Madagascar street kids graduate to tour guides

By Klaus Heimer Aug 12, 2010, 14:22 GMT

Antananarivo - From rags to not-quite riches but a new set of clothes, at least - this is the reward for a group of street kids on the impoverished Indian Ocean island of Madagascar who are putting their street savvy to use as budding tour guides.

German children's charity Zaza Faly, which means happy child in the local Malagasy language, has been working with homeless children in the capital Antananarivo for 15 years.

It's programme called Manda operates a shelter which sleeps 20 and also helps the children continue their schooling and make a living.

A few years ago two volunteers from Europe came up with the idea of a two-year tourism training programme for the older kids.

'We were enthusiastic about the idea from the start. Compared to our other activities this tourism project is a completely new way of helping young people that live on the street,' Zaza Faly president Heiko Jungnitz told the German Press Agency dpa.

The first class of 14 graduated only two months ago but five are already employed in tourism - not bad in a country where unemployment is estimated at up to 50 per cent.

'From the outset we wondered what we could do at the end of the programme. We wanted to take control of our own future and earn money,' says Richard Randriamanantena, 20, who founded a business called Tanora Tia Fandrosoana (Young people who love development) with six other students.

Richard has been staying at the shelter for four years. Before that he lived with his family of nine in a single room and helped earn his keep by doing odd jobs and begging.

Solo, another of TTF's founders, left home at 11 after falling out with his stepfather. 'I preferred to live on the streets,' he says. A market building in the city centre became his home. 'On market days I would help traders carry their wares and at night sleep among the stands,' he says.

Richard, Solo and a third ex-classmate, Elisee, now design and guide a cultural excursion each month for up to 20 tourists.

For their maiden tour in June the three youths took 12 tourists, mostly German students, in a rented bush taxi to a traditional bullfight in a village outside the city.

The second outing in July focused on food production and crafts.

'We walked a lot in several villages, peeping over the shoulders of weavers, blacksmiths and cheesemakers, stopped for a break in a bio-cheese shop, chatted to the manager, and clambered over granite rocks. The trip was absolutely great,' Mirko Girmann, a German medical student, said.

The walking tours are conducted in French, a language spoken by most visitors to the former French colony and which the students perfected as part of their course.

They also had classes in German, history, culture, appreciation of architecture, communications, IT and designing tours that cater for the tastes of foreigners.

'We can't be shy, even if many of the tourists on our excursions know more than us. We have the advantage of being able to speak Malagasy and are better able to convey the everyday life of people here,' says Richard.

After each visit, the guides circulate questionnaires to collect feedback.

TTF has also opened a curio shop in Antananarivo's Old Town, selling artwork made by family members - brass toys, jewellery made from the horns of local zebu cattle and the like.

These days tourists are thin on the ground in Madagascar, a country of close to 20 million, which is famous for its rare flora and fauna, including dozens of species of lemur, but which has been in sharp economic decline since a coup in 2009.

UN children's agency UNICEF estimates there to be 4,000 street kids in Antananarivo - and the number is rising. Many of the children get roped into criminality and prostitution.

Most of TTF's clients so far have been foreign aid workers.

The excursions cost 6 euros (7.8 dollars) per person, or 8 euros, including lunch. The three guides netted a euro each from the first tour - just about enough for a new tee-shirt.

'It's still a long road. We have to advertise, become good at what we do and then organize more tours,'says Richard. 'We're going to make it.'