Latest web page additions

National Georgaphic's New Exlorers - Take Action
Gift cards for the Holiday Season (Dec '11)
Planting 15,000 trees (Dec. '11)
Getting ready for secondary school (Dec. '11)
Ducklings in a basket (Nov '11)
Celebrating the CEPE diploma (Aug. '11)
Creating a beautiful environment (Aug '11)

The November 2010 report illustrates our definition of “success”: Mparany, our Zahana teacher, reported that since he has been living in Fiadanana no death of child was reported. The only death in the village was a woman who had surgery in the hospital of Tsiroanomandidy for appendicitis some 2 months ago. Berthine, a member of the women’s group, confirmed that before Zahana in the “hard times period” (époque dure) between October to December it felt like almost every day one child passed away from diarrhea. (She said 26 deaths in 2 months.) She explained that people from Fiadanana now have to carry their water with them if they have to go to another village, since their stomach didn’t feel well drinking the water from the other villages.” (More in our November Newsletter or Results.)

Solar water pasteurization and cooking

More School Links

Getting ready for secondary school (12/11)
Celebrating the CEPE diploma (9/2011)
Creating a beautiful environment (2011)
The first school in Fiadanana (2006)
The school in the second village (2009)
School gardens (Nov. 2010)
Soup in the School of Fiarenana (April '10)

Building our schools:

Building a second school (2009)
Inaugurating the community built school (Mar 2010)
Photos of the almost finished school (Jan. 2010)
The Community is building their school (Sept 2009)

Building the first school (2006)

The first school in Fiadanana (2006)
Photos of Fiadananas new school being built (2005/6)
Making bricks to build the school
Analysis of the need for a school (2005)

Zahana: Rural Transformation through Participatory Development in Madagascar

xmas in Madagascar 2011 with zahana.org

The issues Zahana works on with our village partners are interconnected. For example planting a school garden is agricultural education, educational curriculum and addressing the need for school lunches (or food security) at the same time. Introducing new edible trees or crops, such as Moringa oleifera in March 2010, combines the need for firewood, improved nutrition and microcredit. If tree planting is combined with introducing improved cookstoves it addresses deforestation, public health and climate change.

By the same token trees need years to grow and many projects need time to show lasting results, a constant challenge in the 20-second sound byte era. We hope you may spend some time exploring our site further. Thank you.

water supply built by zahana Access to clean, safe water was the first priority for the community of Fiadanana in working with Zahana. The current running clean and safe water system in their village was built collaboratively. 2.5 km long from the mountain to the village, it provides clean safe drinking water for over 1000 people. Learn more

ZAHANA is a community benefit organization in Madagascar. Zahana is dedicated to participatory 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 rural development project focused on priorities set by the villagers themselves. 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 agendas set somewhere else by national or international bodies.

Zahanas activities are ongoing. We started working in Fiadanana in 2005, assisting the community to build their communal water system (link). Zahana attempts to address all issues vital for a communitys development, an approach we call 'integrative development'. It remains a constant challenge to present all of our activities on this website in an easy to navigate format. We try to improve it constantly (hence the quick links on top or the menu to the right). Your feedback is very much appreciated.

• Please visit our Results and Achievements page for a quick overview of our on-going activities

New community school in Fiarenana, Madagascar

Inspired by their neighbors the community of Fiarenana invited Zahana to work with them. Their community built school has been inaugurated in March 2010. Learn more

The community built school in Fiadanana Madagascar

Building a school for its children was the communitys second priority for Fiadanana. Since 2006 two teachers, hired and trained by Zahana are teaching in the community built school. Learn more about the school in Fiadanana

• Zahana is a Superstar on GlobalGiving! (Feb 2011)
• Latest News (updated Nov. 2011)
• More about the sturcture behind the website

Quick Social Media Pages:

Thanks to GlobalGiving's efforts Zahana was invited as a Explorers - Take Action (formerly Global Action Atlas) participant hosted by the prestigious National Geographic Society (yes the one with the yellow magazine!). Please follow the link (so you get there with a click-though from us) to the Explorers - Take Action

Zahana is now on Facebook

Zahana-Madagascar |

If you have a fast Internet connection, such as DSL or cable you may click on the YouTube movie embedded in this website. This might not work with dial-up. (Internet Explorer might not show this embedded YouTube movie). To watch Zahanas other YouTube Movies in high or lower quality, please visit our Zahana YouTube channel: click here

Note: THIS WEB SITE IS A VOLUNTEER EFFORT AND IT KEEPS GROWING, AS OUR DEVELOPMENT EFFORTS IN FIADANANA AND FIARENANA IN MADAGASCAR BECOME A REALITY. WE TRY TO INCLUDE AS MANY PICTURES/PHOTOS AS POSSIBLE ON THIS WEB SITE, SO YOU CAN SEE WHERE AND HOW ZAHANA IS WORKING. PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE TO CONTACT US IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS

This page was last undated January 5, 2012