Dear friends and family,

Forgive us for writing to you all so directly for your help. One of the charities we supported during our Atlantic row, Feedback Madagascar, have been in touch with an urgent appeal. Three weeks ago cyclone Batsiari hit the East Coast of Madagascar. Unbelievably, a second cyclone, Emnati, hit exactly in the same place last week.

Thanks to all your fantastic support in 2019, Feedback Madagascar built 10 ‘Broarholes’, giving lifesaving clean water to over 3000 people. These have been flooded and contaminated by the cyclones, but the charity is doing their best to treat and test them so as to get them back in action as fast as possible.
Both cyclones were worse than any others witnessed by the charity in the 30 years they’ve worked there; a double strike so close in succession is unheard of.

Information has been very difficult to gather due to a total loss of connectivity, but the numbers after Batsiari were already shocking. In one district alone, Ikongo, 101 people were reported dead, many of them children. Villages looked as if they’d been bombed; some were completely washed away. As news of Emnati was circulated, already emaciated and exhausted people searched for high points and concrete structures to hide in. Many of these people had already lost their homes, livelihoods and loved ones. We dread to hear what Emnati's toll has been. Crops have been ruined and disease will spread throughout villages. Unlike the storms that recently passed through the UK, these cyclones will be felt by the Malagasy for months and years to come.

The cyclones tore through the region in which most of the charity’s work takes place. Jamie Spencer and his team have been working day and night to help. They have the largest network of personnel in the area, working in 500 villages. As we speak they are delivering food, blankets, polythene, pots, seeds and money etc. to thousands of destitute families. The clean-up and rebuild programme is going to be huge but Feedback Madagascar is there to make it happen. They will use every penny we raise - and use it where it's most needed.