The people of Manazary - 95% of them – work in agriculture or in small enterprises. They grow rice, maize, manioc, potatoes and various types of vegetables. Some of them also breed cattle or go fishing, but many families lack the main resources to live and to send their children to school.
The Daughters of Mary Help of Christians have opened a missionary centre precisely in Manazary. Thanks to the help of some Polish organizations, they could equip a nursery school, an oratory, playgrounds and a refectory, and they could also purchase the necessary material to do sports. Next to the school, a medical centre has also been built, with a dispensary that provides assistance to workers, students, their families and the poorest people. The vehicle of the sisters is also used as an ambulance and transports patients to the hospital in Antananarivo.
Since August 2015, the centre of Manazary is run by Sr. Teresa Leonik. The missionary gives great importance to the formation of women, because they have the responsibility of educating their children, giving them a future and providing food. The women work in agriculture, trade, fishing… And they do it also in very difficult conditions.
Men in Madagascar feel responsible for their families, but alcohol abuse is widely spread and this often leads to infidelity and the breaking-up of family bonds.
One of the tasks of the sisters is to help the women discover their dignity. In their house there is a centre of vocational training for young girls who after a three-year course obtain a diploma that helps them find a job as dressmakers; and when they learn embroidering, they also do works that are later sold in Italy, Germany and Canada.
Displaced women, or those who are very young, are also offered the possibility to follow courses on how to run the house or to bring up their children. The missionaries give great importance to working with the women and the mothers of numerous families, especially the poorest ones.
