“For our children, school is not just a building: it is their only bridge to the future. Today that bridge is broken.”

Roofs torn off, structures damaged, classrooms flooded with mud, fallen trees, and displaced student families. This is the dramatic scenario at our Stella Maris and St. Joseph schools in Toamasina, Madagascar, after Cyclone Gezani.

The cyclone hit the eastern coast of Madagascar, Africa’s largest island, causing over 60 deaths and 6,000 displaced people to date. Among them, the families of our students have lost everything, while the school, always a point of reference for them, is now in serious difficulty and unable to support them.

The buildings are currently unusable: fallen trees block passages and have smashed classroom roofs, allowing mud and water to destroy furniture and teaching materials.

We must act immediately. Every bit of help is needed to start reconstruction and return a safe place for the youth of Toamasina to learn and grow.

We urgently ask for your support for the schools in Madagascar through a contribution to the Lasallian Emergency Fund.

This fund allows us to respond quickly to global crises, as we have done in the past for:

• Floods in Brazil (2024)
• Earthquake in Turkey and Syria (2023)
• Assistance to Ukrainian refugees (2022)
• Reconstruction of our schools in Lebanon after the port explosion (2020)