Who are we?
Azafady is an award-winning British registered charity (number 1079121) partnered with an independent Malagasy NGO. Founded in 1994, we work on a wide range of projects both within the town of Fort Dauphin and with numerous rural communities across the Anosy region.
Our mission is to alleviate poverty and conserve unique and biologically rich but greatly endangered forest environments in south east Madagascar by empowering some of the poorest people to establish sustainable livelihoods for themselves and improve their well-being.
Azafady UK and ONG Azafady (Madagascar) have been working together as sister organisations for over 12 years in a skills-sharing partnership that has capacity building at its core. Azafady UK employs 3 staff members in the London office who are responsible for strategic planning and financial management, awareness raising and fundraising, and promoting Azafady's international volunteering schemes. ONG Azafady (Madagascar) employs over 65 local staff members who are responsible for the development, design, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of all of Azafady's projects on the ground in Madagascar. Azafady UK also employs 5 staff members who are based in Madagascar and are responsible for building the capacity of local staff, supporting project development, and coordinating Azafady's international volunteering schemes. Azafady has several specialist volunteers who are based both in the UK and Madagascar, supporting the organisation through sharing their particular skills in different areas including proposal writing, research techniques, monitoring methodologies, information storage systems, data analysis, evaluation and reporting, media and communications.
Please visit our staff pages to find out more about our team in London and Madagascar.
What do we do?
We are a sustainable development and conservation organisation that works for a better future for people, communities, and the environments in which they live in south east Madagascar.
Please visit our project pages to learn more about our community health, sustainable livelihoods, construction, and environmental initiatives.
Our approach
Our approach is one of partnership with local communities as we work to alleviate poverty and support environmental conservation. Our integrated sustainable development initiatives support some of the world's most vulnerable people in threatened and irreplaceable environments.
All of our projects are sensitively built around what are directly expressed to be the most pressing needs of marginalised communities. We have over 12 years of project experience in south east Madagascar and during this time have developed strong working relationships with the local population, maximising their participation in all stages of project development, design, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. Azafady is a recognised regional specialist in capacity building at the community level (empowerment, information, education and training, advocacy) and it is estimated that over 100,000 people have benefited from our projects over the last decade.
Our Goals
Azafady works to assist the people of Madagascar to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). We do this by responding to the most critical needs of communities in the Anosy region so as to contribute to achievement of the government's regional objectives and targets in the fields of community health, education, sustainable livelihoods, and environmental conservation.
The word Azafady, for those who are wondering, means ‘please’ in Malagasy, or more specifically ‘excuse me’…. or even more specifically, it translates as ‘may it not be taboo to me’. Malagasy people are extremely polite and can be quite elaborate in their expressions. The Azafady logo is based on a cross-section of the seed of Dypsis saintelucei. This endangered palm species is only found in the Manafiafy forest where Azafady works with the local community to protect this endangered environment.
