SEDRA NY AINA RAKOTOVAO

Aina is a young, Malagasy, female activist who devoted six years of her life to expanding her knowledge about health as a medical student. Her heart for public and global health pushed her to join the Caring Response Madagascar Foundation (CRMF) during which she served as a volunteer for international doctors who gave free care on the eastern coast of Madagascar. Being an inspiration for young generations of girls was always her dream. Her biggest wish is to see Madagascar grow economically, politically, and humanly.

"Be Perseverant in Your Beliefs and Ideas"

Q: Tell us a few things about your country, and also your life's story!

My country is Madagascar. The movie pitched it well in terms of biodiversity and landscapes. However, the island has its realities, which are poverty and inequity coming from successive political and economical crisis going along with poor leadership. Meanwhile,

Madagascar always stands out thanks to its people who are as good as gold.

I was born amongst that bittersweet mess. Coming from a modest, Christian, and conservative family, my whole life as a woman was always under the control and protection of my parents and societies. Despite, being involved in different humanitarian actions and being laced of independence pushed me to advocate for women empowerment and healthcare knowledge and equity.

Q: What is your view of the Coronavirus crisis and the world as it is today? How do you define the concept of a better world especially given the hard lessons we have taken from this unprecedented crisis?

This pandemic of Coronavirus is a life lesson for the World. For many decades, the world's focus was all on money and economic trade, undervaluing the life being and the nature around itself. CoVid-19 taught us that all of that is pointless compared to the essential who are we as humans. It brings us back to the beginning of everything and showed our weaknesses in terms of hypocrisy, inequity, and selfishness.

Two solutions are presented in front of us, whether we will unite our strength and hold hands with love and consideration for life being, letting go of petty conflict, and embrace healthy communication and collaboration, or we will keep up with the selfishness, the gears for money and power, and the hypocrite communication in order to control other, not work with other.

For a better world, I choose the first option.

Q: What are some of the key challenges in your society currently and how do you think CoVid-19 will affect your country?

Madagascar is a low-income country. The country always deals with a successively political crisis since the declaration of independence sixty years ago, which weakens the economic, social, and political system of Madagascar. Many disparities and inequities exist in every part of the Malagasy society, especially in terms of accessing better health. The budget of the ministry of health was even decreased in the past decade. Going along with that is the culture of Madagascar that is extremely patriarchal and conservative, championing the culture of silence and shame instead of acknowledgement and human participation to change.

This pandemic of Coronavirus has catapulted more into spotlight those challenges. It is a warning and will affect more the economic aspects of life, increasing poverty and inequities. It is also an opportunity to take the initiative to improve things together, beginning with the education systems and health, two important components of developing a country.

Q: As a young individual what are a few of the hurdles that you had to overcome up until today?

What is being a young, female, Christian, coming from a middle range, majoring in health in Madagascar means? It surely means barriers to accessing the independence of education, body, work, and health.  

Malagasy culture values more men than women, in every part of the system. Those questions were never my options, but my parents and family. Majoring in health was even not my choice, but it was my parents'. Instead, I wanted to major in political science, which is not given to me because of the expansiveness of the courses, and the field that is too "masculine" to me, my parents said.

Until now, I am lacking of independence and authority within my family and even at work. The medical environment has an extremely hierarchical system, diminishing, discriminating, and blackmailing those who are below, especially women who daily face sexual offence and blackmail from superiors and they do not even allow to speak out about it because of the fears of being rejected in the medical field and in society. Superior is geared to power and acknowledgement, and as the culture and the system taught, being obedient and silent are your best weapons against all of that.

Q: Why is the role of a mentor important for you?

Being mentored is the support and the help that I need. In my country, we are not truly into mentoring and passing knowledge. People tend to keep their knowledge for themselves, not wishing others to prosper too because nobody has done that for them. Amongst that retaliatory spiral, having a mentor is one of the weapons to break the pattern. A mentor is a friend, mental support, and especially it is a chance to share knowledge and learning from others.

Q: Do you have a lesson that life has taught you and you would like to share?

Life taught me to be perseverant. For many years and until now, I have hit by multiple failures, whether it is an academic or personal failure. Much scorching criticism crossed my paths telling me that I will not be able to do certain things, diminishing my values and authority. Despite this, I never give up on my dreams. As Adam Grant said in his best-selling book Original, Originals are people who take the initiative to make their ideas a reality. I am up to it. Whenever a stone would block my path, I will climb it and even if I fall, I will stand up and learn why it brought me down and change my way. Be perseverant in your beliefs and ideas. Along the way, there will always be someone that will endorse you and support you. Never lose that hope, never!

Q: Name a project, a foundation or a person in your country that you think is doing great work in helping improve other people's lives!

One person is really an inspiration for me, her name is Tsanta Gaëlle Ramamonjisoa, a young female Malagasy who challenges the giant culture of Madagascar, and stands out to sensitize young people on the importance of serving and bringing love to each other in order to develop our beloved country. She created an association called One Way For Change, a volunteering-match platform that allows young people to have the opportunity to bring their bricks to the wall of the development of Madagascar.

Q: What are some of the challenges that women in your country face and what efforts are made towards gender equality?

Women often faced by the challenges of culture which is extremely patriarchal and conservative. The places of Women in the society remain by a name, as the name of their parents or their future husbands. A Malagasy proverb even assesses women as the weak furniture of the household.

Efforts to advocate for gender equality is already done, but in tiny scales, endorsed by a small organization. Much has to be done, and it begins with the acknowledge by women themselves about their importance and place in society.

Q: Share with us a phrase, a poem or a story that you love or you find interesting!

A famous African writer Amadou Hampâté Bâ quoted that "the African culture is like a big tree, we must cut off the old and dried branches, because if not it will mostly shadow us". He is right, the culture needs to be renewed.

Q: Share with us a project that you would like to make happen for your country or a cause that you are passionate about?

My project is the mixes of my both passions of public health and Women Empowerment. Women must be valued and enabled to take responsibility, knowledge, and independence of their body and health. In order to bring that, I would like to teach them first on health basics and empower them to become leaders amongst their community and empower each other in order to bring sustainable development. Women have to be in the frontline of decision making, especially in many concerns related to them directly, and even beyond.