Vincentian missioner found his life in a landfill in a Madagascar and has given life to  thousands. Fr. Pedro is keen to stress one thing: “I have always said this to them: I love you too much to simply act as a welfare service.

The influential Italian based  website “Vatican Insider” writes….Fr. Pedro has helped set up a project that guarantees a home and a job to more than three thousand families in Antanavarino. Even the International Monetary Fund has recognized it as an example of charitable action

(Editors note –  Vatican Insider is a special project of La Stampa, the newspaper once owned and edited by Alfredo Frassati,  the father of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati of the Society of St. Vincent dePaul)

His long and carefully trimmed white beard is like a frame for his big eyes and round face. Fr. Pedro – a 66-year-old Vincentian missionary – is a big man: he is tall and his hands are as big as his heart. The results he has achieved in his 25 years as a missionary in Madagascar, are just as great. But more important are the people behind the numbers: since 1990, his association has helped more than half a million women, men and most importantly children. These people have become “good friends”, inspiring the missionary to name the Antanavarino-based association Akamasoa.

“I had been in Madagascar for 15 years, I was sick, weak and didn’t think I would make it through. Then I found myself at the landfill site in Antanavarino. An inferno where hundreds of people work. Thanks to them I regained my strength and together we created this centre.” 7,000 children are served a plate of rice and potatoes every day at Akamasoa; they get through 12 tons of rice a week; approximately 12,000 pupils attend the schools that are run by the association and these are staffed by 400 teachers and tutors; more than 3,000 families live in the 22 villages the association has created in order to give homeless people a home.

The list goes on, but Fr. Pedro is keen to stress one thing: “I have always said this to them: I love you too much to simply act as a welfare service. We all do our bit, this is the only way to beat poverty.” The International Monetary Fund has singled Akamasoa out as an example of charitable action in Africa.

Fr. Pedro has helped set up a project that guarantees a home and a job to more than three thousand families in Antanavarino. Even the International Monetary Fund has recognized it as an example of charitable action

His long and carefully trimmed white beard is like a frame for his big eyes and round face. Fr. Pedro – a 66-year-old Vincentian missionary – is a big man: he is tall and his hands are as big as his heart. The results he has achieved in his 25 years as a missionary in Madagascar, are just as great. But more important are the people behind the numbers: since 1990, his association has helped more than half a million women, men and most importantly children. These people have become “good friends”, inspiring the missionary to name the Antanavarino-based association Akamasoa.

“I had been in Madagascar for 15 years, I was sick, weak and didn’t think I would make it through. Then I found myself at the landfill site in Antanavarino. An inferno where hundreds of people work. Thanks to them I regained my strength and together we created this centre.” 7,000 children are served a plate of rice and potatoes every day at Akamasoa; they get through 12 tons of rice a week; approximately 12,000 pupils attend the schools that are run by the association and these are staffed by 400 teachers and tutors; more than 3,000 families live in the 22 villages the association has created in order to give homeless people a home.

The list goes on, but Fr. Pedro is keen to stress one thing: “I have always said this to them: I love you too much to act as a simple welfare service. We all do our bit, this is the only way to beat poverty.” The International Monetary Fund has singled Akamasoa out as an example of charitable action in Africa.

“Our project was not born out of a piece of paper, signed in some five star hotel; it was created here on the ground, with the people.” Fr. Pedro looks up and sees a blue sky with grey blotches of smoke – dioxins coming from the direction of the landfill site just a few hundred metres from Akamasoa’s first village. The missionary sees a group of young people approaching with books under their arms. He goes up to one of the girls: “I met Gisele when she was two years old; she was at the landfill site with her mother. She hadn’t chosen that life and neither have any of the people that work there. We gave a home and assistance to her and her mother and here she is today; she’s 18 years old and she’s preparing for her final exams to get her high school diploma.” 80% of young people who study at Akamasoa pass their exams. The national average is around 45%. Merit, effort and hard work: that’s Fr. Pedro’s motto and he settles for nothing but the best: “We have to aim for a 100% pass rate.”

Fr. Pedro, who is Argentinian with Slovenian roots, has never accepted the fatalistic mentality of the Malgasy people: “We found a lot of dead people at the landfill site. Some said to me: it’s God’s will. But this cannot be so! God does not want children to die at a landfill site or live in misery. No! We must rebel against this and fight poverty.”

The battle against poverty is tough and Fr. Pedro is not fighting it alone. There are 450 Malgasy men and women working with him. He also receives support from an Italian-based association: “Amici di Padre Pedro” (“Friends of Fr. Pedro”). One of the projects Akamasoa is working on, is the reforestation of some regions of Mdagascar, including the areas surrounding the capital, and stone extraction in some caves in Antanavarino. These are some ways that allow people to make a living and give a future to the Great Red Island and to its people, just as a “good friend” would: “Akamasoa works to promote family-like solidarity, we are a big family.”  Fr. Pedro smiles and stretches his hands out as if to embrace the hundreds of children around him.