The motivation for founding the Meet & Create association stems from a deep personal connection to Madagascar. I feel a passionate drive to create a dignified place for children and young people in Madagascar to develop and to bring about change.

 

This is not least because I am a primary school teacher in Zurich and am aware of the privileges that children enjoy here. It is my attitude and conviction that children in Madagascar also deserve the right to a caring and developmentally supportive start in life.

 

Two decades ago – I was 10 years old at the time – I left my native Madagascar with my mother to find a new home in Switzerland. My mother, my stepfather, and I lived in a modest apartment in the municipality of Meilen, on Lake Zurich. This move to the "Gold Coast" brought with it a profound culture shock. I was fortunate enough to find a world with a high standard of living and comfort, while my relatives in Madagascar remained in one of the poorest countries in the world.

 

This gap between two very different worlds continues to occupy and move me deeply. It has made me acutely aware of the inequalities in education and living conditions. Therefore, I want to make it my life's work to build a bridge between these two worlds and make a contribution to development aid that goes beyond the material.