Project Update Onja Madagascar - St Johns, Newmarket, District Foundation Chairs, RI

Rina has recently joined us as a full-time volunteer. She has been developing our 10-day camp curriculum for the past month (Due to begin on the 10th of Sep), and has been using her legal knowledge to make sure we are meting our legal obligations. Coming from very demanding career in consultancy, her ability to get things done quickly and to the highest standard is difficult to match!  As small gesture to show appreciation to Rina, We provide accommodation and food for her. Having volunteers, especially Malagasy, I view as a real health check to an organisation -there are few organisations in Madagascar that could attract the likes of Rina. I think we should be equally grateful and proud. Grateful to have Rina's caring and kind personality on our team, and proud that our mission and work is strong enough to attract the likes of her. 

Mitantsoa, our English teacher has been with us, full time, since the beginning of the year. Once the school begins in December her main objective will be to bring students to English fluency however in the meantime she has been crucial to our recruitment process: Co-coordinating the arrival and assessment of many of brilliant students at our test sessions in 10 different locations. Mitantsoa is trained as an English teacher in one of Madagascar's most respected English universities and has years of volunteering experience. We could not be more fortunate to benefit from her commitment, integrity and positive spirit. 

Marcelline, our no-nonsense assistant has been with us since late last year. She's already completed some big some big tasks: Conducting preliminary phone interviews for over 300 students and assisting me in interviewing those those selected to attend an exam session. Marcelline was not able to complete high school but watching her apply herself to new challenges is captivating. The effort she puts is very impressive, already she has become useful on a computer and is picking up some English from Myself, Mitantsoa and Rina. 

Claire. Although not in Mahanoro I need to mention Claire. A fully qualified accountant working for KPMG in Auckland, Claire manages our finance and accounting, along with the many other tasks that need to be done from New Zealand. She was in Madagascar earlier this year, and aims to come over each year. Having volunteered for years, I don't know where we would be without her loyal assistance. 

 

We spent a sleepless month on the road conducting the final test sessions and have now examined and interviewed 132 top performing students who lack opportunity to continue their studies. Some students travelled for up to three days to attend the sessions! We reimbursed their travel costs and gave additional allowance for food on the road, to make sure that it doesn't cost them anything to attend these sessions. Special thanks to our team who spent the month working tirelessly to keep our fixed schedule and for sleeping on the sometimes freezing concrete floors of the local classrooms that the ministry of education kindly provide for us, wherever we go.

 

From the recruitment sessions we have identified 44 students who demonstrated very sharp logic ability, good English learning aptitude and who don't have the means to study further. We are inviting these students to attend a leadership and chess camp. The leadership training is a gift to these students who have potential to change their communities and outcomes and could benefit greatly from some leadership knowledge. The Chess section will further probe student's their logic capacity and also give us a chance to see how they work. We will run two separate camps with 22 students in each, the first starting on the 10th of September. 

 

Thank you all for you ongoing support. If you have have comments or feedback I would love to hear from you. Jut reply to this email.

 

Kindly,
Sam

 

--

Sam Lucas Founder

Crowdfunding video
Founder video

onja.org

+261347894778