Children’s Bibles make a hit in Madagascar

A young family engrossed in their Children’s Bibles published by the Malagasy Bible Society with funds from Opportunity 21. The new Bible has enjoyed record sales and is popular among children and adults. Antananarivo, Madagascar. Photo: Malagasy Bible Society (MAD02DJ-2)

ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar — Seven-year-old Kolina loves her Children’s Bible so much that she has memorised all the stories and takes great delight in retelling them to her little brother.

David Ralaiarisoa, a secondary school teacher of history and geography, borrowed a Children’s Bible from a friend “just to have a look at it.”

Captivated

“I started to read it after supper one night and I was literally captivated,” he said. “I could not put it down until I had read all 300 stories and by that time it was two o’clock the next morning!”

That day he bought his own copy and encouraged his students and colleagues to do the same.

These are just two examples of the impact the recently-published Malagasy Children’s Bible is having on children and adults across the country. Funded through O-21, the new Bible has enjoyed record sales, selling on average 200 copies a day following a press conference in April 2000, shortly before its official launch.

Sold out

By June 2001 all 10,000 copies had sold out, but the public were so impressed by the new Bible that they gave generously to a fundraising effort by the Bible Society to reprint it in both Malagasy and French. Some people who had bought copies of the Children’s Bible for young family members when it was first printed returned to the Bible Society bookshop to obtain more copies for themselves.