Märtha Louise's visit Madagascar with Unicef, 11-14 May 2008

[norwegianne]

Princess Märtha Louise will visit Madagascar in May, as the part of a project with Unicef. The project is connected with literacy in Madagascar for children. A large amount of books are being printed, so that the children will have something in their own languages and connected to their own reality to read.

Aftenposten.no: Gravid prinsesse til Madagaskar (Kongelige) (In Norwegian)

Here is an article from Unicef connected to the project of getting more children literate in Madagascar: UNICEF - Madagascar - New educational approach keeps Madagascar’s children interested in learning

[Her_Majesty]

This sounds very interesting.
I always like to see the members of the Royal Family working for Unicef. The CP, the Queen and also Märtha Louise.
I hope she'll have a safe trip.

[norwegianne]

Aftenposten: After 17 hours travelling, Princess Märtha Louise (36) arrived at Madagascar late Sunday afternoon. And she brought the rain to the exotic isle.

Märtha Louise got the royal welcome. She's the first Norwegian Royal to visit the nation, which also has a Norwegian population around 90.

"We have pointed out that this is not an official visit, but the hosts are very taken with the fact that Märtha Louise is the King's daugher, and shall be treated thusly," Norwegian Ambassador Hans Frederik Lehne.

Article - with picture of ML with the minister of education: Kom med regnet til Madagaskar - Nyheter - Utenriks - Aftenposten.no

[Her_Majesty]

Princess Martha Louise of Norway is on assignment as UNICEF ambassador in Madagascar Monday, May 12, 2008. The Princess visited the local UNICEF office,together with Kjersti Flogstad secretary general of UNICEF Norway

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ANP

She looks beautiful! And very pregnant already (hard to imagine the baby is due to be born in October)!

[Her_Majesty]

Pictures of Märtha's arrival yesterday:
http://i32.tinypic.com/rt3k07.jpg
http://i30.tinypic.com/s2sm00.jpg
http://i26.tinypic.com/2960uog.jpg
http://i32.tinypic.com/34ypxep.jpg

And another lovely one of today:
http://i28.tinypic.com/313io9s.jpg

ANP

[norwegianne]

Parts of the proceedings from Märtha Louise's latest book will go to the project "sammen for barnebøker" (Together for children's books) that she's in Madagascar to help promote.

While she's there, she will open a writing competition, to increase the amount of books written in the local language for children. 20 of the best contributions will become children's books. A total of 40,000 books will be sent out to families with children.

"I am occupied with the fact that all children have the right to be read to. It is a privilege to be a contributor so that more children will get children's books based on their own history, culture, language and story-telling tradition," says the Princess.

Only 14% of children in Madagascar finish middle school.

Prinsesse Märtha Louise lanserer forfatterkonkurranse - Forsiden - UNICEF

[RhapsodyBrat]

This is a great project for the princess to participate in, indeed. I love the fact that the books given are in the local language and represents things within their environment--that's really focusing on the kids.

[norwegianne]

Originally Posted by RhapsodyBrat

This is a great project for the princess to participate in, indeed. I love the fact that the books given are in the local language and represents things within their environment--that's really focusing on the kids.

What I gather, from what I've read about the situation, is that the official language in Madagascar used to be mainly French, and so books in school used to be in French, it was switched to Malagasy (the native language) in schools. However, parts of the problem is that they didn't make enough learning material or books for children in the native language, which is partly what this project aims to correct.

[Her_Majesty]

Pictures of Märtha reading for the kids today

Gallery:
Inspirerte barna med eventyr

Kosestund på Märthas fang- Nyheter - Utenriks - Aftenposten.no

[giov]

Pics from Hola
Galerías de imágenes

[Her_Majesty]

MADAGASCAR 20080513 Princess Martha Louise of Norway with children during her visit to a local family in the village of Ambatolampikelyar, Antananarivo. The Princess is visiting Madagascar as an Unicef ambassador and also opened a national writing contest for childre.

Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3
Picture 4
Picture 5
Picture 6
ANP

[Her_Majesty]

And another event

2 pictures can be seen here:
- Spennende å være ute i felten - Nyheter - Kongelige - Aftenposten.no
I like the pink dress. It's cute.

Btw: Does anyone know in which language she is talking to the children?

[Her_Majesty]

And a few more pictures:
"Omsorgen de viser hverandre, er noe vi mangler i Norge" - Nyheter - Kongelige - Aftenposten.no

+ Video
http://www.aftenposten.no/webtv/?id=10123&cat=22

Gallery:
Prinsessen på skolebesøk

[Her_Majesty]

2 more pictures from ANP

http://i30.tinypic.com/j5xzeu.jpg
http://i25.tinypic.com/aabpko.jpg - this one is lovely.

[sofajr]

that's great work Martha Louisa does. and its very kind of her to travel to Madagascar wih UNISEF during the first period of pregnancy.

Thank Her Majesty for all the links and pictures