Helping Madagascar Cyclone Victims

Cyclone Haruna hit the south west coast of Madagascar on February 22. The storm caused at least 18 deaths and forced 22,000 people from their homes.

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Handicap International, which is present in the district of Toliary I, is helping to coordinate the relief effort and is responsible for identifying and assisting displaced people at the Antaninarenina high school. The charity is also coordinating their temporary rehousing in one of two sites identified as equipped reception areas (a gymnasium in Toliary and a military camp in the urban district of Toliary).

There are 547 people in this group of displaced people, including 177 children under the age of five, 24 pregnant women and 56 nursing mothers. They currently live in makeshift accommodation and their transfer is being organized.

Handicap International has run a project in the Toliary prison since 2009. The project takes a psycho-social approach to improving the living conditions of prisoners. The prison's food stocks were destroyed by the flooding, and the prison was damaged. The cells of 550 prisoners were spared. The current priority is to distribute food stocks to the prison.