2025 CRMF Project Visits: ‘We Are The Dreamers’

Students from the English language and technology programs sang and danced to "We are the dreamers."

By Ginny Wiltse

“We are the dreamers!” The young adults who sang and danced at the International Literacy Day celebration set the tone not only for that day of festivities but also for the whole September 2025 CRMF team visit to Madagascar. Students enrolled in the technology and English language programs chose the World Cup Soccer Tournament theme song to represent their hopes for the future. Dreamers populate the programs that CRMF funds with the help of our donors. Here are “dreams coming true” stories I heard from them during my time in Madagascar.

Mme. Madeleine inspired the literacy day audience describing how she worked as a laundress in the morning and attended literacy classes in the afternoon. “In everything we do, we need literacy,” she said. She told us that she learned to count, joined a Self-Help Group, saved and bought a chicken, and now has a poultry business.

Self-Help Group members described the Mme. Madeleine lifechanging impact of working collaboratively to become successful entrepreneurs. Mme. Nivo, Co-President of the Fiharemana SHG, explained that her group of 21 women remains strong because they established strict rules for members and they all follow them. They support one another and help each other. When a member of the group died, they paid off her loan together.

Dreaming of economic opportunity

Members of the MISANDRAHAKA SHG have developed businesses making pastry, running a grocery, and selling second-hand clothes, says Mme. Solange, their President.

Mme. Florette, President of the FANASINA SHG, told me how she and members of her group negotiated loans that successfully funded sanitary latrine construction in their neighborhood. “We can see positive change,” commented Jeannie Pacquerette, the ONG St. Gabriel leader of the program.

Students at the technology training center eagerly demonstrated their new language skills for me by telling their stories in English. Last year, CRMF funded the English-language program in response to the students’ request. Sakinah Elizabeth believes that having both computer and English skills will help her land a good job. Khody agrees. He learned English so well that he became an English teacher in the language program! Bryan, Phayo and Donald are proud of their language and technology proficiency.

Montfort Sisters offer vocational training in sewing, culinary arts, and hair styling to girls in the Keeping Girls in School initiative. Sarah, in the 8th grade, uses those skills to earn extra money. Florita completed training as a hair stylist. At their awards ceremony, Ravo, an out-of-school teen who completed certification as a seamstress, told us that she has opened her own sewing business. “Now I have value. I can be a model for other girls,” she commented. Thirty young women celebrated completion of the sewing program during our visit, all wearing dresses they made themselves.

Dreaming of learning and new possibilities

“Who has a dream?” Brother Edwin asked the children assembled at the Analakininina primary school in urban Toamasina. Enthusiasm rippled through the room and the hands flew up. Edie jumped up first. “I want to be a policewoman,” she announced. Ernestine raised her hand: “I want to be a doctor.” There is no shortage of dreams here but the reality is that out of every ten Malagasy children who enter primary school, only four will complete it and only two will go on to middle school. These 50 children come from three public schools and are returning to school this year as part of the CRMF-funded School Reinsertion Program. CRMF pays school registration fees and awards backpacks and school supplies to students whose parents cannot afford to keep them in school. The $8-$10 school registration fee can be almost a week’s wages for parents earning less than $2 a day. Parents, teachers and representatives of the Ministry of Education all expressed thanks for CRMF’s annual participation in this effort.

A first-of-its-kind capacity-building program for women drew an audience of nearly two hundred participants plus local leaders and dignitaries to its launch in rural Antetezambaro on September 11. Mme. Jeannette Nirina, St. Gabriel’s rural projects director, designed the curriculum to meet the needs of women whose lives in remote villages give them few if any opportunities to develop the skills they need to create successful small businesses. It’s an ambitious year-long series of workshops and trainings that cover literacy and leadership, business management, conflict resolution, personal development, and the rights of women. Motivated by dreams of better lives for themselves and their children, the women have already committed to working together through the Self-Help Group model. Groundbreaking and life-transforming! I can’t wait for reports on the progress of this program.

Women from the rural communities display handicrafts at the Antetezambaro gathering. By attending the capacity-building programs and workshops, they strive to realize their dreams of turning their talents into successful income-generating businesses. 

Dreaming of reliable healthcare

At Ankirihhiry CSB II, midwives and midwifery students practiced episiotomy suturing techniques and attended lectures in diagnosing and treating hypertension in pregnancy from the CRMF obstetrics team that included TriHealth resident Dr. Wes Gherman, nurse midwife Nancy Baron, obstetric specialist Dr. Heidi McLaughlin, and TriHealth resident Dr. Morgan Boyer. This CSB has the largest maternity service in Toamasina. Its reputation as a safe place for a woman to deliver her baby has grown since CRMF opened its Saving the Lives of Mothers and Babies program there in 2011.

At the Vonjy Center Clinic, the CRMF internal medicine team mentored ten Malagasy medical students who are dreaming of providing better healthcare for the people in their country. The medical students joined CRMF doctors for lectures and clinics in a week-long intensive program focused on best practices in diagnosis and treatment of diseases common in the local setting. TriHealth resident Dr. David Fremlin excelled as a teacher. Reading an Xray at the Vonjy Center required a little creativity from Dr. Fremlin and Dr. Dave Wiltse. Dr. Hux Miller and Dr. Aina Rakotovao and the CRMF team joined the students at a celebratory dinner marking the completion of the mentorship program.

A visit to the Dispensary Antsiramandroso, operated by Montfort Sisters, is always uplifting. This year the whole CRMF team made a joyful visit to the dispensary to admire the new maternity wing.

CRMF donations paid for the flooring in the new facility. Sister Pauline and her staff provide outstanding medical care to the rural poor.

Dreaming of healthy communities

On September 15, the entire rural community of Ambodisaina-Ivondro rejoiced in dreams come true: formal designation by government ministries as a Model Healthy Village. That means the end of open defecation, family latrines for every household, smoke-free cookstoves for every home, AND the dedication of a solar-powered water purification system that will deliver clean, filtered water to everyone, all funded by your donations to CRMF. The village women were quite literally dancing for joy! The festivities included the distribution of certificates of accomplishment to the young women who constructed all the charcoal-free stoves and to the men who constructed (and will maintain) all the latrines for 257 families.

A solar-powered filtering system delivers clean drinking water to the rural community of Ambodisaina-Ivondro.

Further along the Pangalene Canal, the residents of Ambodisiny were waiting for the CRMF team to arrive. They are in the process of becoming a Model Healthy Village and they wanted us to see the progress they had made. It costs less than $100 a person to bring to these villagers the water and sanitation services that make for healthier communities and that we in the United States take for granted.