Elvino's Inspiring IT Journey: A Backbone of our Work

I'm lucky to be surrounded by remarkable people at Projet Jeune Leader. One of them is Elvino: his journey — from starting as a data entry assistant and growing into our Data and IT Systems Manager — never stops amazing us!

As our organization has grown and our program has scaled over the past few years, Elvino has grown right along with it. He has played a huge part in maintaining the quality of our work throughout this expansion.

An inspiring journey

In March 2022, Elvino joined the Monitoring and Evaluation team at Projet Jeune Leader. He explains: "I wanted to put my skills to use for Madagascar's youth. That's exactly what Projet Jeune Leader is about, and that's why I chose to work here."

At the time, Elvino was working part-time as a data entry assistant. He digitized and organized data that had been collected on paper. But he also traveled to our partner middle schools, often in rural, hard-to-reach areas, to collect that information himself. Thanks to his work, data from all our partner middle schools was gathered, digitized, and organized. This made a huge difference in giving us a clear, detailed picture of how our program was running — from curriculum progress in schools, to the number counseling sessions held, to other key details. At the same time, he kept pursuing his IT studies at the University of Fianarantsoa.

Two years later, in 2024, he became our Data and IT Manager. His job was no longer just about handling data, but actually designing the systems to collect it more efficiently.

Elvino didn't stop there — he kept building his skills and bringing our IT systems to new heights. In January 2026, he became Projet Jeune Leader's Data and IT Systems Manager. All IT functions within the organization are now under his responsibility. He also oversees our whole data management system, from collection all the way to final analysis and output.

"I'm proud to work with such a motivated, dedicated team. Thanks to their commitment, everything the IT team takes on runs smoothly," shares Elvino.

Elvino, at left, en route with some of this colleagues on the M&E team.

Airtable and Elvino: a key upgrade that transformed how we work

We process tens of thousands of data points every year. Since our program significantly scaled up over the past few years, that volume has only grown. Using standard tools like Excel or Google Sheets to handle this much information was becoming a real challenge.

So we made the switch to Airtable, a powerful tool built to manage and automate massive amounts of data.

"One of my favorite memories will always be the moment I completed my first digitalization project at Projet Jeune Leader," Elvino tells us. "What used to be a manual system that ate up so much time got automated. From that point on, working with data became so much easier for us."

Take a look at one of the innovative systems Elvino built. Hundreds of CSE teachers across Madagascar send their data by SMS to a dedicated phone number. Every text message received gets automatically forwarded to a webhook through a custom-build process.

These formally manual data collection processes have now been fully digitalized.

All incoming messages are then processed and organized by Make, and stored in Airtable. The result is amazing: every SMS becomes a row in our database, with zero manual entry. Data is available in real time, with fewer errors, and it's 100% automatic. This system has scaled well across 1,600 CSE teachers across the country. Thanks to this system, data comes in on time from every partner public school, with no need for intermediary data collectors to step in. And crucially, even data from the most rural areas — places without internet access — makes it in on time.

This system helps us enormously in keeping real-time, high-quality oversight of our program across the whole island. It also lets us spot which schools and which CSE teachers need extra support. The goal is for every teenager, no matter their school or region, to get everything they need to thrive.

Elvino's journey is a clear example of how much of an impact information technology can have in the social impact sector. It has the power to propel a mission forward, especially in Madagascar.

Beyond this innovative system, Elvino and his IT department have spent the past few years steadily digitizing nearly every system at Projet Jeune Leader. Almost every team now has its own app and workspace in Airtable, from HR to inventory management and beyond. The result? Our work has become more efficient, organized, automated, faster, higher-quality, and far less error-prone.

Elvino training a team of CSE teachers in how to submit data to PJL via our new text-based system.

New horizons

Elvino recently traveled to Nairobi, Kenya, to attend the ICT4D, an international conference on digital innovation and data-driven solutions to transform humanitarian aid and development work.

"It was a huge milestone for me, since it was the first time I'd attended an international conference. It boosted my confidence, broadened my perspective, and let me build professional connections with people and organizations from all over the world," reflected Elvino.

He also got to connect with other talented professionals working in tech and social impact, and see how his own work fits into a bigger picture. "During the conference, I realized we're not alone in this. So many organizations were facing the same data collection challenges, but they were also coming up with innovative technologies to solve them. I came back with a lot of energy, new ideas, and innovative solutions suited to Madagascar's context."

We can't wait to see what his next wave of innovation brings to Projet Jeune Leader!