The Junges Ensemble Berlin, one of Germany’s leading youth orchestras, bewitched its audience with Beethoven’s masterful violin concerto and Prokofiev’s fiery Fifth Symphony. What an evening at the Berlin Philharmonic!
A seven-year-old girl in the village of Mandiso, in the south-east of Madagascar. Her name: Kristy.
In Autumn 2016 we received a request from the mayor of Fotadrevo: The town has a primary school for about 200 children, but the nearest secondary is in Ejeda, 100 kilometres away by road – up to six hours by bus. Only a few families from Fotadrevo and its environs can afford to send their children to secondary school.
In spring and autumn 2021, COVID-19 cases increased rapidly and hospitals throughout the country were overwhelmed. The capital Antananarivo was the most affected. Schools and public buildings served
as improvised hospitals. There was a lack of staff, oxygen and equipment. Even the two largest COVID-19 clinics in the country lacked equipment. We provided emergency aid at the request of the Ministry of Health.
Launched in 2016, we now operate 6 all-terrain ambulances in the rural south of the island. The journeys take them over dirt roads, through rivers and across country. Drivers and vehicles are often pushed to their limits.
The south of Madagascar suffered the worst drought since 1981 last year. Drought and sandstorms inflicted devastating damage to the fields. Livestock died of starvation and thirst. People ate cacti, locusts or indigestible plant remains. Several thousand people were threatened with starvation.
The lack of network coverage in rural regions of Madagascar often prevents life-saving emergency calls from being made – but if the emergency call is received, every second counts. In order to be able to prepare for emergency missions in the best possible way despite precarious medical equipment, our teams in the south have been reinforced:
Dr. med. Caroline Ferse is a specialist in neurology and has been driving emergency medical services in Berlin for 5 years.
Madame Hortensia joined Doctors for Madagascar in 2020 as Country Director in Madagascar. She represents and administers the charity on site from her office in Antananarivo.
Lukas Beigel is part of Ärzte für Madagaskar Team in Berlin. He is working on enhancing visibility and transparency of the projects through new ways of knowledge sharing and cost data analysis.
