(English) Madagascar, you, and us

Miala tsiny fa tsy mbola misy amin’ny teny malagasy ity lahatsoratra ity.

The people, the plants, and the animals of Madagascar are fighting a battle for survival, against problems which are almost all not of their making.

Our work is inclusive, it is fair, and it is necessary. Join us.   

At Money for Madagascar, we work with and for Malagasy organisations, communities and individuals, offering people a platform from which their work, innovation and skill can lift them from poverty and hunger, as well as the means to protect and expand their vital, vibrant forests, saving animals and plants from extinction.

Madagascar is a beautiful country, rich in resources and with immense agricultural as well as many other kinds, of potential.

Its forests contain five per cent of the world’s species of flora and fauna, and of those 80 per cent are endemic – found nowhere else on Earth.

But poverty and hunger – and all its worst outcomes – stalk Malagasy men, women and children.

Almost four in every five (79.9 per cent of) Malagasy people survive on £1.73 per day – the global poverty line – or less. More than 90 per cent live on less than £2.30 per day.

UNDP reports that Madagascar is the world’s third poorest nation in terms of access to food and school attendance – behind only Haiti and Afghanistan.

Half of all Malagasy children suffer stunting due to malnutrition, and that malnutrition is chronic in 40 per cent of the nation’s young people.

One in ten Malagasy children do not even reach their 10^th birthday, while four in ten do not finish primary school due to hunger, ill-health and poverty.

More than 1.32m Malagasy men, women and children are living under high levels of acute food insecurity: they lack sufficient food to meet their basic needs, threatening their health, strength, ability to work and their lives. The next level of food shortage is famine.

Many, many more Malagasy people suffer hunger daily. Most miss at least one meal per day. The threat to health and welfare is clear.

Health can also be threatened from other sources.

Only 36 per cent of Malagasy people have access to electricity – a number which drops to 11 per cent of people in rural communities. This means they are forced to burn wood to cook with, and paraffin or kerosene for light when the sun goes down.

Wood smoke, and even more so that from paraffin and kerosene, can be extremely harmful. And the threat of fire is an ever-present in these Malagasy homes. Equally, many people simply cannot afford the fuel to light their rooms: when the sun goes down, the light disappears.

And Madagascar is the world’s least developed country: 80 per cent of Malagasy people rely on agriculture – in many cases subsistence farming – for income or food.

Even this means of survival is under threat: although Madagascar is one of only four ‘carbon sinks’ – states which absorb more carbon from the atmosphere than they emit – on Earth, climate catastrophe is hitting the island, and its people, hard.

Drought and floods are ruining Malagasy people’s crops. Extreme rain events are washing away the island’s fertile soil. Climate change is not of Malagasy people’s making, but it is hitting them at least as hard as anyone on Earth.  

Under these circumstances, there is a clear motivation – perhaps even a driving need – for Malagasy people to try to increase their earning and food production capacities by taking more land from the forests.

But this, too, is catastrophic.

Madagascar has already lost 80 per cent of its natural areas, and loses around 200,000ha. of its forests per year. If this rate of deforestation continues, the Malagasy forest will be gone in just 40 years.

This will, of course, destroy the beautiful Malagasy plants and animals – four-fifths of which are found nowhere else on Earth – meaning we will no longer be able to enjoy them, or in the case of medicinal plants, benefit from their healing properties.

We know that we all – every living thing on Earth – rely on the rainforests for air, for environmental balance and to reduce and mitigate against the worst effects of the looming climate catastrophe.

And we should also remember that like every living thing on Earth, those plants and animals have a right to be where they are, and to live as undisturbed as possible.

And at present, they are not able to do that.

There are more ring-tailed lemurs in zoos than in the Malagasy rainforest. There are 600 endangered species of animals and plants in Madagascar, and more than 3,900 are threatened (the ‘level’ above threatened is endangered: the ‘level’ above endangered is extinct).

And the removal of forest does not even benefit Malagasy people for long: the exposed soil retains its fertility for only a short period, and in many cases is washed away.

That is why we do what we do.

Our programmes work with Malagasy people to help them develop their own solutions to the problems and challenges they identify.

Education for Life helps young people and adults access food and clean water, and improve their health and their education, helping entire communities realise and achieve their potential.

Children for the Future helps children who have ‘fallen out’ of the system: with our Malagasy partners we help them back to school, provide them with physical and mental care, food and shelter until they can reunite with their families, if that is possible.

In Renewable Forests and Livelihoods we deliver training, information, skills and equipment which empower Malagasy people to increase food production and income while protecting their soil, and expanding the Malagasy rainforest.

And as part of the SUM consortium, we are ensuring Malagasy men, women and children have reliable, safe power from solar energy, with which to power their homes.

We are making a difference to Malagasy lives, by helping Malagasy people take control.

We are making a difference to the rainforests by enabling Malagasy people to protect them, rather than regard them as an obstacle to food and survival.

And in doing so, we are making a difference to the world we all share – plants, people and other animals alike.

And of course, we need your help.

As you may have expected, there will be a ‘donate’ button at the end of this piece (and there is one in the top right of the screen).

Your donation will make a difference.

But that’s not the only thing we invited you here for.

We’d love it if you’d like to take a look around.

You can follow the links in this piece to learn more about our work. Or you can click here, here, here and here to meet some of the Malagasy men, women and children we work with and for.

You can use the menu in the grey bar at the top of your screen to find out more about… anything you want!

As long as it relates to MfM, it’s all here.

So please stay a while. Look around.

If you want to donate, please do, but if you don’t or can’t right now, you are welcome to be here.

Please do share this site, and what we are and do, with your friends, family, contacts and colleagues.

Like and share the post if you arrived here through social media, and if you’d like to, drop us a line, or contact your MP or other community leader to let them know what’s happening here, in Madagascar, and how they – like you – can be involved.

Thank you for reading, enjoy your visit, and we hope to see you soon.