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MAMITIANA ORPHANAGE
Mamitiana Orphanage is located in Antananarivo Madagascar. In 2024, my husband and I, along with a friend from New Zealand went to visit the centre at the end of our Madagascar Cultural Immersion tour. Tehre we met Madame Hary, the inspiring woman who started it all in 2012, a widow who raised four children of her own.
As she was talking to us about the children and the struggles they are going through, we were drawn by the quiet and passionate way she was telling the stories. It was clear that she loves these children as her and has made it her life's mission to provide and care for them.
THE HOME
Hary and the children live in a house that she inherited from her father. There are 3 bedrooms with bank beds and one small kitchen. Everyone sleeps along the width of the beds to fit in more people. All the boys sleep downstairs in one bedroom, all the girls are upstairs in the second bedroom and Hary shares the smallest bedroom with Minohary, a child with disability who cannot be in a room with too many people. In 2018, a couple from overseas visited generously offered to help build a secong house for the centre. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and other reasons, they couldn't continue supporting the centre. The new house is half built and requires NZD 9500 to finish. Once done, it will be used as extra bedrooms, a library, and a youth centre for the older kids who join the orphanageas a teenager and too old to start school. Hary already home schools those young people.
THE CHILDREN
There are now 54 children at the centre which has reached its full capacity. The children come from different parts of Madagascar. Some as far as 600kms away! Whenever there is a call, she drops everything and goes to pick up the child who needs her. A few of the children are twins from the Antambahoaka tribe in Mananjary (some 530 kms away), who have been abandoned by their parents due to a taboo that prevails to this day.
The children stay at the orphange until they grow up to be independent adults. They are not given up for adoption.
DAY TO DAY
The Centre has an arrangement with the local government schools so that all the children can have education, a doctor friend of Madame Hary comes in to give a health check on a regular basis, most of the time pro bono. The centre has to extra saff who look after the babies and some of Hary's children who are now adults come and help too whenever possible.
The centre has a vegetable garden close by and a large field 200 kms away given by the government to grow rice ( It will require machinery to work the land). The Centre uses a small part of that land to produce rice despite the challenges of transporting the produce back to Antananarivo due to the lack of infrastructure. The centre also raises chickens to provide eggs. As well as all that, Hary is a master embroider and sells her creations to provide extra money for the centre.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
Currently, we are raising money to finish the construction of the Youth Centre. You can donate here . If the money raised exceeds the amount required for the centre, then the rest of the money will be used to buy some much needed extra beds for the children as well as top up the salary of the staff who are working at 70% of their agreed wage. Please consider supporting this cause. Misaotra betsaka. Thank you!
As she was talking to us about the children and the struggles they are going through, we were drawn by the quiet and passionate way she was telling the stories. It was clear that she loves these children as her and has made it her life's mission to provide and care for them.
THE HOME
Hary and the children live in a house that she inherited from her father. There are 3 bedrooms with bank beds and one small kitchen. Everyone sleeps along the width of the beds to fit in more people. All the boys sleep downstairs in one bedroom, all the girls are upstairs in the second bedroom and Hary shares the smallest bedroom with Minohary, a child with disability who cannot be in a room with too many people. In 2018, a couple from overseas visited generously offered to help build a secong house for the centre. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and other reasons, they couldn't continue supporting the centre. The new house is half built and requires NZD 9500 to finish. Once done, it will be used as extra bedrooms, a library, and a youth centre for the older kids who join the orphanageas a teenager and too old to start school. Hary already home schools those young people.
THE CHILDREN
There are now 54 children at the centre which has reached its full capacity. The children come from different parts of Madagascar. Some as far as 600kms away! Whenever there is a call, she drops everything and goes to pick up the child who needs her. A few of the children are twins from the Antambahoaka tribe in Mananjary (some 530 kms away), who have been abandoned by their parents due to a taboo that prevails to this day.
The children stay at the orphange until they grow up to be independent adults. They are not given up for adoption.
DAY TO DAY
The Centre has an arrangement with the local government schools so that all the children can have education, a doctor friend of Madame Hary comes in to give a health check on a regular basis, most of the time pro bono. The centre has to extra saff who look after the babies and some of Hary's children who are now adults come and help too whenever possible.
The centre has a vegetable garden close by and a large field 200 kms away given by the government to grow rice ( It will require machinery to work the land). The Centre uses a small part of that land to produce rice despite the challenges of transporting the produce back to Antananarivo due to the lack of infrastructure. The centre also raises chickens to provide eggs. As well as all that, Hary is a master embroider and sells her creations to provide extra money for the centre.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
Currently, we are raising money to finish the construction of the Youth Centre. You can donate here . If the money raised exceeds the amount required for the centre, then the rest of the money will be used to buy some much needed extra beds for the children as well as top up the salary of the staff who are working at 70% of their agreed wage. Please consider supporting this cause. Misaotra betsaka. Thank you!
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