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In
2010/11 7VSG members and supporters raised enough money to cover
a considerable amount of the cost of a much needed holiday for
125 children in the care of the AVOTRA orphanage in Tana, Madagascar.
Club
member John Vanes, who brought the idea to our club and also,
with the help of family and friends in the UK, raised much of
the sum needed, devoted his vacation in August 2011 to helping
out on the orphan's holiday. John has very kindly sent in this
report with some photos of his adventure...
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I
Arrived in Madagascar after an eventful journey, all our
luggage was in a trailer which got a puncture on the motorway to
Paris. We had to pile everything in the 4 x 4, leaving the trailer
in a lay-by - got to the airport just in time for our flight.
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Situated
in a very poor area of the capital, Tana, the orphanage
is in a district where there are no street lights and the surrounding
lanes are just packed and rutted dirt with open food stalls. Life
takes place on the street, quite a culture shock.
The
orphanage itself is lovely, the buildings are neat and
clean and there are grassy areas for the kids to play games on.
I was met with beaming smiles wherever I went, and the moment I
lit my pipe I became the centre of attention, no-one had ever seen
one before - they were fascinated. |
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The
director, Richard, showed me round the building. His wife
is a doctor and has a surgery there, she also acts as the dispensing
chemist and has a pharmacy full of the medication that Dr Pierre
Branquart sends over. She also treats poor people who come in off
the street - There's no NHS in Madagascar!
It's
hard to credit, coming as we do from a wealthy country,
what they regard as treats. The poorer people don't normally eat
bread, their staple diet is rice, so one day the children all got
a small part of a baguette spread with Nutella, and on another day
spread with La Vache Qui Rit. Both really went down well. On another
occasion they had a warm milky drink made using the powdered food
supplement which went over to Madagascar on the pallets which had
been stored at Alex and Debs pending shipment. We also gave out
a small handful of sweets to each child each day which they looked
forward to with eager anticipation. |
Took
a trip out to the other orphanage site called Betany. It's
about 15k away, in the country. Its buildings also are lovely, this
is where the adolescents live. There's some land too so they're
trying to set up a market garden to help supply both places with
some fresh vegetables to help keep costs down. 120 orphans plus
10 - 15 staff went on the holiday. The major part of the cost was
the transport. It's about 250km from the capital to the village
on the coast where they stayed. Mini buses took them part way, a
train the rest of the way. It's such a poorly developed country
it took all day for them to get there. We went by Land Rover and
at one stage had to cross a lake by putting the Land Rover on a
raft of oil drums. |
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The
kids loved their holiday. They stayed in a large palm roofed
type of barn right next to the ocean which the vast majority haven't
seen before so you can imagine their wonder. They adored being chased
by the waves up the beach. Very close by was a freshwater lake -
warm water and shallow. They went in there every day splashing about,
supervised by staff. The orphan's holiday saw an historic first
for Madagascar; the introduction of cricket. I took several kid's
sets over and we set it up on the beach. It wasn't the easiest thing
in the world to explain the basic rules, but we managed. We also
took frisbees and beach balls; things they could all share in, and
share they do, I never saw selfishness. The holiday did them the
world of good, a change of scenery, sea air, exercise, a real break
from routine and the pollution of Tana.They thrived on it all. |
The
hardest part was leaving the kids behind. I wasn't there
long enough to get to know them all well but certainly some stood
out as individual characters; the little girl frightened of going
in the water but who, by the end of our stay, with holding hands
and gentle coaxing was happily splashing about with the others.
Another little boy, missing an ear since birth, but who would attempt
anything, a heart of a lion. Another lad who I winked at and gave
the thumbs up to and who, every time he saw me after that did the
same with a cheeky grin. |
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The
experience has certainly affected me, I'm writing this
back in England some two weeks after leaving Madagascar and although
my dreams haven't made real sense, I've dreamed about the kids
and the orphanage every night without fail. With Toni, my wife's
support, I made the journey of a lifetime, I'll never forget it,
and to all those who, in whatever way, helped make their holiday
happen, thank you so very, very much, you've brought sunshine
into the lives of kids who so far haven't had much of anything.
John
Vanes
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