Mr. Charles
It is with great sadness that I report the death of Mr. Charles, the chairperson of the committee in charge of the Tenaquip School. Mr Charles, the 64 year old president of the township, died suddenly at his home on June 4th 2010. He lived long enough to see his dream come true, that of having a school in his township, and all the local children in attendance.
On the Friday of his death he had worked the morning at the school, organizing the parents to clear the land adjacent to the school so that the children would have a play ground. When he started to feel poorly, he walked the hour to Alatsinaina, the neighboring village, to see the doctor. Unfortunately all we know is that the doctor sent him home, and he died as he reached his home, after climbing up the mountain on which his house sits. At that time, knowing nothing of her husband’s illness, his wife, Madame Honore was working in the family rice field.
Mr Charles had a dream - to have a school in his neighbourhood, so that all children could receive an education. He wrote a formal ‘demande’ which included statistics of the number of families, ages of all the residents, number of homes etc., and sent it to the mayor in 2007 in the hopes that somehow the state would take his plea seriously.
Nothing happened until I met with the mayor one day, and he told me of this remote village. When I went to visit, I was greeted by Mr Charles who said that the town would all work together to help us, if it would be possible to have a school. I told him that I would speak to our Madagascar School Project Board in Canada and see if there was any chance of us working together. Mr Charles immediately struck up a committee of six men and women to oversee the work, found a site for us to build on, found the land owners and got their permission for us to buy the land from them. The rest is history. It has been an honour to work with Mr Charles and we are forever grateful for his enthusiasm, energy and his vision.
- Kathy