Children Rescued from Tribal Taboos and Endangerment
Who are These Kids?
- Tribal taboo-endangered infants *
- Children marginalized by tribal traditions **
- Abandoned by families still locked into traditionalism ***
- Abandoned by families who can no longer financially support the child ****
Where Do They Come From? All over Madagascar
And, Why Do We Work with Them?
To give them a full life that otherwise would have been otherwise snuffed out
Combat child-trafficking
Combat teenage prostitution
PFM's Two Centers Offer Hope, Love, Justice, and Empowerment
1. Tanjona Children's Center, Ambohimangakely, Antananarivo (the Malagasy word "Tanjona" means "goal")
Tanjona Center has 30 children from abused, abandoned, or threatened backgrounds.
At Tanjona Center, these children receive the following: 
-an education
-health care
-moral guidance
-skill and talent instruction
-love and justice
-learn local stewardship for global concerns
-learn fair play and human dignity
Evening meal at Tanjona center
PFM needs partners like you to sponsor one or more children for $25 a month for one child.
Or contribute to help complete the $9,000 annual need to operate Tanjona center to keep these children's future secure and invest in the future of Madagascar's leadership.
Tanjona kids learn song
in the center's courtyard
2. Hope School for Children of the Urban Poor, Ankofafa, Fianarantsoa
Similar to Tanjona but providing 11 children from the poorest families with:
-Education
-Hope
-Play (some of these children only knew to sit at home while their parents foraged for food each day)
-Social graces (many of these children have never sat down to a table setting before attending Hope)
-Moral instruction
-Appropriate farming and animal husbandry
-Stewardship of resources
Damage to classrooms after 2008 cyclone
Classroom Repair
How long did it take us to learn life's lessons? And that with all the advantages we had!
PFM needs partners like you to sponsor one or more children for $25 a month for one child to open a world of learning to marginalized kids.
Or contribute to help complete the $3,300 annual need to operate Hope School to keep these children's future secure and invest in the future of Madagascar's leadership.
The Finishing Touch for a New Classroom
*ZAZA-KAMBANA (endangered twins)
The peoples of southeast Madagascar have a custom that revolves around the birth of twins or any kind of multiple birth.
As animists, the majority of the forest people live in fear of spirits they believe inhabit everything around them. The local sorcerers have steady work as people go to them to on a daily basis to put curses on their enemies, and get "love potions" for their potential lovers.
In this context, people believe that any multiple birth (twins, triplets, etc.) are cursed from the time of conception. As animists, they reason that animals give birth to multiple offspring and humans give birth to single offspring. Therefore, in their view, twins have a human body and an animal spirit, what we would call a "monster" in Western folklore.
These infants are considered a curse on the whole community which can only be removed by the removal of the infants.
These twins did not make it out of the forest.
Bao Philomene with endangered infant on her back.
In the past, and still into the present, these infants have been and still are thrown into the Indian Ocean or into the rain forest waterways, or abandoned in the forest left to starve or be ravaged by the elements.
PFM's short term work is direct intervention by one of our workers who lives with the forest people. Bao Philomene risks her life by intervening with families to save these infants and bring them out of the forest to Pauline Vololonirina and our children's center near Madagascar's capital.
PMF's leadership has no illusions about the difficulty of changing this custom. We also know that it can only be modified by the people themselves, not by foreign intervention. Therefore, PFM's long-term work in these communities is education, rural school development, literacy training, family planning, and skills training for youth.
PMF rejoices in the day when these children return to their ancestral villagers as youth to show their families that they are truly human with fulfilled lives because you helped PFM intervene for them.
These twins with Pauline made it out and live at Tanjona Children's Center today
The Malagasy word "Sambatra" means "blessing."
This is a traditional ceremony that lasts for one month based on male circumcision.
It is held once every seven years.
So all of the boys who haven't been circumcised inthat seven year span since the last celebration are allcircumcised in the last week of the month long celebration.
The last Sambatra took place in October 2007.
The next celebration will be in October 2014.
Child awaiting circumcision during Sambatra
So what's the problem?
During the last week of the Sambatra celebration, most of the participants are drunk.
There is basically a sexual free-for-all in which anyone can have relations with anyone else, married or un.
Nine months later, many women have babies but are unsure of the father's identity as the infants were conceived during Sambatra.
These Sambatra children are not abused by the tribal community, but neither are they shown any favoritism. Whether it is for education, health, or share the wealth, these Sambatra kids will be the last ones chosen or treated.
PFM intervenes for these children and assures a secure future for them through the Tanjona Children Centers.
Sambatra children in forest village waiting to be taught
***Families Still dominated by Traditionalism
Many families reject their own children if they feel a curse has affected the child.
Tanjona has received children whose families will no longer care for them because:
-the children are believed to be cursed because:the child was born on unfavorable day according to the astrological calender
-the mother died in child birth and the child is blamed
-the child's caregivers experienced misfortune and the child is blamed
**** Abandoned by families who can no longer financially support the child
Because of families who experience urban poverty, there are Malagasy mothers who approach foreigners and are willing to sell one of their children in order to support their other children.
It is PFM's policy to make these families aware of the Malagasy government services available for these children and the PFM/Tanjona Children's Centers.
