Nine out of ten Malagasy live below the poverty line. With a non-regular daily income, managing money becomes even more critical. The Association Success-Madagascar Education and Environment (ASM2E) in Toamasina has been helping families since 2016 to enable them to educate their children, giving school supplies kits and raising awareness on the importance of education and the environment protection. After visits and discussions with the parents ASM2E supports, Patrick, the president and the founder of the association, realised that the lack of management of money leads to a total absence of savings and anticipation of expenses related to schooling, or a better nutrition, which forces families to take loans to pay school fees or supplies and then the debt repayment and interest eat up a big part of these families’ scarce income.
ASM2E has thus decided to introduce workshops on basic money management and asked a + b = 3 for support. The project is currently in its pilot phase and three training workshops have so far been conducted with 85 women. The workshops focus on spending priorities. One of the participants acknowledged that shortly after earning an income, she did not know where her money goes; this workshop helped her to become aware of the importance of tracking expenses and setting priorities.
This project has already attracted the attention of mayors of several municipalities who would like to offer it to their inhabitants.
