Azafady

Volunteer in Madagascar with a grassroots NGO - join Azafady on their award-winning Pioneer program, get hands on frontline conservation experience in an area considered a global conservation priority on the Azafady Conservation Program, or if you can only escape for a few weeks join the short-term Community Construction projects. Whether your passion is sustainable development or vital conservation work, Azafady can offer you an unforgettable experience.

1) PIONEER

The Pioneer programme gives you the opportunity to work on a variety of sustainable development projects across Azafady's three departments; development, sustainable livelihoods and conservation for 10 weeks (shorter periods from 5 weeks may be arranged by request). Volunteers will work on various projects such as school building, health & environmental education, well & latrine construction and even tree planting alongside a team of likeminded volunteers and a team of Malagasy guides and staff and an international group coordinator. For a guide to the pioneer programme which should give you a good understanding about how the scheme works go to: http://www.madagascar.co.uk/getinvolved/pioneerprogramme.pdf. The Pioneer programme runs 4 times a year, starting in the first week of January, April, July and October every year and these are the dates the programme will be running in 2012 (all remaining spaces for 2011 now filled): 6th January - 15th March, 4th April - 12th June, 4th July - 11th September, 5th October - 13th December.

2) Azafady Conservation Programme (ACP)

The Azafady Conservation programme offers volunteers the chance to get involved in all aspects of our conservation work from running environmental education sessions and tree-planting to monitoring lemur behaviour and researching critically endangered reptiles and amphibians. You can join the programme on a choice of 2 modules: Lemur & Biodiversity Research and/or Community Conservation, which run in 2-week blocks and can be combined so individual programmes can last for 2, 4, 6, 8 or 10 weeks. You can download a guide to the conservation programme here: http://www.madagascar.co.uk/getinvolved/conservationprogramme.pdf which should give you a good understanding of how the scheme works. There are a few dates with vacancies remaining in 2011 and teh dates for 2012 are as follows (in 2-week blocks, with 2 weeks representing one module):

• 6th Jan - 19th Jan, 20th Jan - 2nd Feb, 3rd Feb - 16th Feb, 17th Feb - 1st March, 2nd Mar - 15th March
• 4th Apr - 17th Apr, 18th - 1st May, 2nd May - 15th May, 16th May - 29th May, 30th May - 12th June
• 4th July - 17th July, 18th July - 31st July, 1st Aug - 14th Aug, 15th Aug - 28th Aug, 29th Aug - 11th Sept
• 5th Oct - 18th Oct, 19th Oct - 1st Nov, 2nd Nov - 15th Nov, 16th Nov - 29th Nov, 30th Nov - 13th Dec

3) SHORT TERM COMMUNITY CONSTRUCTION

The Azafady short-term community construction programme offers volunteers the opportunity to make a meaningful difference in a short-space of time by assisting our school-building team in all aspects of the construction of primary school buildings, wells and latrines in rural villages. In a group of likeminded international volunteers, with a team of Malagasy guides and an international group coordinator, you may work on the digging of the building's foundations and the construction of the walls, all the way through to painting the classrooms and building the classroom furniture. You can download a guide to the short-term programmes here: http://www.madagascar.co.uk/getinvolved/shorttermbrochure.pdf.

Dates for 2012 (for 2 or 3 weeks):

• 11th January - 25th/1st Feb
• 11th April - 25th /2nd May
• 11th July - 25th / 2nd August
• 10th October - 24th / 31st October

Camping and working in beautiful but impoverished rural communities in SE Madagascar