Thank you for providing life-saving support to families in Madagascar

Someone in an orange t shirt sits on a box in front of a house, In the background two children stand against the wall of a house made of wood.

Your generous gifts are providing a lifeline to 1100 families in Southern Madagascar.

Back-to-back droughts in southern Madagascar have left more than a million people on the verge of starvation, with families resorting to eating insects, leaves and cactus plants to survive.

As always in times of crises, people with disabilities and their families are among those most vulnerable – and the least likely to access emergency help. Already often among the poorest in their communities, they may be unable to walk long distances to access emergency food distribution or find out about what help is available.

CBM has been working with our partner in the region since June to provide emergency relief to vulnerable families, especially those with disabilities. 

Your donations have provided urgent assistance to 1100 families in the Anosy and Androy regions of Southern Madagascar, including 241 people with disabilities, enabling them to access food, water, medication, soap and other essentials.  

Our local partners identified the most highly food insecure families, including households with people with disabilities. Each family is receiving cash support so they can buy food, soap, medication and other essentials as well as livelihood support. The aim is to enable every family to cover their basic needs for 5 months through this ongoing catastrophic situation, but also to help them improve their future food security and ability to earn an income, for example through buying chickens.

We have been overwhelmed by your generous support in response to our emergency appeal. The amazing response from the UK means that CBM and our partner were able to expand the number of families from our original target of 700 to 1100 and means we will be able to provide longer-term support. Thank you!

As well as providing direct support to these families, we are working with local disability organizations in the region to ensure that other agencies responding to the crisis are making the emergency relief they offer accessible to people with disabilities. By using our expertise and harnessing the knowledge of our local partners in this way, we can help ensure that people with disabilities aren’t forgotten – and have a much bigger impact than we could by working alone.

Young adult male and older women standing outside their house.

Mosa, 45, has a learning disability and a physical disability. He and his mother support themselves by farming but the drought had a devastating impact on their crops. They now live in a tiny wooden shelter, as they had to sell their house to buy food. Mosa explains:

“Because of the drought, we go to the town of Amboasary from time to time to get food. We leave early in the morning and arrive at nightfall because I can’t walk fast. We had a nice house in the past but we had to sell it to buy food.”

Thanks to your support, Mosa and his mother have been able to buy food and cooking pots. His mother says:

“We thank CBM because we suffered a lot before, we received money that allowed us to buy pots and also some food to eat.”

Young adult male holding a sign saying ‘Thank You’ in French, standing next to older women.

Images: 1st – Haova, a mother of three who has a physical disability, can now provide nutritious food for her children. She has also been able to buy a laying hen to improve their longer-term food security. 2nd – Mosa and his mother stood outside their home in Madagascar. 3rd – Mosa holding a sign saying ‘Thank You’ in French, stood alongside his mother. ©CBM/Viviane.H.Rakotoarivony.



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