I have spent the past two months interning for ONG Azafady, a Malagasy non-governmental organization based in Fort Dauphin, Madagascar. ONG Azafady is supported by a British charity of the same name. ONG Azafady is dedicated to the sustainable development of the southeastern Anosy region of Madagascar. Its interns, volunteers and staff work directly with communities and other grass roots organization. It is a nonprofit organization maintained through donations, grants and volunteer work.
ONG Azafady divides its attention and resources among three main areas: the environment, sustainable livelihoods, and health and sanitation. It is necessary to address all three of these areas to make significant progress. The environmental division focuses its work on improving the urban environment of Fort Dauphin and on improving conservation in the region. Both goals involve environmental education. The health and sanitation department has three main projects: health education; a mobile doctor, paid by ONG Azafady, who visits villages throughout the region; and sanitation and water infrastructure improvement. Sustainable livelihoods are defined as activities by which individual members of a given society obtain the food they and their families need to survive. ONG Azafady's program focuses on building people's capacities in regards to agricultural and other income-generating activities through education and training.
As an intern with Azafady, I was expected to spend at least some time working on all of these projects, with the exception of the mobile doctor. I also was given time to do work on my own personal project, which for me was research for my senior integrative project. Because an outbreak of typhoid among the group with whom I was working delayed our trip to our last location, combined with my early departure, I was not able to participate in the main part of our health and sanitation work which was to be digging wells and latrines in the village of Tsanariha. Nonetheless I was able to work on a number of projects in the other areas. My work included, but was not limited to, constructing home vegetable gardens for families and teaching them how to properly care for them, building more fuel efficient clay stoves, cleaning beach front land and replanting it with fast growing trees that would hinder erosion, collecting assorted seeds to be replanted in ONG Azafady's tree nursery, teaching environmental and English classes to local children, mapping the location of endangered trees in rainforests around Ste Luce and editing a satellite map of Fort Dauphin with GIS technology for use by an American organization which is trying to install wind turbines in the area. We also spent about two weeks (interspersed with other work) building a school in the village of Hovatraha. Although such work does not fall directly under the mission of ONG Azafady, the organization had been given a grant which asked it to specifically build a school; so an exception was made.
My work with ONG Azafady very much helped me achieve my objectives for a summer internship and was a significant learning experience. Over the past three years of study focused on International Relations at Connecticut College, I have come to realize how important it is to have first hand knowledge of whatever situation you are dealing with if you want to manage it properly. Early economic development was run by people who expected post-colonial countries and peoples to function the same way the western world had. This resulted in many failed policies. At a precarious time like this, when the developing world is desperate to catch up but it is unclear just how much old-fashioned development the environment can continue to support, we cannot afford more mistakes. By working in Madagascar this summer I was able to see the first hand problems of development. I have a better understanding of why it is often so hard to make progress in the developing world. I have learned about the problems both local people and NGOs encounter. For example, deforestation is a huge problem in Madagascar. Consequently the government has put in place new laws to protect forests from slash and burn agriculture. People do not have an alternative energy source though, so they simply deforest unprotected areas more quickly. ONG Azafady tries to ameliorate the situation by introducing clay stoves to improve fuel efficiency. The stoves are effective but they are fragile and will crack if they are not allowed to set and dry for two weeks after being made. Sadly, many people cannot afford to not use one of their stoves for two weeks and will use it before they should, resulting in broken stoves which are not as efficient. I also learned of the importance of a strong infrastructure to sustainable development. In a country like Madagascar, where the infrastructure is minimal, an organization like ONG Azafady must survive with power outages, unclean water and supplies not arriving on time, if at all. Also, simply working in a tropical environment is risky to people's health and this can affect work. As I mentioned before, everyone in my group contracted typhoid right before we were meant to start working on constructing wells and latrines. Although most people were not very sick, had we gone out to the bush we could have contaminated the water supply we were making for the local communities and subsequently caused many deaths. All of these are issues that can be easily forgotten when sitting comfortably at home in the western world wondering why the developing world cannot seem to sort itself out.
The focus of my senior integrative project is on the concept of sustainable mining. In short, I want to determine what conditions are necessary for a country to properly manage its natural resources, and specifically for sustainable mining to actually be successful, if at all possible. My study will be limited to developing countries and mineral mining rather than oil mining. I will apply the conclusions of my analysis to Madagascar, where a large-scale mining project is just beginning. I want to be able to predict how successful the mining project will be in regards to sustainability and make recommendations for how it can be improved. Since I was living and working in the area where the mine is to be built, my internship allowed me to focus on the mining project from different perspectives. ONG Azafady was able to provide me with important documents published by and about the mining company, QMM, and its project. Also, by working on conservation projects in forests that could be destroyed for mining purposes if they are not properly maintained and simply talking to local people and hearing their perspectives, I was able to get a more personal view of the situation. Overall I think my internship has opened up my eyes and prepared me well to start tackling the issue of resource extraction and sustainable mining in the developing world. |