The island of Madagascar was a French colony until 1960 when it gained its independence from what was widely considered harsh rule, including a bloody suppression of a local uprising against French rule in 1947. However, as with many of the newly emerging African republics, Madagascar replaced one form of unwanted rule with a succession of unstable governments, coups and assassination attempts at odds with a military aim of creating a 'socialist paradise' with firm ties to the Soviet Union and the spurning of ties with the west.

Around 70% of the island's population live in rural communities, normally in wooden, thatched roofed homes, making them particularly susceptible to the cyclones, storms and the resultant flooding that have been a dominant feature of Madagascar's recent history. Ironically, in the south of the island, recent years have seen severe droughts leading to water shortages and crop failure. For those who wonder why water simply cannot be shipped from the north, it is easy to forget that this is a poor country with limited resources but the size of Luxembourg, Belgium and France combined.

Today fishing and forestry engage around 80% of the population, however there are concerns that the cutting down of the island's forests, mainly for firewood, are having a longer term effect, causing erosion with implications for the island's food supply and destroying habitats for the island's animal population, half of which are found no where else on earth.

The economy has been further damaged by massive falls in tourism due to the ongoing political instability. It is against this background of need that the EU decided to suspend humanitarian and development aid to Madagascar in 2010 at frustration at the lack of any tangible progress towards democracy after a fifteenth month transitional agreement was agreed in the summer of 2009 but failed to be implemented. It is therefore down to charities to ensure that Madagascar's children have their needs met when the government falls short.

And those shortfalls are currently seeing children being pulled out of schools, factories closing, hospitals struggling and running out of supplies against a backdrop of over half the country's children suffering from malnourishment. The current crisis had led to an increase in the numbers of street children in places like the Madagascan capital of Antananarivo, already home to thousands of children begging on the streets. One eleven year old even described the lifestyle as even being lucky: "Sometimes the street vendors let us sleep by their fires. The grannies who sleep on the pavements know us; they know we have our own money and we won't steal from them, so they let us stay."