A letter from Doug Tilton serving as regional liaison for Southern Africa, based in South Africa
September 2014 - Working to Improve Livelihoods
Dear Friends –
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Mme. Alexis shows us the silk thread woven from the cocoons of the hungry critters in the background.
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Mme. Alice, arm around an orphan lad she has taken in, explains the history of the Mahatsinjo silk industry
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Mme. Lydia finishes a scarf on her loom
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Dan Turk talks with Mr. Regis at the community’s apple tree nursery
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Mme. Ihanta introduces us to the community
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Mme. Blandine tells us about the plants used for dying and fixing colour in the silk.
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Mme. Ihanta, one of SAF/FJKM’s Project Coordinators, talks to members of the community associations around Mahatsinjo.
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Mme. Ihanto,Project Coordinator for SAF/FJKM’s work at Mahatsinjo, shares a light-hearted moment with PCUSA Mission Co-workers Christi Boyd (Regional Facilitator for Women’s and Children’s Interests) and Dan Turk.
I imagine that you might not be amused if you found that one of the rooms of your home had been taken over by an army of very hungry caterpillars. But for some households in central Madagascar a thriving colony of Lepidoptera larvae is a blessing, not a curse…
The Development Department (SAF) of the Church of Jesus Christ in Madagascar (FJKM) has been working to help a cluster of communities north of the city of Antsirabe to improve their livelihoods through a variety of income generation, food security and environmental protection initiatives. Since 2002 Mme. Ihanta, an energetic SAF/FJKM project coordinator, has been visiting—on foot—the group of eight villages, helping them to plan, to obtain relevant training, and to realize their dreams. There are now more that 420 members of the project in the area, organized into 28 associations.
One common objective of the six associations around the village of Mahatsinjo has been to revitalize a historic silk production and weaving industry. “My parents were involved in the industry,” says Mme. Alice, herself a grandmother. “But they used to do it the old Malagasy way. She’s doing it the modern way,” she says proudly, pointing to her daughter, Alexis, who is standing in one of her home’s three rooms, surrounded by woven mats covered with mulberry leaves that are slowly being devoured by tens of thousands of bombyx mori—oriental silkworms.
“Back then, we used to go and buy cocoons from near Antsirabe and take it from there,” Alice recalls. “But now, we’re growing the mulberry trees and raising the worms ourselves.” With help from the Malagasy government and SAF/FJKM, the communities around Mahatsinjo planted 52,000 mulberry trees to feed the voracious insects.
To keep the caterpillars chomping away at night—and to enable her to spin silk after a full day of tending the house, the crops and the children—Mme. Alexis uses kerosene lanterns. But these produce fumes that have been giving her health problems. Like most women, she makes five 15-minute trips a day to fetch “the water flowing in the valley” for household use. In fact, silk weavers can make 10 or more extra journeys a week for water to boil, clean and dye the silk. The communities have asked SAF/FJKM to help them to find resources to install a gravity-fed water system and solar lighting, and, visiting the village, one understands what a huge difference these improvements could make in people’s lives.
But the women’s hard work is paying off. Cutting a newly completed scarf from her loom as she talks, Mme. Lydia says she can produce 10 scarves per month. SAF/FJKM helps the weavers to sell their wares in shops in the capital and at various markets and trade fairs. Lydia estimates that she earns 50,000 Ariary (about $25) profit each month. It is not much, but it is sufficient for Lydia to pay school fees for her four children so that they can have opportunities that she did not. The women’s enhanced economic clout has also won them more influence in community affairs. “The men never used to listen to us before,” one woman laughs, “but now they have to!”
The women's industriousness has inspired the men too to explore new economic opportunities. In 2011 SAF/FJKM encouraged the villagers to consider growing fruit trees and helped them to make a formal request for assistance to SAF’s Environment Program. The communities formed an orchard association, and SAF/FJKM sent technicians to teach people how to prepare the soil, plant and care for fruit trees, propagate new trees, and graft scions from good producers onto hardy rootstocks.
They have focused on growing apples, which do well in the chillier altitudes along Madagascar’s high central ridge. In just a few years the association’s 74 members have planted about 2,000 trees. Mr. Regis, one of the association leaders, showed us the community’s nursery, where they propagate seven or eight different varieties of apples as well as a number of other fruit trees, including jaboticabas, loquats, and several types of citrus. They are also growing rice, corn, vegetables, and sweet potatoes to improve household nutrition.
The association recently established a demonstration orchard to see how different varieties of fruit fare. PC(USA) mission co-worker Dan Turk, who has helped SAF/FJKM to equip hundreds of Malagasy people to grow fruit trees, was impressed by their work. “I’ve been looking for problems, but I haven’t seen any,” he remarked. The trees were properly planted and maintained. Not only were they tagged, but Mr. Regis also had a carefully drawn map of the orchard to identify each tree. As the trees mature, they will be a source of fruit that is both nutritious and marketable.
It was a joy to witness the energy and enthusiasm of these communities and the extent to which they saw the SAF/FJKM staff members—including Dan Turk—as treasured resources, helping them to find their way toward the realization of life in fullness that Christ wills for all people. I am grateful for the FJKM’s invitation to the PC(USA) to be partners in this inspiring ministry of hope.
And I give thanks for your prayers and support of my position as regional liaison for Southern Africa. I hope you will continue this journey through your prayers, correspondence and financial gifts that support me and mission co-workers like me. You might consider whether you wish to be a part of what God is doing in Madagascar through the FJKM and our partnership by supporting one or more of the PC(USA) mission co-workers working alongside FJKM agencies—Dan and Elizabeth Turk and Jan Heckler. You may also wish to make a gift to one of the three Extra Commitment Opportunity accounts that strengthen the FJKM’s witness; gifts to the FJKM General Support account (E052045) can be used by the FJKM where they are most needed, while gifts to the Community Health (E047979) and Reforestation and Environmental Education (E047980) accounts support these specific aspects of the FJKM’s work.
Please won’t you join me in praying for the people of Mahatsinjo, for our sisters and brothers in the FJKM, and for justice, peace and reconciliation for all of the people of Madagascar?
Grace and peace,
Doug
The 2014 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 149
Read more about Douglas Tilton's ministry
Write to Douglas Tilton
Individuals: Give online to E200416 for Douglas Tilton's sending and support
Congregations: Give to D507200for Douglas Tilton's sending and support
Churches are asked to send donations through your congregation’s normal receiving site (this is usually your presbytery).
Additional Giving Opportunities:
Give online to E052045 for Church of Jesus Christ in Madagascar (FJKM), General Support
Give online to E047979 for the FJMK Community Health program
Give online to E047980 for the FJMK Reforestation & Environmental Education program
