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Madagascar: Preparing for the cyclone season

Countries
Madagascar
Sources
CARE
Publication date
Origin
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Madagascar is one of the poorest countries in the world. 70 per cent of the population lives on less than a dollar a day. Frequent natural disasters, on top of poverty, leave the people of Madagascar unable to cope.

With the cyclone season soon to begin CARE (with funding from UKaid) is positioning shelter kits in order to enable those households whose huts are destroyed or badly damaged by a cyclone to set up a temporary shelter while they rebuild their homes.

This may take several weeks or even months given that most rural households have very little income in the period following cyclones while building materials become scarce and their price tends to increase.

In addition, as the kits are easily assembled, the households can rapidly get a place where they are sheltered from the bad weather which is frequent during the cyclone season.

4,000 shelter kits have been put in place for the 2010-2011cyclone season. Each shelter kit is made up of:

* Two rolls of plastic sheeting

* Two ropes

* Eight pegs

* One knife to cut plastic sheeting

The cyclones often come with violent floods and tidal waves that sweep away everything, including the houses and their contents.

When a cyclone hits people are forced to move out to community shelters or to relatives' homes, bringing with them only vital items such as blankets and food.

Going back to their homes they will often find that their personal belongings and cooking utensils have been swept away by the waters.

To enable people to rapidly resume their daily activities CARE is providing kits that contain eleven items that are the most used by households.

In particular, they include waterproof bags so that people can store their personal effects and in this way keep them safe in the event of another cyclone or bad weather.

Each household will be entitled to a kit made up of:

* Five plastic plates

* Five metallic spoons

* One metallic ladle

* Five plastic cups

* One basin

* Two buckets

* Three lambahoanys (printed cotton cloth)

* One piece of soap

* Two pots

* One waterproof bag