Kintana Foundation

Laying the Foundation for a Movement: Investing in Local Leadership and Montessori Integrity

Sekoly Kintana is more than a school — it’s a growing, grassroots initiative building a model of peace-driven, decolonial education in Madagascar. We are committed to expanding access to high-fidelity Montessori learning rooted in local culture, multilingualism, and the belief that every child is capable, worthy, and powerful.

Our mission aligns with the Malagasy government’s growing efforts toward decentralization, which seek to shift resources, opportunity, and decision-making power beyond Antananarivo and into underserved regions like ours. In the southeast, the Antanosy and Antandroy people have historically faced systemic exclusion from educational access, public services, and meaningful employment — a pattern dating back to colonial administration and continuing through generations of centralized governance. By investing in teachers, inclusive classrooms, and community-rooted learning, Sekoly Kintana contributes directly to Madagascar’s national vision for more balanced development and long-term resilience.

In 2025, we aim to raise $50,000 to strengthen our educational foundation by investing in our greatest asset: our educators and the learning environment they create.

This includes:

• Beginning in 2025, we aim to host one to three certified Montessori Guides each year (for ages 3–6, 6–9, and 9–12) through a volunteer-based cultural and educational exchange. These experienced professionals will live and work alongside our local team, modeling Montessori pedagogy while offering mentorship, classroom coaching, and curriculum development support.
  
  Our goal is to sustain this exchange program for at least three years, providing the continuity and expertise necessary to achieve normalization in each classroom and to ensure that our existing staff are fully trained, confident, and independently capable of delivering a high-fidelity Montessori education rooted in local culture and context.
  
  ➤ We intend to cover their travel, insurance, and room and board — offering a meaningful exchange of professional expertise for basic support and cultural immersion.

• Transforming our Guide (teacher) training through multilingual and quality montessori professional development:
  ▸ Online Montessori coursework and video-based observation
  ▸ Positive Discipline coaching and implementation support
  ▸ Executive function and classroom leadership coaching
  ▸ DELF (French) and TOEFL (English) exam preparation
  ▸ Phonetics, early literacy, and culturally grounded curriculum design in Malagasy, English and French

• Equipping our classrooms with sturdy Montessori manipulatives, playground equipment, and organizational furniture — built locally by Malagasy artisans and tradespeople. These materials ensure our children can access the full Montessori scope and sequence in an environment that honors local resources and creativity.

• Launching our "Friends of Sekoly Kintana" network — an open invitation to individuals with expertise in education, curriculum design, grant writing, governance, communications, or nonprofit development who want to support our mission in tangible ways. Whether you're a Montessori-trained educator, a fundraising strategist, or someone with a heart for equitable, global education, we welcome your support in this next phase of growth.

If you’re interested in contributing your time or skills, please reach out to Alison to explore how you can get involved. 

• Initiating vital health screenings for our students — including vision, hearing, and developmental evaluations — and designing the first localized support plans for children facing developmental challenges in our region. No such services currently exist in our area, and we believe every child deserves the support they need to thrive.

In a country where most classrooms still rely on Paulo Freire’s “banking model” — centered on memorization and hierarchy — Sekoly Kintana is offering something transformational: a learning community where children are guided with empathy, encouraged to explore freely, and empowered to become confident, capable, and compassionate contributors to their world.

In a rapidly changing world shaped by automation, artificial intelligence, and economic uncertainty, the most valuable skills are no longer memorization or repetition — they are adaptability, creativity, empathy, multilingual communication, and independent problem-solving. These are precisely the skills cultivated in a Montessori environment. At Sekoly Kintana, children aren’t just learning how to read and count — they are developing the habits of mind and heart needed to navigate complexity, lead with integrity, and contribute meaningfully to their communities and the global workforce. From early literacy and collaborative work to practical life and peace education, our classrooms are preparing young people not just to survive the future, but to shape it.