Vololona Raharolahy meets with the headmaster of the Antaminena II School.

During my time in Madagascar, Vololona Raharolahy, CARE's supervisor of community activities in Antananarivo since 1996, was visiting schools throughout the city. She was alerting headmasters to an upcoming meeting to discuss CARE's innovative child survival program, called Tananarivo Opportunities for Urban Child Health (TOUCH). The project works in partnership with local community leaders, including headmasters, to improve the health and nutrition of children through door-to-door and neighborhood training programs. Through her visits, Raharolahy gains support from community leaders and volunteers for the training activities that reduce rates of infant and child disease and malnutrition in these urban areas.

Children at the Antaminena II School surround me during recess, asking for their picture to be taken.

We visited the Antaminena II School during recess time. Children were playing in the bright sun in a vast yard surrounded by high cream-colored concrete walls. The children ran to me, laughing and smiling, asking me to take their photographs. It was wonderful to be swamped in an ocean of joyful children, particularly after we had met many other children whose families were struggling just to provide them one nutritional meal a day.

The lemur can be viewed from a distance in special habitats that are surrounded by artificial waterways or up close in cages.

Antananarivo also is home to a small but fascinating zoo, named Parc Botanique et Zoologique de Tsimbazaza, which means, "they are not children." In a few hours, visitors can discover many of the different types of lemurs native to Madagascar, viewing the rare animals up close in cages or from a distance in special habitats that are surrounded by artificial waterways. (Madagascar slides #4 and 16).

Continue to Day 6