From Mobile Outreach to a Free Community Clinic: The Andasifahadimy Story
On August 24, 2026, the Andasifahadimy Community Healthcare Clinic & Education Center began receiving patients. Its opening marked an important milestone in a journey that began with mobile health outreach and grew through community participation, local leadership and partnerships.
Today, Nurse Ronal and Midwife Briela provide the clinic’s day-to-day healthcare services. TDARFAC volunteers and Teach for Madagascar - TALY Corps volunteers currently support its education activities, while the Andasifahadimy Women’s Association is preparing to lead the management of the community garden, general daily operations and community events.
Together, these contributions are helping the center become a lasting resource for families in Andasifahadimy and surrounding communities.
Beginning with Mobile Health Outreach
Our Women’s and Children’s Health Project began with a focus on improving healthcare access for rural families living near the new reforestation corridor connecting Mantadia and Analamazaotra National Parks.
For families in these communities, reaching healthcare can mean hours of walking, difficult terrain and river crossings. Mobile outreach brought services closer to residents and helped us better understand their needs and the challenges they faced in accessing care.
Collaboration with Marie Stopes Madagascar and Mad Dog Initiative helped establish the foundation for this work. As the initiative developed, the aim grew beyond individual outreach visits: to create a permanent place where families could access care and where health and education programs could develop together.
Choosing a Location and Building the Centre
The decision to establish the clinic in Andasifahadimy was informed by surveys. This work helped guide the selection of a location from which the centre could serve both the village and surrounding communities.
A crucial contribution came from Mr. Jaojoby, an elder and Mayor of Andasifahadimy, who donated the land for the clinic. His support provided a place where the shared vision could take shape.
Turning that vision into a functioning facility required sustained effort. Residents of Andasifahadimy and surrounding fokontany, the Commune of Andasibe, TDARFAC team and partners contributed to creating and preparing a space that could welcome patients and support healthcare staff.
Justorien “Donovan” Rambeloniaina, DVM and Jhoanny Rasojivola, M2 led this work. Their commitment, together with the contributions of local residents and volunteers, carried the project through the practical steps leading to opening.
TDARFAC volunteers helped organize and prepare the clinic, attending to the details needed to make the facility ready for use. The opening celebration recognized these contributions and the shared responsibility of sustaining the center beyond its inauguration.
Doors Open: Nurse Ronal and Midwife Briela
Since the clinic began receiving patients, Ronal and Briela have been central to its daily work. Their presence provides continuity of care for women, children and families from Andasifahadimy and more than ten surrounding communities.
The clinic now offers a local base for healthcare and health education, with particular attention to maternal and child health. Its development is guided by the needs of the people it serves and the experience of its clinical team.
Our priorities include supporting Ronal and Briela, maintaining essential medicines, vaccinations, equipment, and ensuring that the clinic can continue to welcome patients and respond to local needs.
Menstrual Health and Hygiene Education
Through TDARFAC’s collaboration with the Heart Reach Foundation, Irène “Toutoune” Ramanantenasoa of Association Mitsinjo, representative from the Andasifahadimy Women’s Association, Briela, and Ronal attended a training workshop in Antananarivo focused on menstrual health and hygiene.
The training helps prepare the team to support women and girls through practical education, guidance on menstrual hygiene kits and open conversations about menstruation. It connects the clinic’s healthcare services with community education and brings additional knowledge to the centre’s work in women’s and children’s health.
Toutoune’s involvement also strengthens the connection between Association Mitsinjo’s community work and the center’s education activities. Together, these efforts create opportunities for women and girls to ask questions, access information and discuss menstrual health with greater confidence.
TFM Volunteers: Supporting Education at the Clinic
Education has been part of the center’s purpose from the beginning. Alongside healthcare, it provides a setting where children, young people and adults can learn, ask questions and exchange ideas.
TFM TALY Corps volunteers will support education activities at the clinic for the next 6 months, contributing their time and skills alongside TDARFAC volunteers and partner educators.
Planned activities include health education and conservation workshops for young people. These sessions will explore local biodiversity, the importance of connected forest habitats and opportunities to participate in restoration and wildlife protection.
The Andasifahadimy Women’s Association
The Andasifahadimy Women’s Association, now represented by its new logo, will lead the management of the community garden, the center’s general day-to-day operations and community events.
These responsibilities place local women at the heart of the centre’s everyday life, from caring for its shared spaces to organizing activities that bring residents together. Their involvement will help keep the building and grounds welcoming and well maintained for patients and staff.
The association’s leadership complements the healthcare provided by Ronal and Briela and the education activities supported by volunteers and partners, strengthening the community’s role in shaping and sustaining the center.
Connecting Healthcare, Education and Conservation
The center stands adjacent to MDI-led reforestation corridor connecting Mantadia and Analamazaotra National Parks. Its proximity creates opportunities to connect community education with the forest restoration and wildlife conservation work taking place nearby.
Our relationships with MDI, Ecovision Village, Association Mitsinjo, TFM, and Heart Reach Foundation bring together experience in conservation, health education and community engagement. Each contributes distinct knowledge to the wider effort to support people and the landscape they share.
This work reflects a One Health approach, which recognises the relationships among human health, animal health and the environment. At the centre, that approach means providing care for families while creating opportunities to understand the surrounding landscape and participate in its protection.
Conservation workshops will provide space to discuss why forest connections matter for wildlife, hear residents’ perspectives and explore practical ways to support restoration. The centre’s healthcare and education roles provide complementary ways to serve the community.
A Story in Photos: From mobile health outreach and construction to opening day, these moments capture the people and partnerships bringing the Andasifahadimy Community Healthcare Clinic & Education Center to life.
Sustaining the Next Chapter
Opening the clinic was a major achievement. Keeping it operating, equipped and responsive to community needs is the work now underway.
Continued support will help sustain:
Healthcare: Supporting Nurse Ronal and Midwife Briela and maintaining essential medicines, supplies and equipment.
Health and hygiene education: Supporting menstrual health education, access to menstrual hygiene kits and learning opportunities for women and girls.
Education: Providing materials and resources for TDARFAC volunteers and partner educators.
Community leadership: Supporting the Women’s Association’s management of the garden, general daily operations and community events.
Outreach: Helping with transport and coordination to reach surrounding communities.
This initiative has grown through the contributions of many people and organizations.. Its future rests on that continuing partnership: clinical staff providing care, volunteers supporting learning, and community members helping shape and maintain a center of their own.
