Madagascar Volunteer Programs - Impactful & Immersive

I loved my volunteer experience. From the beginning to end, I felt very safe and welcomed. There's someone in charge of picking you up at the airport and brings you to the house. I had my own room, with mosquito bed, AC and bathroom. Sometimes we would have no electricity or water. The school was for kids aged 3 to 8 with physical disabilities. Someone from the organization accompanies you every day to the school. Kids were all so lovely and special. I brought a lot of toys and games to give them, and they enjoyed a lot. The school is located on the beach, so every Friday we would go swimming in the ocean with them. We would go to school from 9am to 4pm, and from 1:30 to 3PM the kids would nap, so I would have some free time on the beach. Food was okay, a lot of rice and carbs.

The local team was amazing! Every single one of them was super nice and welcoming. They listen to your needs and make sure you are okay. I loved my experience with them.

We had good two weeks (4.8. - 17.8.). We have cleaned the cages, prepaired the food and feeded the animals. Really special moments were the contact with the animals. The team was pretty nice and like friends. Food and accomodation were good. Especially the second week with our guide LAURIANA PRISCA was fantastic. She gave us many information about the animals and organized much work for us, so that we could do something for the Park and for the animals. We asked for that. It was important for us. Every wish we had, she made them true. She was pretty friendly to us and spend also time for us during her leisure time. So we've learned many about the City and could also help to build new snakehouse, help to get food for turtles and Chamäleon and many more, just because of Priscas organisation.

The Madagascar trip was brilliant. At the school the children were really engaged learners. I found the most important thing on this trip was taking many more picture books. I hadn't done that enough on the other trips, so I made a bigger effort to this time, and it worked out well.

So after English spelling and sight words etc, we read a picture book each day. I read the page in English, then Gabriel, one of the workers, would explain the page in Malagasy/French. It was excellent being able to expose the students to the artwork (the pictures) in the books. They mostly do chalk board exercises for their lessons. In all the schools I have taught at now I have noticed the difficulty with imaginative tasks (creativity), and drawing. There is a really high number of students unsure/shocked when I say 'good sentence, now draw a picture to go with it'. So my idea with the picture books was to expose them to the art.