SILVER SPRING, Md.--In partnership with other humanitarian aid agencies active in Madagascar, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) is continuing to provide critical aid for food insecure families living in communities in central and southeastern coastal areas who have grown increasingly vulnerable in the face of the nation's precarious political climate, persistent drought, and crippling disasters.
"2009 has been an extremely difficult year for the Malagasy people," said Herinjanahary Fleur Henrisse, Finance and Administration director for ADRA Madagascar. "However, due to the challenges that the country continues to face, the need for immediate assistance is even more critical than ever before."
A five-year program, known as the Strengthening and Accessing Livelihoods Opportunities for Household Impact (SALOHI) program and worth $79 million, was launched recently to address the needs of vulnerable households in the affected area. By its completion in 2014, it will have benefited at least 90,000 households throughout the central and southeastern parts of the country, increasing access to food and reducing household vulnerability to emergencies, such as droughts, cyclones, and floods.
As a key partner in the project, ADRA is responsible for building the capacity of the constituents, promoting basic health care practices, increasing access to quality health care for beneficiaries, and improving nutrition particularly among mothers and young children. Through ADRA's work, a total of 30,000 food-insecure households will benefit from this sector of the project. More than 17,000 of those beneficiaries are children under the age of two.
Through SALOHI, ADRA will also facilitate the distribution of supplementary food items for vulnerable families through its Food for Nutrition, Food for Training, and Food for Assets/Food for Work activities.
ADRA is working in the cyclone and flood prone coastal districts of Nosy Varika and Mananjary, as well as the central districts of Ifanadiana, Fandriana, Ambositra, and Manandriana.
Funders for this program include the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Office of Food for Peace and ADRA, in partnership with Catholic Relief Services (CRS), CARE International, and the Land O'Lakes International Development Division. Other partners include government and local authorities, district health offices, local health clinics, and local media.
In Madagascar, where more than 70 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, food insecurity has reached alarming levels. According to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), chronic food insecurity affects 65 percent of the population, in addition to another eight percent during the annual lean season. Nearly one of every two children in this Indian Ocean nation suffers from nutritional stunting, while another 42 percent are underweight.
Since 1991, ADRA Madagascar has implemented programs in the areas of food security, child survival, and family planning.
ADRA is a non-governmental organization present in 125 countries providing sustainable community development and disaster relief without regard to political or religious association, age, gender, race or ethnicity.
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
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