CARE in Madagascar

CARE began working in Madagascar in 1992 at a time when the country was experiencing a severe economic crisis.

In Madagascar we:

help people prepare for future disasters
improve health care
improve agriculture, for example teaching farmers new farming techniques

Madagascar recently emerged from a prolonged political dispute over the outcome of the 2001 presidential election. This political crisis devastated the economy and disrupted an already weak health care system.

In addition, illegal exports of endangered flora and fauna increased during the crisis. Madagascar is renowned for its biological diversity, which is now threatened by serious ecological problems including deforestation and soil erosion.

CARE in action:

Fighting HIV and AIDS
We are working to reduce the spread of HIV and AIDS. CARE is helping local government authorities to establish committees and one of the strategies used by us to raise awareness about HIV and AIDS is training peer educators, who teach others about the disease and promote the use of condoms.

Food production and agriculture
Madagascar’s primary source of income is agriculture, a sector that employs 88 per cent of workers. Less than ten per cent of the land is cultivated due to lack of roads and irrigation infrastructure, credit and marketing, and farm equipment. In Madagascar, much of our work focuses on helping poor communities increase food production and improve their ability to earn a living without depleting natural resources.