The last rains were in April. For the past two years, the water that planting and harvests depend on has not arrived in October, putting the futures of children including Odile’s in question.
Hers is a sad story and an all too common one across the island nation off the southern coast of Africa, which is struggling with extreme weather linked to climate change – 1.1 million people are suffering from hunger, with nearly 14,000 people in “famine-like conditions” – a figure expected to double by the end of the year.
In the south of Madagascar, many people are subsistence farmers who’ve lost their livelihoods as well as their only source of food due to erratic weather.