With CORÉOM, the Réunion-based association O'Sphère was able to bring to fruition, ahead of schedule, a cooperation project with Madagascar focused on environmental education, biodiversity conservation, and knowledge transfer to young people. It was an intense experience, filled with enthusiasm, unexpected challenges, strong human connections, and valuable lessons learned for future regional collaborations. An interview with Aurélie Dubard-Grondin, founding president of O'Sphère..
In Réunion, O'Sphère was built with limited resources, a great deal of volunteer commitment, and a strong conviction: it is not necessary to wait for large budgets to take action. Since 2017, the association has been developing environmental education, science outreach, and biodiversity awareness initiatives for young people in the Entre-deux region.
Its president, Aurélie, sums up this trajectory with a simple image: «"We made a washing machine out of a thimble."»
The association started with very modest budgets, sometimes around a few thousand euros per year, by inventing educational tools, mobilizing volunteers, recovering equipment, building local partnerships and moving forward with what it calls "« the drive ».
An opportunity that came at the right time
Before CORÉOM, the desire to develop a project with Madagascar already existed. The connection was professional, associative, human, and personal. Aurélie knows Madagascar well, its history, and its social and environmental realities. But for O'Sphère, this cooperation remained a medium-term prospect.
The arrival of CORÉOM changed the schedule.
«"It was perfect timing. The stars aligned."»
Thanks to the funding and support of the program, O'Sphère was able to start "now" what was planned for later: building an educational project between Reunion Island and Madagascar, around biodiversity, naturalist transmission and youth involvement.
To achieve this, the project, entitled "Antsanitia Sciences", relied on several actors in Reunion and Madagascar: O'Sphère, the scientific, technical and industrial culture center (CCSTI) Sciences Réunion, schools in both territories, child ambassadors, naturalists and relay partners in the field, notably the Amada association.
Transmit, connect, experiment
The project aimed to create bridges between young people from Réunion and Madagascar around the concept of an environmental education area and the creation of media resources to raise environmental awareness. It involved supporting young people in discovering, observing, and understanding their immediate environment, as well as replanting endemic species and transmitting knowledge by adapting tools to local realities.
The initial idea for the project, closely linked to the Science Film Festival already organized in Réunion by the same stakeholders, was adjusted accordingly. For Aurélie, the priority in Madagascar was not necessarily to produce films, but to build concrete environmental education activities, with useful materials, simple workshops, and local partners capable of sustaining the approach beyond the project itself.
The latter has thus included the organization of two stays in Antsanitia, the delivery of educational and scientific materials for partners, the setting up of workshops and meetings with children, exchanges with teachers and the creation of links with village actors, all in order to anchor the approach in a sustainable dynamic.
Its implementation also revealed the full complexity of genuine regional cooperation.
Cooperation that cannot be improvised
Based on its experience, O'Sphère reminds us that a cooperation initiative cannot be conceived as a simple extension of a local project. It requires a thorough knowledge of the partner territories, their histories, power dynamics, economic realities, and administrative practices.
Aurélie insists on the need to avoid arriving with a top-down attitude.
«"We need to understand our history with Europe, so we don't arrive like a vazaha (foreigner)."1. »
In Madagascar, the issues are not the same as in Réunion. While children in Réunion work to replant endemic and native species, Malagasy children may be confronted with much more immediate realities: helping with fishing, working in the fields, contributing to family life.
«"In Réunion, our priority with children is to replant endemic and native species. In Madagascar, they need to eat."»
This difference does not make cooperation impossible. On the contrary, it requires us to approach it with more humility, caution, and attentiveness.
The decisive importance of the local relay
Among the major lessons learned from the project, one of the most significant concerns the role of the local liaison. In Madagascar, O'Sphère had identified a trusted individual, Antonio, capable of liaising between partners, schools, the hotel, the local association, and the village.
When this lead facilitator left their position mid-project, the balance was disrupted. Even though the tools were ready, the equipment was on site, and the workshops had been designed, the absence of a local coordinator made continuity more difficult.
«"We put in place all the necessary tools and equipment, and now we no longer have any on-site support."»
For O'Sphère, this experience shows that a cooperation project is not based solely on a budget, activities, and institutional partners. It also relies, very concretely, on people capable of maintaining momentum over the long term.
Unexpected events as indicators of support needs
The first mission to Madagascar was a success. The second was much more challenging: political instability, flight changes, unforeseen transit through Mayotte, disputes with Air Austral, difficulties obtaining supporting documents, cash flow problems, and the absence of a local contact person.
«"The first mission was incredible. The second mission was a disaster."»
These difficulties have highlighted the very concrete needs that small associations can face when undertaking international cooperation: unforeseen expenses, cash advance, security, health, transport, responsibility with minors, supporting documents impossible to obtain.
In Madagascar, some payments are made by phone, banknotes may be handwritten, and market purchases do not always result in formal invoices. These realities sometimes conflict with the administrative requirements of funding bodies.
«"In Madagascar, you pay by text message. Except that afterwards, as proof of payment, it doesn't work."»
For Aurélie, these situations should not lead to lowering transparency requirements, but to better preparing carriers and providing appropriate tools: alternative supporting documents, contingency lines, legal support, advice on responsibilities, preparation for field risks.
Support, a safety net
In this context, the support offered by CORÉOM played a decisive role. O'Sphère already had experience in project development, but this was the first time the association benefited from support integrated with funding.
«"For me, having support integrated into the financing system is a first."»
The facilitator from 3A Conseil, a partner structure of the program in Reunion Island, first helped to clarify the file, to make the project readable, to explain the terms and to bring out what was obvious to the project leaders.
«"She would say to us: 'But what is an Educational Area? I know, but if I'm 'CORÉOM', I don't know.'"«
But the support was also invaluable during implementation, when difficulties arose. It provided reassurance, methodology, and human support, without ever replacing the association.
For O'Sphère, this dimension is essential. Small associations often bear a very heavy burden: financial responsibility, moral responsibility, volunteer management, relationships with partners, participant safety, and justification of funds. In these situations, support goes beyond technical advice; it becomes a safe space.
A step up in scale for O'Sphere
Beyond the project itself, CORÉOM allowed O'Sphère and Sciences Réunion to test their capacity to lead large-scale regional cooperation. For O'Sphère, the program strengthened its legitimacy, highlighted its weaknesses, and fostered broader reflection on its future.
The association is now considering a transformation into Kolektif Andémik, a collective of scientists, naturalists, artists and authors and citizens committed to the protection of biodiversity and cultural heritage of Reunion Island, with the ambition of structuring a naturalist school of Reunion Island and the Indian Ocean.
«"O'Sphère will more or less become the umbrella organization for Kolektif Andémik, with this project to create a naturalist school in Réunion and the Indian Ocean."»
The CORÉOM project thus appears as a step in a longer trajectory: that of a small voluntary association, very rooted in its territory, which seeks to change scale without losing its original spirit.
What the O'Sphere experiment teaches us
The O'Sphère experience reminds us that a regional cooperation project is not simply about connecting two territories. It is a human, administrative, logistical, cultural and political adventure.
It also shows that small overseas CSOs can carry out ambitious projects when they have appropriate support: an external perspective, help with formalization, a listening ear in times of crisis, security against unforeseen events and recognition of their field expertise.
O'Sphère's testimony invites us to think of support as a process to strengthen several dimensions: legal support, preparation for local realities, securing local relays, appropriate justification tools and spaces for sharing among peers.
Because some carriers, like Aurélie, don't ask to be taught how to do it. They mainly ask for help in holding on, securing the carrier, and passing it on.
- In Malagasy: a foreigner. ↩︎