Meet Justice

DAY 46 - Madagascar

You can’t really tell where you are at first. The dirt road takes a quick turn and all of a sudden you are surrounded on both sides by an embankment. It is high- at least 12 feet or more. Since I couldn’t see the horizon at all, my eyes started to adjust to the dirt that was flying by the outside of the Land Rover. That’s when I realized it wasn’t really dirt. It was garbage.

Thousands and thousands of tons of garbage. Plastic. Paper. Smelly rotting things. It is everywhere. This road that we’re 4-wheeling down goes right through the middle of it all. For the next half-mile or so, I stare up at the mounds of trash. Every now and then a head pops over the top. Kids run through the mud puddles by our truck. Men carrying junk on their heads and shoulders appear occasionally- all walking in the same direction we’re traveling.

Finally, the road ends. We’re at a gate. Welcome to Ambaniala- Village of the garbage.

Thirteen years ago, a man named Pedro showed up here one day. He had recently moved from his home in Argentina to Tanariv, Madagascar. He came here looking for a way to make a difference. And one of the first places he visited was this garbage dump. What he found was the city of Tanariv had thrown away more than just it’s garbage here- it had thrown away a whole group of it’s residents as well.

Pedro began talking to a community of people- the garbage people- who lived here trying to scratch out an existence by combing through the dump recycling “valuables”. Their lifestyle was- in Pedro’s words- atrocious. Around 3 out of 5 children would die before the age of 5 from the exposure to poison water and food. There was no sanitation. The shacks they lived in where constructed out of whatever junk they could find in the dump. The government didn’t give them any assistance. No medical care. No food aid. They were left alone- and they were rotting away.

So Pedro decided it was time to do something. The first thing he did was start to visit Ambaniala regularly. After a little time, he built relationship with the people, and then- only then- they started to work together to build a better life. Pedro’s philosophy for building this village that stands here today was very simple; we’re in this together. “I’m not an outsider to these people,” Pedro told us, “I’m one of them”.

And with that simple philosophy, the last 13 years have seen Pedro become a legend in this country. This man has literally given his life to the poor of Madagascar. To the people here- his people- Pedro has been a voice of hope. A voice that does more than just speak, however- it inspires, encourages, and works to bring change to the hopeless.

If you’re riding down a road in this part of the world, chances are you can stop and ask a stranger to point at something Pedro helped build, and they will show you a house, a road, a community center, a wood working factory, or any countless other number of projects he’s helped inspire the people to construct. With a staff of 350, Pedro now leads a huge non-profit work here that has built over 3,000 homes and helped re-locate over 17,000 people off the streets and the trash heap. Even more importantly, however, they have set some parameters in place for the people of this area to have a new mentality- an answer to the common spirit of poverty that is so prevalent among these people.

Pedro and his team require people here to commit to a set of agreements before they move into one of these nice brick homes. The first agreement is that both of the parents will work. The second, that all the children in the home will attend school. If the parents don’t follow-through with these requirements, they’re given a probation period and must move into a transitional wood hut for housing. Then, if they continue to not hold to the agreement, they will be asked to leave.

However, the vast majority of residents in this area of the countryside are huge success stories. This could not have been more evident in looking at the reaction that Pedro got as we rode around for nearly 5 hours with him this late afternoon. Time after time, dozens of people stopped what they were doing to wave, yell, and flash big smiles at this man I’m riding alongside. And then, there were the kids. In one of the most touching, powerful moments of our entire trip, Dan and I walked into a gymnasium filled with children who had just finished school for the day. They were gathered for assembly- to sing together and listen to Pedro speak. As we walk in with this man, an incredible roar of 1,000 kids standing on their feet screaming in unison fills our ears with noise and our eyes with tears.

All this from a man who nearly wouldn’t grant us an interview a few hours ago. “I just don’t want anymore attention” Pedro said. “I’m not important. All I really want is to go be with these children and visit with the people.” In an age of superstar communicators, entertainers, activists, and others who talk so much about the problems of our world, it was never more refreshing to meet this man who truly is- everyday- changing lives bringing new hope to the poor of Madagascar.

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