In the candlelit semi-darkness of a Madagascar bungalow, Dr. Peter Balasky’s senses sharpen as he watches village natives chant music and dance.
The tiny flame flickers off the dancers, bathing Balasky’s chalk-white ponytail and the rhythmic blur of arms and legs in a celestial orange glow. It looks like square dancing as partners pivot across the hardwood like a pendulum.
Applause erupt from the din of music, raising a mug of Malagasy beer, Balasky swigs and feels blessed. To the Davie veterinarian, this moment confirms two things: why he flew 3,000 miles to a remote village called Ranomafana and that his humanitarian work was far from finished.
“It’s quite mind-bending, very poetic. Everyone dances, including me, and nobody is judgmental,” he said. “I feel blessed to experience the ritual. But in the back of my mind, I know we’re on the wrong track around here.”
Basking in Madagascar culture is reward enough, but Balasky has more troubling concerns. The 1,000-mile-wide island of 17 million people off the southeast coast of Africa is an ecological treasure trove filled with 12,000 plant varieties.
To break the pattern of erosion, he turned a conservation trip 10 years ago into a lifelong mission to protect Madagascar’s ecosystem. He created the nonprofit Friends of Madagascar to serve this purpose.
But to solve a large crisis, Balasky resolved to start small: by building gleaming new schoolhouses in the country’s neediest areas.
From vet to humanitarian
Balasky’s mission to educate the island’s youth started with a heart attack.
In 2001, after the life-threatening scare, the Southwest Ranches resident enrolled in a cardiac rehabilitation group aimed at combating heart disease through yoga and nutrition.
Medical researchers told him all the exercise in the world couldn’t cure his condition without embracing spirituality.
“I needed to have spiritual wellness, like adopting a religion or something. Well, God didn’t do it for me,” Balasky said. “But I always wanted to do something in conservation.”
So he went to Madagascar. After landing in the capital, Antananarivo, Balasky’s heart sank. The country relied on slash-and-burn agriculture, where farmer’s torched entire rainforests until a fertile topsoil layer of ash coated the woodlands.
Within decades, slash-and-burn had destroyed 85 percent of the island nation’s forest cover, he said.
Balasky realized children – Madagascar’s future generations of farmers – wouldn’t embrace new agricultural techniques without a decent education.
“By educating children, they are being taught to embrace conservation,” Balasky said.
Balasky met two female Peace Corps workers in a Malagasy bar. He asked the pair what children would need the most. They said school supplies and plenty of toothbrushes.
Educating students, building schools
Malagasy children call him “papabe,” or “good father.”
A decade of charity earned him the nickname and for good reason. Every year since 2006, Balasky rents a 20-foot shipping container for $10,000 and ships it to Madagascar.
Inside are 500 shoeboxes of pencils, pens, coloring books, textbooks, and hygiene products. In smaller quantities are sharpeners, markers, chalk and erasers – all precious commodities in a poor country.
He sends the container in February and unloads it in October during his biannual visit. The inventory is so vast. Balasky remortgaged his animal hospital to purchase 22 acres of land in Madagascar for $15,000.
Over an eight-year period, Balasky has raised thousands of dollars through the Balasky Animal Hospital, a west Davie clinic. Proceeds from sympathetic schoolteachers and clients have enabled him to build seven schools and refurbish the tin roofs of a dozen others.
Apple Tree Montessori School principal Susan Levine is one such client. Visiting the animal hospital years ago, Levine noticed a bulletin board adorned with thank-you notes and pictures of Malagasy children with Balasky.
Stirred by the veterinarian’s devotion to the island nation, she recently donated money to construct a three-classroom school and a tree-house library.
“I feel so strongly about it because Dr. Balasky’s very dedicated to Madagascar,” said Levine, who’s traveling to Madagascar on Oct. 5 for the school’s groundbreaking. “It’s kind of contagious being around him.”
For three years, Jason Goodstein’s seventh-grade social studies class has bundled school supplies in shoeboxes.
“The kids over here are really sold on it. They’re really excited about it. That’s what excites me about it,” Goodstein said. “It’s a real eye opener sending these supplies to Madagascar through a real live person.”
For more information about Friends of Madagascar, call 954-424-7038, or visit
