OPERATING NOW - since January 2025
Ny Trano Manga
The Blue House
Madagascar’s first women’s shelter providing safe accommodation and on-site support 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for women and adolescent girls affected by gender-based violence, together with their children.
Immediate protection. Safety. Stabilization. The starting point for recovery and safer lives.
- LocationAmbovombe, Androy, Southern Madagascar
- OpenedJanuary 2025
- Current capacity14 beds
- Target capacity20 beds, subject to funding
- Operated byTERATANY, in partnership with IRC Africa Inc.
- Annual operating budgetApproximately $42,000
Phase 0
Safety Comes First
A woman escaping violence cannot immediately be expected to think about employment, vocational training, or economic independence. First, she and her children need to be safe.
Ny Trano Manga - The Blue House - was established in Ambovombe, Androy, Southern Madagascar, in response to an urgent and basic need: a safe place for women and adolescent girls facing gender-based violence, rape, and child marriage, together with their children.
The shelter opened in January 2025 and operates through a partnership between IRC Africa Inc. and TERATANY, a registered Malagasy women-led NGO.
We describe this as Phase 0: immediate protection and stabilization. It is the stage in which a woman can move away from immediate danger, rest, receive food, care, and support, and begin considering what comes next.
Ny Trano Manga provides safe accommodation and on-site support 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
- Safe accommodation
- Food and basic necessities
- Medical care when needed
- Psychosocial support
- Practical assistance during acute vulnerability
- A part-time nurse, strengthening the health support available to women and children
Inside Ny Trano Manga
Take a 49-second look inside Madagascar’s first women’s shelter.
Supporting Women, Girls, and Their Children
Ny Trano Manga supports women, adolescent girls, and children in different circumstances. Some women arrive with young children who also need safety, food, protection, and stability. Other residents are adolescent girls who need protection and care in their own right.
Some adolescent girls and young women arrive during pregnancy and need a safe place to stay before and after childbirth. When a Cesarean delivery is required, Ny Trano Manga can provide a safe place to rest and recover and can help arrange continued support after discharge from the hospital.
The model
Local Leadership From Day One
Ny Trano Manga is built on a core principle of IRC Africa Inc.: work on the ground should be led by people from the community itself.
The shelter is locally managed under the leadership of Mamy Duata, Founder and CEO of TERATANY, a registered Malagasy women-led organization. Mamy and the TERATANY team lead the shelter’s day-to-day operations, welcome women and children into the shelter, coordinate the support they need, and make operational decisions based on local realities.
IRC Africa Inc., a U.S. 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, supports the partnership through funding, resource development, international relationships, financial oversight, and shared accountability.
The model combines local knowledge, trust, and leadership with the transparency and accountability expected of a U.S. nonprofit working with donors and international partners.
Local leadership is not an operational detail for us. It is part of the model.
Founding commitment
Because the Need Was Urgent, We Did Not Wait
When the urgent need for protection became clear, we did not want to wait until every dollar had been raised.
When the need for protection became clear, Eldad Garfunkel contributed approximately $20,000 from his personal savings to establish Ny Trano Manga and support its operations during its early period. He was in Southern Madagascar, working alongside Mamy Duata and the TERATANY team to help turn an urgent need into an operating shelter.
That personal contribution allowed the shelter to open without waiting for a complete fundraising campaign. Personal financing, however, is not a sustainable long-term model. Stable support from donors and partners is essential to keep the shelter open.
Transparency
Progress Has Not Been Linear
We believe transparency means speaking not only about progress, but also about difficulty.
Ny Trano Manga has remained open since January 2025, even when limited funding forced the team to operate for a period under more restricted conditions.
In July 2026, the shelter moved to a larger and improved facility, creating safer and more dignified conditions for women and children. The move was important progress, but stable funding remains essential to sustain these improved conditions.
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January 2025
The original Ny Trano Manga facility. -
July 2026
The larger and improved Ny Trano Manga facility.
The shelter remained open throughout.
Evidence
Real Work. Real Impact.
Ny Trano Manga is not a future plan. It is operating now.
- ~80Women and adolescent girls supportedSince January 2025
- 100+Children supportedMany women arrive with their children
The women who come to the shelter differ in age, background, and circumstances. Some need protection for a relatively short period. Others need longer periods of accommodation and support. Some arrive with their children. Others arrive during pregnancy or need a safe place to recover following childbirth or medical treatment.
Women and children have received medical care when needed, and some children have also received educational support.
Behind every number are real people. We therefore make sure that telling the story of our work never comes at the expense of their privacy, safety, or dignity.
The wider system
Part of a Local Protection System
Ny Trano Manga does not operate in isolation.
TERATANY maintains relationships with local and regional authorities and with organizations working to protect women and children. It is also in contact with UNICEF and Save the Children.
These relationships can support referrals, coordination, and connections with wider protection systems. However, they do not cover the shelter’s ongoing operating costs.
IRC Africa Inc. and TERATANY therefore continue to depend on donors and partners to sustain a locally led response rooted in the community.
What comes next
Protection Is the Beginning, Not the End
Ny Trano Manga exists first and foremost to protect. But physical safety can also become the starting point from which a woman, when she is ready, begins rebuilding her life.
Training, employment, and economic independence can expand women’s choices and reduce economic dependency and vulnerability. For this reason, IRC Africa Inc. and TERATANY are also developing additional pathways to create opportunities for women in Southern Madagascar.
These are separate pathways. There is no assumption that every woman who enters the shelter will move into an employment or training program. Women arrive from different starting points, with different goals, abilities, and needs.
Different women. Different pathways. One goal - greater safety, choice, and independence.
Cyclone Valley, the Women’s Employment, Entrepreneurship & Leadership Center
Cyclone Valley Technology Campus
PLANNED - SEEKING FUNDING PARTNERS Cyclone Valley Technology CampusThe cost of staying open
What It Takes to Keep the Door Open
Operating an emergency shelter requires reliable funding every day.
- Rent
- Food and drinking water
- Water and electricity
- Local shelter team and security
- Routine medicines and medical needs
- Local transportation
- Administrative and official fees
- Hygiene and sanitation products
- Clothing, bedding, and linens
- Consumable supplies
- Routine maintenance and repairs
- Basic shelter necessities
- Ongoing on-site support for women and children
- Other essential recurring operating expenses
Selected Monthly Operating Costs
- ~$500 Monthly rent This figure represents rent only. It does not include electricity, water, staffing, food, security, medical care, or other operating expenses.
- ~$1,000 Food and drinking water
- ~$1,000 Local staff salaries Approximately MGA 4.5M per month at the exchange rate used for this budget For the people who keep the shelter operating and provide continuous on-site support. The budget is built on the ariary figure; the U.S. dollar amount is approximate and varies with exchange rates.
- ~$100 Routine medicines and medical needs
The approximately $42,000 annual operating budget covers the shelter’s recurring costs. Alongside the examples above it must also absorb water and electricity, transportation, administrative and official fees, hygiene products, clothing, bedding, consumable supplies, maintenance, repairs, security, and other essential expenses.
When a woman is in danger and asks for a safe place, the question is simple:
Will We Have a Safe Place for Her and Her Children?
Our job is to make sure the answer is yes.
Help us keep the door open