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Make a real difference...
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Many people's perceptions about life in Madagascar will have been
formed either through visiting it as a tourist destination,
through the Madagascar film franchise or by documentaries
exploring its unique wildlife and landscape. The reality is, however, often very different. Chronic political
instability has seen organisations like the EU suspending humanitarian
aid to one of the world's poorest countries, a country where children
are being pulled out of schools, factories are closing, hospitals are
struggling and running out of supplies with over half the country's
children suffering from malnourishment. The ongoing political instability has also led to an
increase in the numbers of street children in places like the
Madagascan capital of Antananarivo, already home to thousands of
children begging on the streets.
70% of the island's inhabitants live below the poverty line, with 85% per cent of them in rural areas who eke out a life on small plots of land barely 1.3 hectares in size growing growing cassava, maize, beans and sugar cane
as well as the staple diet of rice. They live in houses built from mud and sticks or hand made wood fired
bricks with thatched roofs made of grass and dirt floors.
Farming is equally basic with tools often made by hand and
fields ploughed by zebu, an ox-like creature. One eight year old
describes village life in Madagascar as spending time at primary
school learning English, French and 'other things' then
returning home to play 'it' before carrying out tasks such as
carrying water to the home and helping his herder father grow
rice and manage the family zebus.
In rural villages life is rudimentary without electricity, running water or
sanitation; only 14% of the rural population have access to
water and 7.5% have access to sanitation causing health risks
particularly to children in a country where diarrheal disease is among the highest causes of morbidity and mortality particularly amongst the young. Just 29% of Madagascar's schools have access
to drinking water and only 30% have toilets ~ children are
encouraged to bring in bottled water but as one youngster
explains "I draw from a river close to our house. I drink it
when I am thirsty, even if it is not clean." 40% of all
Madagascan children suffer from malnutrition and, as of mid-2021, at least half a million children under five in the drought-afflicted southern Madagascar are on the verge of acute malnourishment. It's shocking to think that half of the children shown in the video (below) won't live long enough to attend
school and virtually none who survive childhood will reach their
66th birthday.
Life in Madagascar: Volunteer in Madagascar
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Life in Madagascar: Madagascar Poverty
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Life in Madagascar: Child Sponsor Madagascar
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Life in Madagascar: Madagascar Country Profile
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