The major solidarity action organised by UCLouvain and its NGO, Louvain Coopération, is now over. Many of you supported our project to improve the income of families whose survival depends on fishing and to fight climate change by reforesting mangrove forests in Madagascar. 

Last March, these families were hard hit by cyclones Cheneso and Freddy. Your solidarity has also enabled them to rebuild their lives and replenish the equipment needed for fishing, their sole source of income.  

As you know,UCLouvain had pledged to double donations from its staff for the benefit of this project.  

Very concretely, this enabled us, with our partners and local communities, to reforest 32 hectares of mangrove forests in the south-west of the Big Island. <170 kits of small fishing equipment (nets, ropes, crab traps, solar lamps, etc.) were made available to fishing families who were badly affected by the passage of the two cyclones.

"After the cyclones hit, we had almost no fishing equipment left and we had to lend each other the few nets we had left between neighbours," says one of them. "This equipment we've received makes us more independent. We now each have our own tools. This will enable us to get back to normal and feed our own." 

We are also continuing to raise awareness of the need to protect mangroves and are supporting fishing cooperatives to improve the incomes and daily lives of hundreds of families who depend on this activity.  

From the bottom of my heart, thank you for your solidarity, as it is essential to the continuation of our actions.