The street children of MANDA

Today we were at the Manda facility for the first day.

In Madagascar, particularly in Antananarivo (Tana), there are many street children who are not being taken care of. They sleep somewhere on the street.

MANDA is a street children project, originally founded by a German person. (more details in the link above). In this project, children are collected from the streets and efforts are made to give them a perspective. They are not orphans, but their parents do not take care of them, so they live on the street. Manda has several houses in Tana. In this house, about 100 children are taken care of. They receive breakfast, access to hygiene, care, some education, and lunch. In the afternoon, around 4 PM, they are released back onto the street.

They are registered with the project and should appear again the next day at 8 AM. They walk up to 2 hours - usually in groups - to get there. After about 1 year, they move to another house/facility, where they continue to be cared for, can sleep, and are sent to state school.

This is how the children are slowly socialized.

We were welcomed very kindly today. The children surrounded us, shook our hands, touched us, and surrounded us.

They are all very friendly and happy children.

After we set up a room with 3 tables and our instruments, we first gave oral hygiene instructions.

Then we treated about 30 children. The children lined up voluntarily, even though some tears were shed during the treatment. Afterwards, there was a small reward in the form of a balloon or windmill.