Global Mission Stories
from ELCA Global Mission

Domestic Violence Concern Leads to Constructive Plans in Madagascar

Wife-beating is culturally accepted in Malagasy culture. Even seminary families at the Lutheran Graduate Seminary in Fianarantsoa are not immune to this reality, especially with students under significant financial stress, which actually increases the risk of domestic violence.

In order to address this problem among student families at the seminary, a group of women professors and faculty wives met in early 1999. Two ideas emerged from this discussion: to develop an income-producing project for student families that would lower abuse risk due to financial problems; and to start a series of community educational events that would offer alternatives to violence in addressing family conflict.

Projects and plans
Maky Madagascar became the income-production project, which produces eight models of stuffed lemur and chameleon toys, sewn by students wives.

Takarivam-Pianakaviana (literally, "the gathering of the family") is the educational component of the project. In the first year, it featured programs on sex education for teenagers, conflict between husbands and wives, and how to raise children in the faith.

Meanwhile, planning committee members raised the idea of a building to provide meeting and classroom space and safe house space for family members suffering abuse. Dr. Razivelo Mariette, professor of systematic theology, talked of student wives being abused and how almost every faculty member had hosted at least one student wife in the previous two years, providing safe house space in their homes. In response, Dr. Noro, professor of foreign languages, asked: "Our graduates will be leaders for the church and the country. But what are we doing to train them to be good leaders? When we know that the abuse is happening but we seem unable to do anything to stop it, are we doing our job?"

The first of a three-phase plan has now been completed, with funding coming from ELCA. This first building houses a meeting room, storage rooms, two restrooms and a kitchen. Classes for student spouses, space for Maky Madagascar, and seminary meetings are accommodated in this space.

The second phase, which will be a simple building with a large meeting space that can be divided into two meeting or classroom spaces, has already been funded by Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and construction will begin in early 2003. The plan is to use both the first and the second buildings for practicum training in pastoral care and counseling with seminary students, specifically teaching alternatives to violence in the resolution of family and community conflicts.

The committee is still seeking funding for the final phase, which will be an apartment for the director of the family center (who will be a woman theologian) and two safe house apartments.

The plaque of the family center acknowledges the ELCA's contributions to the realization of the center.

Opening celebrated with joy
When the first building was opened on Dec. 8, 2002, the joy of the committee and the community was deeply felt and expressed. The sense that the ministry of women was important, both to the FLM and to its companion, the ELCA, was made most evident in the opening worship. Dean Randrianasolo Joseph's sermon powerfully affirmed the making of women in the image of God and their right to bodily integrity and protection in the home and society.

The outdoor service was held under gloomy skies. When rain began just as the service was ending and the ribbon to open the new building was cut, Dr. Noro called it a sign of God's blessing on the project.

Integral to the opening festivities was the publication of two books by the seminary women’s committee on women's rights, one according to the Malagasy law code, and the second according to Christian and biblical traditions.

Supreme Court Justice Christine Rakotozafy speaking at the opening worship

Mme Christine Rakotozafy, a Supreme Court justice, served as chairperson of the book on the law code and spoke at the dedication. She detailed the many oppressions experienced by Malagasy women and stated how important the books were to promoting women's rights to full personhood. Mme Christine told the assembled folk that she keeps copies of the books on the bench with her to which she could refer, and to which she could direct other justices' attention when the need arises.

The impact
The Rev. Cynthia Holder Rich, a joint ELCA/Presbyterian Church (USA) missionary, feels a special sense of accomplishment. "I am humbled by the privilege of serving with a group of powerful and hardworking women," she says. "Dr. Noro, Dr. Mariette, the dean's wife Madame Clarice, Dr. Rabemanantsoa Noel's wife Madame Claire and fellow ELCA missionary Betty Wilken are making a real difference in the lives of women and families here in Fianarantsoa, in the FLM and in the greater society here in Madagascar."

This new ministry is reaching out beyond serving women. "Malagasy men, who are not conditioned to respect the leadership ability of women in the church, have been moved by the work of this pioneering group to do just that," says Holder Rich. "It is a powerful thing to behold and the committee continues its work to provide an ever-stronger foundation for security, integrity and honoring of the rights of women in Madagascar in church and society."

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