HoverAid’s Emergency Relief
Madagascar has the dubious distinction of being in the top ten countries for cyclones, having on average 1.5 per year. When the rains and winds come, it brings devastation in the flat lowland areas, which quickly become flooded, sometimes to a depth of six metres! ( that’s as deep as going from the floor of your hall to the ceiling of your bedroom on the next floor, in a “normal” UK house)
When disaster strikes, we are often the first and sometime the only organisation to get there. We provide relief in the form of aid kits. Often a bucket filled with useful things, cooking utensils, oil, soap, salt and rice. We try and work with partners, so that we can be more effective, but where there is only us, then we do what we can with what we have. That might be providing a nails to help someone rebuild their house, or it could be some gardening tools and seeds, or fishing equipment, so that people can help themselves get back up again. Our aim is to empower and encourage people back to their “normal”. It may mean pumping out an open well, now filled with mud from flooding. It may be talking to village elders about what they could do, helping make plans with how to move forward. Hope comes in many forms and we try and provide whatever we can to those who need it most.
