The Rev Philip Peake took it upon himself to start a leper hospital at Isoavina in 1892, and assisted by friends in Britain and the Malagasy Government, which donated the land, he built thirteen cottages. He struggled with financial problems until the LMS directors finally agreed to give him the necessary funds for a leprosy hospital. (Ibonar A Gow, Madagascar and the Protestant Impact: The Work of the British Missions, 1818-95 (Longman & Dalhousie UP, 1979): 141)

Control of the settlement was passed to the French government in 1900.

Entry updated February 2016