July 13th 2020
The Red Book Challenge has been continuing to work on children’s projects by preparing for a three month trip to Madagascar (late July to early November 2020). We plan to bring a few more supplies this trip: another generous donation of 100 field guides from Global Wildlife Conservation for the children in the South of Madagascar. We will also be bringing 25 colouring books with the striking artwork of Kathy West. Finally, we have partnered with Lisa Tell, Jacqueline Dennis and Nadine Anunciacion to bring 106 reusable sanitary pads (and re-useable drawstring bags for holding them) for young women in our project areas (Fort Dauphin mainly, Berenty Village, Besakoa Ambany and Ambovombe later on).
It is our hope that these reusable sanitary pads will enable young women to stay in school and more easily travel on field trips to see the lemurs. Because they are reusable, there is no waste. We will be conducting surveys of the young women given pads to see if this is a solution to a problem they currently have and follow up to see if the pads (and what kind of pads) make a difference. We are currently researching the best way to do this. I anticipate a great demand for the reusable pads we bring. We are thinking we should give at least two to three pads to each young woman but wondering about the best way to distribute them? Let us know what you suggest in the comments below! We will continue our research into the best way to supply these pads. This is sort of a pilot project for us and in the future we hope to manufacture the pads in Southern Madagascar (with the US sending supplemental pads) if this is practical.
Now for an update on the conservation club house in Madagascar. Unfortunately, last month we had to stop payments for rent for the conservation club to the president of the club. This was a very hard decision and came after much consideration. We no longer had confidence that the money was being used as intended. We (currently Milliasse and Amber) as the leaders of the organization have to take responsibility for making sure donor finances are used responsibly. In retrospect, we did not provide enough support and supervision to the executive of the conservation club to make sure they were fiscally responsible. Now that Milliasse and I will be together in Madagascar for 3 months it is our full intention to understand where we as a team went wrong and fix the problem. We don’t want the club house to be over but we don’t want to have money mismanaged either. We will be talking a lot with the club executive and current and past members to get their perspectives.
Another full disclosure item: I fully intended to return to Madagascar this time with at least a 5,000$ grant to continue our projects. Because of the demands of being a first time Mom, I wasn’t able to reach this goal. Lanja (8 months) is a lot more work than I could have ever imagined! Right now he is quietly drinking his bottle of milk so I have a minute to finish this post. I hope to complete my grant applications as soon as possible as the main grant I am applying for has a rolling deadline.
Finally, thank you for your continued interest and support in the red book challenge. We will continue to grow and work together as a team. Look forward to updates soon from Madagascar!