Check out the latest blog from Ailie Judd, after her tremendous victory in the Vodafone: World of Difference competition, allowing her to continue her HIV prevention work with small non profit – Azafady. In this blog Ailie talks about why Madagascar is unique in comparison to other parts of Africa, but how political corruption has left the island in crisis.

With just 5 weeks to go until I am back in Fort Dauphin I am caught in cross emotions; excited and eager to return and start my HIV prevention project, and apprehensive and thoughtful of the loved ones and life I am leaving behind. But I feel extremely lucky to be going back and being able work in the country I fell in love with almost a year ago. Like most people in the West I knew very little about Madagascar, apart from the ridiculous cartoon and some vague notion of limas, before I went out to work for Azafady.

Photo: Ed Kashi www.edkashi.com

As the 4^th largest island in the world it is roughly the same size as France, situated in the Indian Ocean with the Mozambique Channel separating it from Africa. Madagascar split from Africa roughly 160 million years ago and the Indian sub continent around 90 million ago. As result the island is an ecologist’s dream as 80% of the plants and wildlife are not found anywhere else in the world. Archaeologists believe the first settlers originated from Polynesia around 2000 years ago, which explains why the native language, Malagasy is very similar to that of Indonesian.  The second language is French due to the colonial rule between 1896-1960.

Since Independence Madagascar has struggled to successful build its economy. Like many African countries political corruption and international interests of the precious natural resources, have hindered development. The current political crisis is yet another episode in Malagasy history, when progress is being reversed and the country is being dragged further back into poverty.  In January 2009 Andry Rajoelina, the Mayor of the Capital Antananarivo, successfully executed a military coup d’être removing the president Marc Ravalomanana from power. Since the coup the country has slowly suffered the impacts of trade sanctions and withdrawal of international aid.

Mark Jacobs, the Director of Azafady recently told me a story which helped me understand the Malagasy apathy to the coup. Whilst Mark was working in the bush he met a village who were desperately in need of a bridge so they could transport goods to the market town. Some years before the villagers had decided to self-fund the project and all gave what they could afford to the Chief of the village. The Chief disappeared with the money and returned with 3 zebus (horned cows). The bridge was never built and the Chief stayed in power. When Mark questioned the villagers, they said they weren’t angry, they didn’t blame the Chief, given the money they would have been tempted to do the same.

The Malagasy people even though extremely poor have an amazing appreciation for life and are not naturally confrontational. There is a strong sense of family and community spirit and modesty when it comes to leadership. Those that take advantage of this good nature are few and far between, but leave devastation when they do.

Like what your read? Check out some of Ailie’s previous posts below:

Azafady: Looking To the Future

Help Azafady

Azafady – The Final Hurdle

A Tremendous Success For Azafady