starting in top left and going clockwise: Bealanana farmer cleaning cocoons before selling to SEPALI; Filomena and his wife and close family; weighing the cocoons before payment.
This year is special for Sepali Madagascar because we have noticed that the volume of raw cocoons deposited by the villagers are triple what they were last year. Therefore, Mr Filemona ( Who is a Bealanana farmer) has deposited 39 kilos of Ceranchia cocoons last month, which brings the total volume of his deposit up to 120 kilos. Using the money that he earns from selling raw cocoons to Sepali, Filemona is catching up his financial deficit, due to the crisis amid Covid 19. Usually, Filemona and his wife is farming crops such as Kassava, sweet potatoes etc…and farming 26 pigs to be sold before every Madagascar`s independence day (in June 26th). This year, the Independence Day celebration was canceled and that has effect on each household revenue. Fortunately, Sepali extended its purchasing capacity of raw cocoons to allow the villagers earning 28 USD per kilo of Ceranchia species; 10 USD/kilo of boroceras an Deborrea, 30 USD/kilo of bombyx and 60 USD/kilo of suraka.
During September , the Sepali Madagascar team is continuing to make product such as baskets, placemats and table runners. Since last year, Sepali has started to dye our silks with natural dyes such as plant-leaves, bark, roots and seeds. Therefore, a couple of color have been developed so far. Despite the difficulty of the shipment, we continue to go ahead and export our products to Walla Walla to be sold online.
On Behalf of the Sepali Madagascar team, I address a special thanks to All of you who contribute to make our program survived during this hard time that we are facing.
Sincerely,
Mamy Ratsimbazafy
]]>Sepali team facing the Covid 19: wearing new face-mask every three hours; hand washing with soap and social-distancing; wearing a uniform and minimizing contact with people.
Six months ago, Madagascar decision makers have decided initiate a lockdown in response to Covid 19. During the lockdown, it is prohibited to move from one region to another. Despite these difficulties, the SEPALI Madagascar team is struggling to continue working with precaution against the Covid 19. We have been able to ship four packages to the US and Canada, in order to continue the program as well as surviving. The team is continuing to design new products for the CPALI/SEPALIM online market. (www.tananasilk.com) In addition to that, we are is going to experiment with “ Fruit dryer building” for family food security purposes. Therefore, we are using the lockdown period as a brainstorming time to explore new alternative help for our farmers.
Mr Fenozara Justin and his wife holding his Suraka cocoons said he did not regret to farm the larvae host plant because this has rescued him during such crisis situation.
Covid 19 and the Dengue epidemic have limited the farming activities in Maroantsetra. The fluctuation of the vanilla price (from 500 USD in 2018 to less than 100 USD in 2020) have coincided with this crisis period. Thus have a negative impact on every household income. Therefore, people look for rescuer jobs to earn money. Fortunately, the SEPALIM wild silk and raffia program was designed specifically to be affordable and reachable by the local community in a such difficult situation.
Many farmers have joined the SEPALIM program and harvest both of Raffia and wild silk sustainably and sell to SEPALI Madagascar with fair price. Cocoon deposits are four times greater in the last couple years for Ceranchia species, Bombyx and Deborrhea. We got twice deposit than last year for Borocera species. Many farmers go back to rework on Suraka cocoon production after a few years on stand-by.
Many women artisan got help from their jobless-husband because there is nothing else to earn money.
On behalf of the SEPALI Madagascar team, I address a special thanks to All of you who contribute to make our program survive during this hard time that we are facing.
Sincerely,
Mamy Ratsimbazafy
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