Dave Swann, is the director of MM-Suisse, an association which supports and helps development projects be more successful. He wrote the following report on the work taking place in Madagascar which provides an excellent overview of this YWAM team that we partner with:
I have been to Tamatave several times and I am always impressed with the success of this project.
In the bush, there is a marked difference between the villages where they are working and the others. This is noticeable in general cleanliness of the village as well as the demeanor of the population…
Of course this is not a perfect project but there are few other places I have been where there is such an understanding of integration and holistic ministry.
Principal Activities:
YWAM Tamatave has 5 main activities which are explained below. In the evaluation meeting it was very encouraging to see how these activities are totally integrated and serve the overall vision: “To transform the East Coast of Madagascar with the gospel of the Kingdom so that this region can become a sending place to the rest of Madagascar and the nations, in particular the Indian Ocean Islands (with priority to the Comores).”
1.Health project. In brief, the project is addressing the health needs of the population who live in the bush areas of the Tamatave region. These areas are typically very remote and the population is poor and isolated. The chosen villages appoint a health care committee and choose a health care worker (HCW) according to certain criteria. YWAM trains the committee and the HCW and supply building materials for a small health post to be built. This is then furnished and an initial stock of medicine is supplied.
These health posts are now nearly self sufficient and can treat 80% of the cases that would have to otherwise walk up to 2 days to the nearest clinic.
There are currently 21 of these health posts functioning in the region and the target is 45 by mid 2012. It has been amazing to see the growth and effectiveness of this project. Literally thousands of people now have access to healthcare which was previously not available. In fact, this has been so successful that the government wanted to adopt this way of working as their national health strategy.
2. Church planting. The team is in the process of changing how they plant churches. As they have more become acquainted with the culture and needs of the region they have been able to modify their strategy accordingly. They now encourage smaller groups to meet locally and start cell churches of around 20 people. As the group grows it plants another small church and so on. This has worked amazingly well and there are currently 35 of these groups. YWAM has been running 2-day training sessions each month for the church leaders and they are also working on a leadership training manual especially designed for this situation which will hopefully be finished by the end of 2010.
3. DTS (Discipleship Training School). The DTS has an emphasis on church planting and development. Last year they had 22 students and are hoping to have a similar number this year. They have done a great job in recruiting students from local churches in Tamatave and Antananarivo… I was impressed to see the commitment of the whole team to DTS. It is run solely to train missionaries so the ‘buy in’ from the long term staff is high. There are at least 8 long term church planters from last year’s school and 1 who is working in development.
4. Relationships with body of Christ in the region. The team has been very intentional and strategic in building relationships with churches, other NGO’s, businessmen and the body of Christ in general. This activity has brought many benefits. In my various visits I can see they are well respected in the community. We ran a development training course in Tamatave and were joined by some key pastors and businessmen for some or all of the course. These relationships have given rise to several initiatives. The team is involved in a Church leaders forum which meets regularly and is uniting the churches in the area. The forum has benefited greatly from the input of our team on many issues. Jean-Marc and Martine have been hosting a business group in their house. This takes the form of a meal, sometimes a speaker and sharing around the word of God on issues relating to business. One of the doctors in the team was instrumental in starting a Christian Doctors Association in Tamatave.
5. Management of the training centre. They have deliberately avoided calling the training centre a YWAM base. Even though they are 100% YWAM and run a DTS they want to keep an outward focus. They train church planters, pastors, medical workers, health committees and have had training events for local Christians. The training centre is totally focused on reaching the community and seen as a tool rather than an end in itself. There is a part of the team responsible for the running of the centre but again it was good to see the ownership from everyone.
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