Madagascar continues to be one of the most impoverished places on earth and its rural areas in the south of the island are often ignored. We have made several trips to the island and in 2025 we once more provided food aid to communities along the southern coastline.
Difficult conditions and often inaccessible areas, have made these people amongst the most forgotten in the world. In February 2025, the Salaam Foundation team returned to the tiny island country to continue with the food aid provisions.
On February 11 2025, after a gruelling 18 hour journey from the capital Antananarivo to Manakara, the team arrived to distribute 12.5 tonnes of rice.
Salaam Foundation’s co-director Azhar Vadi said that 500 bags of rice weighing in at 25kg were distributed to the community. This adds up to around 12.5 tonnes of rice. Vadi said a lot of the food aid distributed will be used by the people for their Ramadan preparations.
Today we completed the distribution of 12.5 tonnes of rice in Manakara, Madagascar. Continue supporting Salaam Foundation’s hunger alleviation initiatives in forgotten parts of the world
Salaam Foundation
FNB 62669147665
Branch 250737
Ref : Mad + your name (zakat /lillah/sadaqa) pic.twitter.com/1XHwuHUMHU— Salaam_Foundation (@salaam_found) February 12, 2025
“One of the hallmarks of Salaam Foundation is to […] go to those forgotten areas and Madagascar is one such country. Within Madagascar, Manakara is probably listed as the most forgotten area because of the 18 hour road journey.”
Salaam Foundation Newsletter 2024/2025: the year that was and looking ahead
Manakara is a town 574.6 km away from the capital city. The only way to travel between the two cities is by car. It is a town that not many people visit because it is not accessible and requires a lot of effort in order to reach the town. The city is located at the east coast near the mouth of the Manakara River and has a small port. There are no commercial flights to Manakara. In 2012, a bridge that connected the northern and southern parts of the city partly collapsed.
In 2023, the country was hit by a tropical cyclone, Tropical Cyclone Freddy with Manakara one of the towns in its path. More than 400 000 people were affected by the cyclone.
Road travel in Madagascar is on another level. Salaam Foundation is heading to Manakara from the capital, Anatanarivo. Non-stop driving for 14 hours and we still have a quarter of the journey to complete. pic.twitter.com/JMwWpOiCeJ
— Salaam_Foundation (@salaam_found) February 11, 2025
Madagascar is the fourth largest island country in the world and is classified as the least developed country in the world. As of 2021, 68.4 % of the population was considered to be multidimensionally poor. The mutli-dimensional poverty index is used to calculate a summary poverty figure for a given population, in which a larger figure indicates a higher level of poverty. This figure considers both the proportion of the population that is deemed poor and the ‘breadth’ of poverty experienced by these ‘poor’ households. Indicators are things like child mortality, nutrition deprivation, years of education, school attendance, standard of living, sanitation, access to improved drinking water, electricity and housing access.
According to the World Food Programme, as of January 2025, 1.31 million citizens in Madagascar faced high levels of food insecurity and more than 90% of its 28 million people lived on less than $3.10 per day. Additionally, the country ranks fourth in the world in terms of chronic malnutrition. Nearly one in two children under the age of five is stunted. In addition, Madagascar is among the five countries where access to water is the most difficult for the population. According to reports, there are twelve million people who do not have access to clean water.
Salaam Foundation
FNB 62669147665
Branch 250737
Ref : Mad + your name (zakat /lillah/sadaqa)
