Scholars

Ando Razafiaritsara is a public servant with nine years of experience in the Ministry of Economy and Finance. She held many positions in different departments within the ministry, such as being a financial auditor, research analyst, and executive assistant. She also leads a non-profit organization, African Leaders for Africa, which contributes to community improvement related to the environment, education, health and hygiene, youth empowerment, and entrepreneurship. She studied Business Administration at INSCAE, Private Law at CNTEMAD, and Public Procurements at ENAM. In 2017, she participated in the Young African Leadership Initiative at the Regional Learning Center in South Africa within the Public Management track. Two years later, she founded ALFA with friends she met during the YALI program with the desire to bring positive change while applying skills and methods learned during their training. Ando is passionate about country development, social change, and team working. Her first volunteering experience was as a volunteer teacher for underprivileged children on the streets. After this first engagement, she decided to bring her contribution to sustainable development in Madagascar to the African continent. She enjoys focusing on the topics of youth empowerment, education, and the environment.

Anjanoro Rabarijaona has four years of experience in the non-profit sector and earned a Master’s degree in Law from the University of Antananarivo in Madagascar. While working in Madagascar as a Recruitment and Procedures Supervisor with Population Services International, she helped improve the public health of vulnerable populations through a malaria control program and a reproductive, maternal, and neonatal HIV health program. Previously, Anjanoro worked as Human Resources Assistant for five years in an establishment in the health sector, where she participated in ensuring company employees and their families had access to basic care. Through these experiences, she developed interpersonal communication and talent management skills. Anjanoro enjoys focusing on the topic of public health.

Aristide Ramarolahy holds a degree in Communications from the University of Antananarivo and a Master’s degree in Business Intelligence Management from the University of Fianarantsoa. While working as a Communication Assistant at the NGO Ny Tanintsika in Fianarantsoa, he helped improve the lives of the people and the grassroots organizations bordering the rainforest in southeast Madagascar. This improved the lives of vulnerable households by facilitating access to safe drinking water, education, health, and environmental protection. Aristide also worked as a volunteer with SKIP Southampton for the promotion of hygiene, adolescent reproductive health, and English language extension. Through these experiences, Aristide gained the necessary skills for effective communication for behavior change and sustainable development. These skills have helped him to desire to always help others, by working for the good of all.

Chris Julias has three years of experience in the non-profit sector and earned a Master of Engineering degree in Electronic and Computerized Systems from the University of Antananarivo as well as a Bachelor’s degree in Anglophone Studies. Currently, working as a data science content engineer at SmartPredict, she has been entrusted the mission of creating the landing page content and webinars for SmartPredict Version 1.0 – the eponymous automated AI platform. Apart from that, she contributed to the launching of SmartPredict Beta that reached fifty permanent users. As the role is by nature multidisciplinary, she frequents different stakeholders on a daily basis which enables strong communication skills as one of her main assets. This strength has been inherited from her previous experience as a business analyst and machine learning engineer at the Strategy and Innovation Pole of the eTech Research Lab, during which she developed the architecture of an ontological chatbot with a team of DSML engineers. Chris has always been entrusted with leadership roles in which she has demonstrated a unique systemic empathic approach with transversal management and succeeded to federate her team to achieve their business goals. Being in charge of designing tech-commercial video tutorials as well as blogs about data science, she is proficient with Balsamiq, Adobe Audition, Active Presenter and PicsArt. Her interests include Artificial Intelligence in all its aspects and how it could benefit human beings. One value dear to her heart is also the promotion of girls’ inclusion in the field of technology conveyed through her integration of Ikala STEM.

Fenohaja Ravoniarison has one year of experience in the nonprofit sector. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting Sciences from the National Institute of Accounting Sciences and Business Administration in Madagascar, as well as a Master’s degree in Accounting, Control, and Audit from the University of Poitiers in France. With her three years of experience as a Consultant, she is currently responsible for the supervision and coordination of the accounting team and ensures proper accounting records for a mining company based in Madagascar. Previously, she interned for a retirement fund and health organization, where she worked in the accounting department to handle membership fees, registration, and follow-up of cash flow and sales transactions. Fenohaja volunteered in a Biodiversity Tool Kit Project to collect and constitute endemic fauna and flora database in Madagascar. Through this experience, she developed her data treatment abilities and improved her relational and analytical skills on how to prevent and halt the loss of biodiversity. Fenohaja works actively on education, women’s entrepreneurship promotion, and is passionate about environment conservation.

Harimino Rakotondrainibe has three years of experience in the non-profit sector and earned a Master’s in Telecommunication from the Polytechnic School of Antananarivo. She works as an IT Manager for the Malagasy National Research and Education Network, where she provides technical support for research institutions and universities in the country to foster development with the use of ICT. Harimino also volunteers as part of the Internet Society’s local chapter to improve the state of the Internet in Madagascar and raise awareness of its use and the benefits. Through these experiences, she developed strong project coordination, leadership skills, and community empowerment, especially with youth. Harimino has a keen interest in youth empowerment and education, and she aimed to engage more youth in critical areas, such as Internet governance, in her country.

Kimmerling Razafindrina is from Fianarantsoa, Madagascar. He holds a Master’s degree in Physics and Chemistry from the University of Fianarantsoa. Kimmerling is currently a research assistant in agriculture practice in Southeastern Madagascar. He is the CEO of Kimmerling Consulting, a company that provides service and professional coaching. He has worked in different non-profit and humanitarian organizations including education, health, and environment. Kimmerling has attended professional training in different African countries. He has assisted in four researches and published in journals on community health in topics such as tuberculosis diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. He has organizational and training facilitation skills and has worked with youth for more than five years. He has assisted youth organizations to move forward and has inspired several young people to become responsible for their life. He has interest in youth leadership development, research, and humanitarian projects.

Mamisoa Samy graduated from the University of Antsirabe Madagascar with a Bachelor’s degree in Management and received a Master’s degree in Marketing and Communication from ISCAM in Antanananarivo, Madagascar. Wanting to experience professional life abroad, she landed a contract with a big placement agency for a house and 5-star hotel in Lebanon. Later, she worked within the housekeeping department for Intercontinental Phoenicia Beyrouth. After seven years, she came back to her country with a fueled passion for hoteliers’ jobs. She started training many hotels in Madagascar by using 5-star strategies, especially in housekeeping. After some time, she co-founded a coaching agency. She served as an Assistant Manager of the guesthouse of Lovasoa Cross-cultural Competence Antsirabe and helped improve the quality of maintenance of the accommodation according to the international standard, as well as trained the teams in the use of cleaning products. She is now part of the Commercial and Communication team. She voluntarily leads an association registered in France called “Les enfants du jacaranda” — it concerns the education of underprivileged children in the city of Antsirabe. She started to develop the association by integrating poor single mothers who are unable to educate their children. She managed the funds in order to give children access to school and food. Mamisoa works on finding donors to sponsor school canteens for children to increase the number of other poor kids’ access to school.