In the Toamasina prison in Madagascar children aged 3 to 18 are malnourished and receiving no education. In consultation with the Prison Director, we have devised a programme that will provide both food and education to these deprived children. Local nuns will run a pre-school crèche for the younger children. They will work voluntarily but just need a few toys and drawing materials to help stimulate the children. The older children will attend literacy classes, which will also be taught for free as the teachers are adult prisoners who have been vetted and trained to be literacy teachers. So for these classes we just need funds for exercise books and pens. Older children will also learn how to grow vegetables to eat and sell. Firstly this will teach them valuable skills. Secondly their improved nutrition will improve their health and their concentration during literacy classes. With assistance, each child will build 10 growing trays, which they will use to grow their own vegetables to supplement their meals. Experts in raised-bed vegetable production will train the young people, so production levels will be high. The surplus vegetables that the children produce will be sold to fund the purchase of new seed and fertiliser, thus ensuring the lasting benefits of this programme. Furthermore, prison staff and long serving teenagers will be given extra training so they can become the next agriculture teachers once the year’s training programme ends. Initially 18 children will benefit from this training, with many more benefiting over months and years to come. BUDGET Purchase of toys 20 Purchase of drawing pads for young children 20 Purchase of exercise books and pens for older children 35 Materials for construction of raised vegetable beds 35 Construction of raised vegetable beds 35 Purchase of seedlings 53 Purchase of fertiliser etc 53 Purchase of troughs 70 Training materials & visual aids 70 Training, supervision and follow-up 315 Administration 71 TOTAL £777 MfM is looking for £777 prime funding to start this rolling education programme at the Toamasina prison. We hope you will feel inspired to support all or part of this project.