Where We Serve
WHERE WE SERVE
Tongasoa is always eager to identify women and girls who might benefit from our network of resources and individually crafted services, but this leaves us able to point in just about any direction and see the discrimination that marginalizes people. In theory, these women and girls are just about everywhere. So, the sheer number of possible considerations drives us to identify specific places where Tongasoa’s resources will best be concentrated, where our intent can be most focused, and where our advocacy can best be targeted.
In broad terms, poverty is a huge oppressor of men and women, but studies have found that women suffer disproportionately1. Tongasoa can serve best in a country near the bottom of the world’s wealth list (see histogram at end). English-speaking countries with the lowest development levels (as per UNDP ’23) indicate a country’s average length of life, wealth, and education (see table to right).
Refining this take of the world in terms of those people who are especially impoverished and who live in a country with a ‘least developed’ level of development, we add the degree of gender inequality as a consideration2. Additionally, we remove countries with Level 3 or higher travel restrictions by the U. S. Department of State (e.g., Level 3, Uganda). Liberia is also removed since rape is so widespread in Liberia our staff would not be safe, and instability there is fueled by its proxy involvement in two civil wars (Guinea and Sierra Leone).
1 'Women of nearly all races and ethnicities face higher rates of poverty than their male counterparts.' Center for American Progress (https:/www.americanprogress.org - The Basic Facts About Women in Poverty. Why the majority of the world's poor are women. htps://www.oxfam.org/. C.f., unwomen.org/.2 See the Gender-Inequality Index (GII) – www.un.gii.gov/.
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This leaves Madagascar, Malawi, and Lesotho. Of these three, Madagascar has an advantage in what should be viewed as a three-way tie for Tongasoa's focus: Three of the senior staff and/or board members have lived and worked extensively in Madagascar. Executive Director, Pastor (Pr.) Mamisoa Rakotomalala was born and raised there. Mamisoa and Jan have done Tongasoa-like work there since 2013 in Ambaniakondro and Antanandava. Read about Mamisoa and Jan’s adventure in the story, ‘Mamisoa’. ‘https://www.aletheiatoday.com/spirituality/mamisoa’
MADAGASCAR
… is the fourth-largest island in the world. Between 80 and 90% of all flora and fauna found on the island are endemic to the island. That is, if you have not seen a species in a botanical garden or a zoo, you likely have not seen it in person unless you have been here.
More than 70% of the nearly 30 million-person population lives in poverty. Madagascar is sixth in the world in terms of the number of teachers who are teaching but have never been formally taught how to teach. It is the fourth in the world in terms of clean water and sanitation.
Too often in the Western world, we know this island nation because of its diversity of life and unique ecosystemic identity. Too little do we recall the young children growing up there where young girls and women too often fall for the lure of human trafficking, sexual tourism, and prostitution. On an annual basis, Madagascar loses 3 to 4 million girls to the human trafficking business now ongoing between Madagascar and Kuwait, and Lebanon alone.
In Madagascar, Tongasoa will work to prevent young women and teenage girls from being tempted by vast sums of money for an evening of dinner and sex. Vast sums? Young girls and women can make in a single week the amount their parents make in months of hard labor. When they are promised a life of luxury in a foreign country, how can they know the depth of this lie if no one tells them? A huge difference can be made, but only if the will to help prevails.
A Ring-Tailed Lemur
Young Girl from Antanandava, Madagascar
Per Capita Income by Country
SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GNI_(nominal)_per_
capita, NOV 2020