Marie Louise, 46, from the village of Namakia-Ankilibe, about one hour’s drive south of Toliara, in arid southwestern Madagascar, never saw the inside of a classroom as a child. “My mother died when I was two years old and my uncle took care of us, but he never sent my two sisters and I to school. There wasn’t one in the village anyway,” she recalls.
Although being illiterate was considered normal in her village, Marie Louise found it a hindrance. “When the mailman brought letters we had to walk to the town and pay someone to read the letters to us. Also, the president of the fokotany (municipality) sometimes asked us to sign forms, and we didn’t know what it was we were signing.”
Now she is among about 100 villagers in her area enrolled in an adult literacy programme. Every afternoon they come together in a community garden where they have lessons by teachers provided by a local NGO. Marie Louise plans to take the primary school exam and then go on to a secondary school. “I want to learn a trade, become a vendor or a tailor later on,” she says.
She also plans to vote in the presidential elections on 25 October. “When I was younger, we were told to vote for President Didier Ratsiraka (Madagascar’s president from 1975 to 1993 and again from 1997 to 2002),” she told IRIN. “I felt manipulated and preferred not to vote at all. Now that I can read and write, I will listen to the speeches of the candidates on the radio and make up my own mind.”
via IRIN Africa | Learning to read in Madagascar | Madagascar | Aid Policy | Education | Gender Issues.




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