our progress since 2005.
Please make sure you have a look at our Photo Gallery to get an insight of what can be accomplished by a community that is committed to work on its own development.

Progress photo Zahana with water

How our Zahana Website Works:

We focus on two elements:

I. TEXT: On the first level web page we try give you and overview of a topic.

Links on the page lead you to in-depth information with more text. Overview pages have links to the left for easy navigation, and all have links at the bottom of the page. Some texts have evolved from plant to reality (e.g. building a school), but have been left there as background information.

II. PHOTOS: Visual insights into a rural Madagascar few might have seen.

Photo pages are organized by subject groups. Text is kept at a minimum. New photos are added frequently as they become available or progress is made in our work. (click here for our photo gallery)

What has been achieved by Zahana since 2005?:

The new school in Fiarenana

Since 2009: Zahan starte working with a second community in Fiarenana. Please visit this link to learn about the watersystem and the school and the revitalization of the plant neursery.

The villagers, with the help of Zahana, have built their permanent water system (more click here)

Six communal water faucets deliver water throughout the village (more)

How the school for the village was built by the community (more)

How the grain storage for the village was built by the community (more)

The women’s groups started a communal garden in the schoolyard (more)

Construction materials not available locally, were bought by Zahana and delivered to the village (more)

The villagers made and contributed the bricks for the school and grain storage (more)

Fruit trees, a school garden and a living fence were planted in August 2006 to prepare for the school inauguration (more)

A team of doctors visited the village to get an assessment of the health needs of the village

Malaria Prevention: Mosquito nets distributed to all households (more)

Improve overall hygiene and combat Tugiasis in a clean up effort of the village (more)

All Content and Pictures ©2009 Zahana