A young Malagasy girl supports doctors in their fight against Covid-19 on her home island
Owing to the major role played by African diaspora organisations and individuals in the African continent’s development, ADEPT, the Africa-Europe Diaspora Development Platform, is keen to highlight initiatives of the African diaspora based in the EU but also in Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Norway. ADEPT works towards achieving a main goal: improving and strengthening the capacity and impact of African diaspora organizations involved in Africa’s development activities.
This article is dedicated to a young Malagasy woman: Anne-Audrey Bemananjara. She is a student in Master 2 of Public Policies in Créteil, Ile-de-France. She is originally from the city of Toamasina, in Eastern Madagascar. She grew up in the capital, Antananarivo, until she obtained her baccalaureate and then settled in France. She is only 24 years old but her motivation has led her to help her hometown, Toamasina, in its fight against Covid-19.
#SaveYourDoctor: a small fundraiser but great actions
#SauveTonMedecin (#VonjeoNyDokotera in Malagasy, the native language of Anne-Audrey Bemananjara) is an online fundraiser to help medical teams in the town of Toamasina which is the outbreak site for COVID-19 in Madagascar. The medical teams lack personal protective equipment (gloves, overalls, masks). The initiative of the young Malagasy woman was aimed at raising funds to enable doctors to purchase equipment from local companies.
The #SauveTonMedecin movement, has allowed local doctors to be highlighted and has strongly mobilized not only the diaspora, but also the local inhabitants. It is thus more than 1000 members of the medical community (doctors and paramedics) that the online fundraiser has enabled equipping.
Anne Bemananjara shares with us her motivations and the details of her action.
« In March, when Emmanuel Macron announced the closure of the borders and the Malagasy president, Andry Rajoelina, did the same, I decided to return to Madagascar. At the end of May, I made a worrying observation: many doctors, particularly from Toamasina, the island’s epidemic hot spot, deplored a lack of equipment, particularly personal protective equipment, which exposed them dangerously to the virus. In addition, more and more doctors and paramedics were falling ill. I spent several days trying to trace the material donations that have been made, without success. On June 4, I decided to act and launch the initiative: #VonjeoNyDokotera #SaveYourDoctor. I planned an online fundraiser and made a video to appeal for donations. The goal was to raise enough money to buy protective gear. Before starting the fund, I contacted companies to see if they had a stock and if I could get supplies from them: positive. After that, I launched the fund, with a goal of 2200 €. The objective was exceeded in 24 hours and my video was seen more than 18,000 times on Instagram. The day after the publication of this video, I received a donation of 3000 masks from the company Epsilon, which I sent to Toamasina at my own expense. 2000 masks were thus distributed to the medical teams and 1000 masks were distributed among the population. The funds continued to increase. On June 10th, I decided to increase the objective to 4500€, it was again quickly exceeded. I also received donations via local mobile payment, which I unblocked each time a payment arrived: more than 500 FFP2 masks, 100 disposable gowns, 200 visors, 50 disposable masks, 60 washable gowns, 135L of gel, 51 boxes of vinyl gloves have been distributed by mid-June. »
To help Anne continue her fundraising and fight the virus:
https://www.colleo.fr/cagnotte/18210/-vonjeonydokotera-sauvetonmedecin
