Toavina and Heriniaina: public school pupils as well as beggars

Over the latest years, the sight of young children begging on Madagascar’s city streets has become casual. They have long been commonly called “4’mi” just as their parents before them, jobless, homeless, wandering through the city streets, making a living on begging or very small jobs. But even beggars are able to get a move on. A new class of theirs has recently been emerging from the pit. In the morning, they call in to public school, beg for the rest of the day and vice versa, half a day at a time. The school’s timetable rules their program. “My parents sell bottles retrieved from trash” revealed Toavina. As expected, the income barely proves enough to make anything like a decent living. As for the fact that their offspring spend hours outdoors begging in the street, Toavina, the elder, confirm that they parents do know about it. “That’s our way to get some more coins” he added. Ankorondrano happens to offer the island’s sharpest contrast between wealthy and poor people. In this industrial district, makeshift mushroom villages lurk behind factories, industrial facilities and modern office buildings. Toavina and Heriniaina, belong to the villages, just as their parents before them did but they do what it takes to keep moving forward.