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AOM Newsletter
AOM Newsletter
AOM Newsletter
Eating lunch at Vonona Center
VONONA CHILDREN’S CENTER
Vonona Children’s Center, located in one of the worst slums of Antananarivo, is for children who have been cliniVonona Children's Centercally diagnosed as malnourished. Before AOM the children in this program, most of who have only a mother, were only receiving nutritional counseling and health monitoring. But with no money, the mothers weren’t able to improve their childrens’ condition. We immediately started by providing healthy meals for the children to help them overcome malnutrition.
LONG TERM SOLUTIONS TO MALNUTRITION AND POVERTY
Sewing business in Madagascar The Vonona Children’s Center not only provides food for the kids, but works to eliminate the situations that led to their malnutrition. As funding allows, AOM provides job training for the children’s parents so they can better provide for their families. After 6 months of training on sewing machines, attending all classes and finishing a sewing test, mothers are able to get jobs in clothing factories or work in the market sewing. While the parents are attending classes, the children are in preschool, not only getting healthy lunches five days a week, but learning literacy skills.
Brick making and sellingNow other women in our program are interested in their children attending preschool so that they can work without having to bring along a child. This allows them to make more money by being able to work farther away and also allows them to devote more attention to their work. In addition, the kids bring home literary skills for the entire family and the families know how important that is. Empowerment is making its way into the most forgotten corner of Madagascar!
LUNCHES AND LITERACY PROGRAM
Lunch programAOM provides the pre-school age children of the mothers with 5 meals a week. We make sure that they get adequate nutrition for at least one meal a day. That means not only rice, but some yogurt and greens, whatever funding will provide. You should see how the outlook of these kids changes once hunger is no longer a constant worry.

Pre-schoolNow they are hungry to learn. While the parents are in job skills training or out working, the kids are going to pre-school and getting their grounding in literacy skills. Since many of the parents aren’t literate, the lessons they learn are brought home and help their parents become literate too.
BUSINESS SET-UP
AOM provides low cost business funds to families after they complete job training, or present a comprehensive plan for a business. We have awarded mothers hand crank sewing machines or sets of pots, and they have started their own small businesses. Several have made bricks to sell. These jobs are a good source of income for the family and mean the parents can provide not only food, but sometimes education for their families. Each successful business started means that the parents can not only keep their child well fed, but might allow them to be able to go to school. It also opens up room at Vonona for another starving child.
Low cost business funds to aid families

The mother pictured here has started a snack stand and now sends all her children to school. She understands the importance of education and her example is having a positive effect in her neighborhood. Other parents shown are making bricks and running sewing businesses, where before they tried to feed their families by selling plastic bags on the street, or some other equally impossible means of making a living.
MICRO-LOANS FOR FAMILIES READY TO MAKE A LIVING WAGE
This is a program AOM is just initiating. It includes a sustainableMicro business loans component of re-paying the loan which we provide at low interest. This not only ensures that there will be money available for others but also helps with the concept of saving. The mothers will work together with a professional micro-credit officer experienced in working with disadvantaged women. There will be more group support and financial instruction with this project, so that they will be well equipped mentally to sustain a business and repay a loan. At the start of the program, AOM will provide the salary of the coordinator until the program is stable enough to become self sustaining.
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