How did I end up in Madagascar?

In 2022, I was looking for a job in social work, but I didn’t see any positions that appealed to me. I came across an advert from Medair for an internship in philanthropy. I knew Medair by name and remembered hearing founder Josiane André sharing about it when I was 15.  

I had imagined Medair as a small organisation of around 20 people. When I started my internship, I realised that there are well over 1,000 people working with Medair worldwide! I discovered an organisation that is open to the world, multicultural, and helping people in complex contexts. Not only did my colleagues carry out their work conscientiously, always striving to do better, but they also embodied Medair’s values, including faith. This had a strong impact on me.

The first few months of my internship were intense. I acquired new skills in writing proposals and reports, managing relationships with foundations, and understanding the humanitarian field. However, my work happened in an office, and I wanted to work more closely with people.

When my internship ended, I was offered the opportunity to do the ROC, Medair’s week-long humanitarian aid course for people interested in working abroad with Medair. It wasn’t in my plans, but I felt strongly led to do the course.

In 2024, Medair offered me a trainee position to become a Programme Funding Manager, with time divided between Switzerland and Madagascar. In September, I flew to Madagascar, and now I feel right at home. The work is very interesting, demanding too, but full of meaning when you see the people we support and how their lives change through our actions.

I often wonder about my legitimacy in coming to this island, me, a Swiss woman who knows nothing of the experience of living in a country where over 80 percent of the population live below the poverty line, nor about difficulties accessing drinking water, food, or affordable healthcare. Yet I believe that being here is a great privilege.

I have the privilege  of being able to help, in my own small way, women, men, and children whose lives are precious. To be here is to be reminded of this truth, to proclaim that they are not forgotten, to affirm, again and again, that there is hope in every life.

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Medair is a Swiss humanitarian relief and reconstruction organisation.  For 35 years, our mission has been to save lives and relieve suffering in the world’s most remote and devastated places. *

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