What

Ny Tanintsika's adult literacy programme started in the communes of Ambohimahamasina and Ambolomadinika; teaching reading, writing and counting skills to villagers through the training up of local literacy teachers. The first adult literacy programme ran from 2003- 2005 and after multiple requests from communities, a new programme has been developed in 2006 integrating numerous rural development themes.

Why

Roughly half of Madagascar's population are illiterate, and this is often much higher in rural areas, as is the case for communities living in or near the rainforest corridor in SE Madagascar, therefore hampering conservation and development efforts. This is a major barrier to development as it is much more difficult for illiterate people to take on new ideas and to participate in local democracy. Through integrating the adult literacy programme with education on development issues, awareness is also raised on environment, health and other subjects. The programme aims to promote dialogue and understanding with remote communities and a more sustainable lifestyle through its integration with more practical advice and learning on a wide range of other important subjects, for example, promoting good citizenship, preventative health, environmental protection, family planning and ways to improve income-generating activities.

Results

Our first programme (2003-2005), was specifically aimed at increasing the adoption of family planning and improving reproductive health. The two communities of Ambohimahamasina and Ambolomadinika were targeted because of their high rates of population growth, maternal and infant mortality, and because of their poor populations who were highly suspicious of family planning. It was found that this suspicion and low adoption of family planning was accentuated by the high rates of illiteracy (around 50% for Ambohimahamasina, and 70% for Ambolomadinika).The project succeeded in doubling the number of regular users of family planning in these communities, through the training and constant support to community-based family planning distributors (CBD), health educators and traditional birth attendants, coupled with the programme of functional intensive adult literacy for development (AFI-D). The production and projection of films in the communities about family planning was another successful method that was used. Twenty-two literacy teachers ensured that over 300 adults and young people became literate through this first phase of the programme.

Following on from the success of the first adult literacy programme, a new project was carried out in 2006 and 2007. 30 adult literacy teachers were trained from different villages and, over 6 months, 398 villagers became literate. With regard to the related community development activities, most of the 26 sites had most obvious success with their achievements in the fields of hygiene and sanitation, as well as vegetable-growing. As well as giving people essential life skills, this also succeeded in reinvigorating community spirit and communal activities.

The next part of the programme started in 2008. This involves follow-up support to villages with the best results, aiming to promote further community development. Mini-projects have been identified and are being funded with 20 associations created by the learners and village committees. These projects offer new or improved income-generating activities for the newly literate villagers, or improve their standards of living in other ways.

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