“I came here when I was 8 years old.

When I'm sad, I listen to music and I find my smile again,” says Avoko who, an orphan like Christian, Sarah and others, was taken in by doctors Julia and Olivier José Razafintsambaina in Madagascar.

In the Saint-Paul orphanage, which the couple founded, nineteen children learned to play a musical instrument professionally.

“We transmit a “musical blood” to children”

Julia Razafintsambaina, the director of the orphanage, officiates as a pediatrician while her husband is a cardiovascular surgeon... but the latter also presided over the Antananarivo Philharmonic Orchestra for twenty years: "there is therefore already, in the family, the "musical blood" that we want to pass on to the children", smiles the co-founder of the institution.

OUR “MADAGASCAR” FILE

"I am convinced that music helps children a lot," adds Dr. Olivier José Razafintsambaina.

We feel that those who play have real gifts, that they find it easy to acquire musical notions and to play.

But the main thing, even if their lives got off to a bad start, is that they manage to be independent and really succeed in life”.

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