Last week a British Embassy team led by the Ambassador, David Ashley, visited the parts of southern Ikongo worst affected. They came to see projects undertaken by Feedback Madagascar and Ny Tanintsika, as well as the World Food Programme.

Cyclones Batsirai and Emnati hit the southern Ikongo district within two weeks of each other in February 2022, tearing through communities and leaving an aftermath of destruction. Hundreds of schools were totally destroyed and hundreds more lost their roofs.

Feedback Madagascar has worked with the community of Antoebe, near the forest in the Ambohimahamasina municipality, for 3 years.

“In 15 years” says Nathalie, “the situation has barely improved and people are just as poor as they were back then. We need to start encouraging the local communities not to wait for the government or NGOs to come and improve things, but to have the confidence to take their own initiative, to know that they can make the changes themselves”