A little insight to Peace Corps Madagascar

Peace Corps does many things in many countries (around 65 I think) but I wanted to give you guys a little insight on Peace Corps Madagascar. There are 4 sectors here: Education, Environment, Health and the brand new Small Enterprise Development aka SED. So what exactly will I be doing as a SED volunteer in rural Madagascar? Good question! Since I have only been at site for a short time, I’m not exactly sure yet. But the following is from the Peace Corps Madagascar SED project plan. Perhaps it will give you a better idea…

SED areas of focus:
1. business creation and development for individuals and groups
2. marketing and access to resources
3. ecotourism

-->Act as catalysts for entrepreneurial activity by supporting growth and development of micro and small enterprises.
-->Education of financial planning, ecotourism and business opportunities and start ups is desperately needed. Current groups have difficulty finding appropriate markets and are not sufficiently patient to develop systems to develop quality products. People do not trust banks and are handicapped by poor money management skills.

The focus of my first three months at site is conducting a community study to determine the needs of the people in my town and subsequent opportunities. After a 4 day training in August, I will be starting projects. At this moment I’m not sure exactly what those projects will be. The front-runners are the women's association who make jam and are also learning how to sew, as well as local storeowners who are interested in learning about managing money. I might throw an English club in there somewhere too, as a secondary project. Stay tuned!