Who is the communications coordinator?
The coordinator for the Child Sponsorship program for the Diocese of Toliara is Fiadanana
(RAFIADANANA Dieu Donne Joseph).
On a monthly basis he initiates telephone contact with the parents of each child in the program. However, many families are located in rural areas and regular communication is difficult.
How big is the diocese? In square miles, the Diocese of Toliara can be compared to the State of Florida. The Diocese of Toliara makes up the entire southern part of Madagascar. In all of Madagascar there is minimal infrastructure and that is especially so in southern Madagascar. The majority of roads in Madagascar are unpaved, with many becoming impassable in the rainy season.
In southern Madagascar, there is one ‘paved’ road in the whole diocese. It goes between Toliara on the west coast and Fort Dauphin further south on the east coast of the island. It is mostly degraded now and is only paved in places.
What about transport and mobile communications?
Most people in Madagascar use public transportation – small buses and vans called Taxi Brousses – to travel between towns. Taxi Brousses are also the quickest and most reliable way to send supplies and letters.
The clergy in the diocese have access to Wi-Fi. However, it is expensive and not accessible or reliable on a regular basis. Those priests and evangelists who live in remote areas, while they have telephones, often have to travel to a nearby town to visit a cyber café to use Wi-Fi for email.
How do the Malagasy communicate? As the coordinator for the Child Sponsorship Program, one of the significant challenges for Fiadanana is to facilitate a connection between a child and his or her sponsor. All communication between Fiadanana and the parents of the children being sponsored is by telephone. Any written communications or pictures are sent to or from her via Taxi Brousses.
Besides the remote and difficult communication issues, the Malagasy are a people with an oral culture. There is not the tradition of written communication. So, it is a learning process and a challenge to engage the parents to encourage their children to send regular communication to their sponsors.
If you want to know more about the Child Sponsorship program or would like to sponsor a child please send an email to this address, adding Toliara child and your country of residence in the subject of your message. We will get back to you as soon as possible with further details.