Teaching and Community Placements in Madagascar from $255

I signed up for the healthcare programme in Madagascar for the month of February. My experience did not live up to this promise. I signed up for a two week project paying £399. They then paid an additional £200 to bring my volunteering forward a week. In the first 7 days i was at the project i spent in total 5 hours teaching English at a primary school, 6 hours teaching English at a youth club and 2 hours helping out at an orphanage I.e. just 13 hours in total volunteering and precisely zero hours spent as a ‘healthcare volunteer’. The lack of volunteering opportunities (in healthcare and more generally) was explained by the local staff as being down to the lack of a ‘Community Coordinator’. We were given a Forest Coordinator who was unfamiliar with the Community Projects and spoke neither Malagasi or French and as such was unable to communicate with locals to organise volunteering. An example of this disorganisation was on the Tuesday she took me to the hospital but there was no doctor to meet them or anyone expecting them so they returned immediately to the Community house.
Not only was the actual volunteering disappointing but the living conditions were diabolical. I slept on a foam mattress that has disintegrated so it effectively wasn't there. The roof was leaking and in order to flush the loo you had to put your hands in the cistern! DISGUSTING!! Furthermore the food budget per day was £1 which was not even enough for 3 meals a day which was what the website guaranteed me.
Please take this as a warning NOT to use the FRONTIER.

I took part in the Frontier Madagascar Community Teaching Program for 6 weeks, over the months of February and March. I can honestly say it was a life changing experience, and I whole-heartedly and without reservation recommend it to anyone prepared to work hard and have an amazing time.
The project takes place in the town of Hellville, on the island of Nosy-Be off the North-West coast of Madagascar. The community house is very central in its location, being very close to all of the schools and places where volunteers work. I volunteered primarily at a primary school known to locals as "L'école frère," run by catholic nuns, the youth club of Nosy-Be, and a village school near to the Frontier Camp at Ambalahonko. At the catholic school, I taught around 5 or 6 30 minute lessons everyday, teaching them basic english such as body parts, and family members. Each class held around 70 children, which was very intimidating at first! However, in my first week, the community staff member trained me and guided me through how to best and most effectively teach, thus by my second week I was ready and raring to go! It was very rewarding teaching at the catholic school, and a lot of fun. The kids absolutely love the Frontier Volunteers, and always said "'Ello Annah!" whenever I passed them in the street after school and at weekends.
Every Friday, we would go to spend the night at the Frontier Camp at the village of Ambalahonko. It was great fun, and really good to spend time with the Forest and Marine staff members and volunteers. In the afternoon, we taught english at a school in a neighbouring village. Although the children were always quite loud, it was always a great learning experience and lots of fun! The walk there and back through the forest always involved seeing lemurs and eating mangos, which was an added bonus!
By far my favourite part of the project was teaching at the youth club. I taught them three times a week for two hours. It was great because I had a lot of freedom with what I taught them – I started by teaching them about Australia, and then over my 7 weeks covered subjects ranging from music and films to feminism. I really felt I was making a real difference in the lives of those who attended class, and we always had such a good laugh. Some of the students asked me to take extra classes with them, and so starting from my second week, I gave individual help and extra classes in all of my free time. Although it was tiring, I’m so glad I did this, because as a result I made life long friends, and became part of their family. One particular student, benefitted greatly from this extra help, and made it all worthwhile for me. In the beginning, although very strong at English, he lacked confidence in himself, and was too scared to apply for jobs (his dream is to become a tour guide). Over my stay, I made it my personal project to get him to apply for jobs and hopefully to secure one in the future. We worked on his oral skills, English CV and did practice interviews. In my last week, he finally secured an interview for an apprenticeship at the Economic Development Board of Madagascar. After many practice interviews at his house, he went for the interview, and came out having been offered the job! This made all of my hard work worthwhile, and deeply touched me. I also just found out he now also has a tour guide job secured for December.
I'm so glad I decided to take part in the Frontier Community Project in Madagascar. The opportunities that Frontier provided were really awesome, and it was so amazing to actually make a difference in the lives of our students. The work that Frontier does in Madagascar is incredible - it's reflected in the cheery greetings anyone in a Frontier t-shirt receives from any locals wandering past. The support from the staff members was superb, and they made the whole experience so amazing and highly educational. I hope to return very soon.

I have spent the past month on Frontiers construction programme and it has been excellent without exception. The only particular difficulty is getting here, which includes a nonsense amount of connections. espite that, it is however an excellent choice of programme to volunteer on, well organised and with helpful staff.

I arrived in Hell-Ville at the start of May to teach English to the local school children at L'ecole des freres. On the first day, I was introduced to the town of Hell-Ville and the local shops and markets that I would become familiar with over the month that I'm here. In the evening, I attended my first adult education class which is held at the youth club. This group is very enthusiastic and keen to communicate in English. The next day, I was introduced to the primary school where we teach 30 minute lessons to different classes and cover various topics such as food and weather. the kids are extremely eager to participate in lessons and always happy to see us.

During the month that i was there, I completed a BTEC TEFL course which enabled me to gain a qualification through teaching the various levels of students. In order to achieve this, I had to complete logbooks and plan for each individual lesson. As well teaching at the primary school and the youth club, we also traveled down to the university on Wednesday's to teach English to a group of students who are studying Marine Biology. This a slightly different environment with different levels of English speakers and so is interesting to communicate with them.

I arrived in Madagascar on the 28th of April after the Easter holidays and I've been doing the sports coaching project at our partnership school called "l'ecole des freres". The main sport I've been teaching them is basketball which the kids really enjoy playing. The only challenging thing is that you get classes of 60 to 120 students but they are all very well behaved, patient, and enthusiastic to learn. One of the funniest moments of teaching them is making them do lunges, running backwards and hopping because they copy every thing you do. As it is so hot, the sports lessons all finish before 9.30 am with the little ones. In the afternoon I do sports for the secondary school staring at 4:30pm and so in the break between I've been helping out with the construction and teaching projects. The first Sunday I was in Madagascar there was the school party where we tried to sell hot dogs, crepes, fruit and water I don't think they understood that all the money we got would go to our other projects to improve the school but it was fun anyway and we also taught 2 classes to sing '5 green bottle' and it was hysterical. So all together it has been an awesome 3 weeks and I would definitely stay for much longer. If you're hesitating about doing this project don't. Just come and you'll have an awesome time.

I have been working with Frontier in Madagascar for a month now, and so far my experience has been fantastic. I have been based in the town of Hell-Ville from where I have been managing Frontier’s community programme. The partnerships with school and other teaching institutes are well established and offer new volunteers the opportunity to engage with the local community while making a telling contribution to education in the area. On our field site the Frontier personnel are wonderfully enthusiastic and knowledgeable with an infectious energy that really enriches the volunteer experience. This, of course, is only augmented by the location. There is no better way to say it; Nosy Be is a dictionary-definition paradise with pristine beaches, crystal clear waters and breath-taking scenery. Ultimately if you want to travel in Africa, experience a new and vibrant culture while learning new skills and seeing some of the world’s best and most exotic wildlife in a picture-perfect location there is no better way to do it than with Frontier Madagascar!