Our History

In its early existence, ADRA Madagascar implemented relief, agriculture, infrastructure and education projects mainly in the central highlands, funded primarily by ADRA International and ADRA network offices.

ADRA Madagascar started promoting primary education in 1996, with funds from ADRA International and ADRA Netherlands. Every school year, hundreds of school children from needy families received support including tuition assistance, school supplies, and hot meals. Since 2013, more than 120,000 pairs of shoes from TOMS have been donated to school children every school year. Moreover, 22MT of rehydrated rice donated by Rise Against Hunger have been distributed to public and private primary schools to support to their school feeding programs.

In 1998, ADRA expanded its program focus and started to implement larger scale public-funded projects in food security and health in other regions of Madagascar. Between 1998 and 2006, ADRA run three health projects funded by USAID on the east coast. The projects aimed to improve the health status of mothers and children under 5, promoting family planning and preventing HIV/AIDs among vulnerable groups. ADRA also implemented a supplementary feeding project funded by the World Bank for children treated for acute malnutrition in the main public hospitals of the region.

Between 1998 and 2019, ADRA has implemented five food security projects funded by USAID. ADRA has targeted regions with high malnutrition rates in the eastern and southern parts of the country, implementing health and nutrition, hygiene, agriculture, agribusiness, infrastructure, resilience and environment activities. SALOHI, the third project which started in 2009, benefited 57,000 households. Nearly 9,000 metric tons of commodities were distributed to curb malnutrition. In 2014, ASOTRY aims to improve livelihoods and food security for 264,380 beneficiaries. And in 2019, the new project called FIOVANA was launched in the Vatovavy Fitovinany and Atsimo Atsinanana regions which aims to improve food security for 428,800 beneficiaries.

From 2014, ADRA has also managed a food security project funded by the European Union, aiming at reducing poverty and increasing livelihoods of 225,000 people in Betroka, in the south

ADRA has carried out numerous short-term agriculture projects and emergency distributions in southern Madagascar, a region hit by chronic drought, since 2007. When the drought situation became worse in early 2015 as a result of El Niño, ADRA stepped up interventions to assist the vulnerable populations affected by food crises. With support from USAID, ADRA provided life-saving food to over 19,000 households in two of the hardest hit districts. ADRA also helped 7,600 households recover from the drought through distributions of drought-resistant seeds and conservation agriculture training. From 2015, ADRA has partnered with the German Federal Ministry for Cooperation and Development (BMZ) to implement the ZINA project, with the objective to increase access to food and build resilience to drought among 22,500 persons. In 2019, the FANONGA project was launched too to improve ZINA’s impact.

Since its founding, ADRA has responded to major disasters which struck the island.  During the 2015 floods in the capital city, ADRA distributed critical relief supplies to 1,550 displaced households.  In March 2017, ADRA provided commodities, cooking and hygiene kits, and shelter kits to 1080 households affected by cyclone ENAWO.

Through these projects, ADRA Madagascar has changed thousands of lives, empowering them to break the cycle of poverty. The agency is committed to continually improving efforts to strengthen the impact of its interventions, and to expand its reach.