This year, more than any other, the southeastern regions of Madagascar are suffering from drought and a prolonged lack of rain. In an area where most people rely on farming for food and income, the dry spell’s effect on the harvest has been devastating. It's the “kéré,” as the locals say, a term describing the lack of food and hunger.
“If the season is good, we grow rice and sweet potatoes,” said Mandilsoa, chief of the Kapila fonkontany (village) in Ranobe commune. “But there has been no rain for the last three years, so we can't cultivate anything. We hope that the rain will come, otherwise we will die.”
Since the end of March 2021, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has been running mobile clinics in three communes of Madagascar’s Amboasary district in the southern Anosy region, including Ranobe. We’re focusing on screening and treating people for severe and moderate acute malnutrition.