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SOS-Kinderdorf leistet Nothilfe in Madagaskar
Huge despair

"Children are so incredibly thin"

In the south of Madagascar, hunger and desperation are taking on dramatic forms!

"Some people eat the kernels and seeds that they actually wanted to plant next spring - this drives the vicious circle further. Others have tried to kill themselves because they are so desperate," says Jean Francois Lepetit, head of SOS Children's Villages in Madagascar.

The situation is particularly dramatic for the children: "They look so bad. It hurts to talk about it alone. They are incredibly thin. Many can no longer go to school because of hunger and weakness," Lepetit describes the threatening situation. A total of 1.3 million people are suffering from food shortages in the affected areas, 730,000 of them children. 28,000 people are already affected by acute hunger, which can quickly become life-threatening and lead to developmental damage in children.

Climate change causes long droughts

Although droughts are a well-known phenomenon in Madagascar, Lepetit says that climate change has significantly worsened the situation this year: "We have hardly had any rain for four years and the next rains are not expected to come until May 2022. There are nine months to go before then." If it doesn't rain next year either, that would mean another massive worsening.

Help for people in Madagascar

Lepetit appeals to the world's population: "Do not abandon the children and families in this inhuman situation! Support the people who are already fighting for their lives!"
SOS Children's Villages' emergency relief programme so far is not enough. "The number of extremely malnourished people has doubled in the last 3 months," our SOS Emergency Relief Coordinators on the ground report. For this reason, SOS Children's Villages has extended the emergency aid and will intensify the work again from October 2021 - June 2022. The aim is to save a total of around 10,000 children, young people and families from starvation and to provide them with food aid, water and medical support.

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