"The great majority of Malagasies struggle daily to survive: to find work, a plate of rice, medical treatment and to send their children to school. After three years of drought in the south and two recent cyclones, the humanitarian situation has deteriorated further with the recent political crisis and the negative reactions of the international community that suspended development funding", said to MISNA Father Pedro Opeka, a Lazzarist missionary of the French Saint-Vincent-de-Paul order, who has worked along side the Madagascan population for 36 years in their struggle against poverty, in commenting the current social-economic situation on the large African island. Contacted at the Akamasoa centre (literally 'good friends' in Malagasy language), in activity for 20 years in the outskirts of the capital Antananarivo, the missionary speaks about "the around 1,000 children that need to be fed each day and assistance to the elderly and teen-mothers". Concretely, this means at least two tonnes of rice a day and the necessary assistance for the unemployed, who are always more numerous after months of political and economic paralysis due to the standoff between the now former president Marc Marc Ravalomanana and his rival, the young mayor of the capital Andry Rajoelina, since March 21 head of the Transitional Authority. Testimonies reported by the UN IrinNews service confirm the situation depicted by the missionary of a growing number of severely malnourished children, fed only with a high-protein, high-energy, peanut-based paste provided to health and nutrition centres by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). Already in December the government's Early Warning System (SAP) sounded the alarm that some 400,000 people were living in food-insecure districts; a chronic problem in Madagascar,, which UNICEF calls a "silent emergency", especially in the south of the island. (Continues)
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