Daniel is a child and youth care specialist. He is also the founder and president of a grassroots non-profit Hay Kanto, which seeks to support and develop resilience among youth in crisis including youth in conflict with the laws, children living in extreme poverty, and runaway youth.
Throughout his decade-long career in social care, Daniel has worked as a program and operations lead in the field of child protection, education, public health, and social protection both in grassroots non-profits and for major international development agencies.
He has received several prestigious awards in recognition of his leadership work in social care such as the Mandela Washington Fellowship in 2021, the Mandela Washington Alumni Institute Enrichment in 2022 awarded by the US Department of State and a Certificate of Recognition awarded by the Township of Rhinebeck in New York for his many contributions to the success of their international program “Madagascar Connect” in partnership with Hay Kanto.
Daniel has a master’s degree in Managerial Economics from the CNTEMAD University in Madagascar and a Post-graduate Diploma in Child and Youth Care Studies from the University of Strathclyde, UK.
The youths that I take care of are my inspiration. Their journey has been tremendously perilous, made them vulnerable and wounded, and yet they find somewhere and somehow the strength to go on, to heal, and to build for themselves hope when everything around them is nothing but darkness and hostility. They teach me every day to be stronger and go further in the work I do.Henintsoa Daniel Rakotoarison