Thousands of Madagascar schoolchildren gain access to supplies as French volunteers delive

Nearly 1,640 children across eight schools in Madagascar received complete school kits this July, thanks to four women from Miramas who spent 11 days running, carrying, and distributing 180 kilograms of supplies across the island’s northern reaches.

Sandra Rigg, Laetitia Deffobis, Lysiane Martinez, and Ingrid Bestion formed their own group, the Cigazelles, to join the Madagazelle 2026 solidarity race organized by the national association Sénégazelle. Before departing on July 6, they gathered notebooks, slates, pencils, colored markers, rulers, erasers, and pencil cases, then supplemented those donations with additional funds to ensure every child received a full kit. Nothing was left to chance.

The route covered roughly 100 kilometers through schools in Madiroukely, Nosy Comba, Ankify, Nosy Iranja, JS Sakatia, and Mont Passot. On July 17, the expedition closed with a ceremony attended by the mayor and prefect of Nosy Be, followed by a capoeira performance that participants described as festive and emotionally charged.

What makes Sénégazelle’s model distinctive is its insistence on continuity. Founded a decade ago by Jean-Michel Ferron, the association runs annual solidarity races in Senegal, Nepal, and Madagascar, returning to the same schools year after year to track progress. Deffobis, who previously participated in Senegal in 2019 and Nepal in 2022, pointed to a concrete result of that sustained commitment: more students stay enrolled and advance to sixth grade rather than dropping out.

The human dimension of the trip left each participant visibly changed. Rigg reflected that Madagascar gave her a genuine lesson in humility and generosity. She had arrived intending to bring happiness, she said, but left carrying a piece of Madagascar in her heart, moved by the children’s smiles, embraces, and joy of living. Martinez described how the children’s generosity despite material poverty shifted her perspective on the importance of simple things and sharing.

Bestion called the experience unforgettable and rich in every dimension, with shared emotions, exchanges, and laughter permanently etched in her memory. Deffobis offered the fullest account, describing 54 exceptional female athletes navigating a demanding athletic challenge through landscapes that were idyllic in appearance yet marked by significant poverty. She praised the organization and the Malagasy team coordinated by Ferron, and placed the emotional core of the trip in mutual support, personal growth, and the children’s astonished, delighted reactions to receiving bags of supplies.

The Cigazelles were clear-eyed about the scale of what they could accomplish. Their contribution, they acknowledged, is only a drop in the ocean, but one that carries genuine meaning and utility. They invoked the parable of the hummingbird: they have done their part.

Their closing hope was not for recognition but for replication. If their testimony moves even a handful of new volunteers to join a future expedition, the group said, the Cigazelle association will have fully accomplished its mission. Whether that ripple effect materializes may depend on how many people, back in Miramas and beyond, hear the story of what 180 kilograms of pencils and a willingness to run can actually do.