Madagascar
 Children in a rural village in the outskirts of Antsiranana.
Madagascar, the fourth largest island in the world, is located just to the east of the African continent, adjacent to South Africa. Madagascar has two official languages (Malagasy and French) thanks to French colonialism which ended in 1960. In the fifty years that have passed since independence, Madagascar has had a fairly rough and tumble time; this is partially due to an increase in population, transient political powers, corruption, and a large influx of foreign aid money.
In recent years, the political situation has become more stable. However, uncertainty of whether the current political party gained power in a legal manner is disputed (many claim it was a coup), and so many western countries (the United States included) have withdrawn all non-essential aid from the country. In a land where at one point, 75% of each person's income came from foreign aid, this has been a huge blow to the Malagasy economy. Additionally, the government has recently been cutting funds to education; in March of 2009 the government's education budget was slashed by thirty percent. The country's universities are chronically understaffed and underfunded. It takes the average undergraduate student eight to nine years to finish a four year degree, and more than 90% of first year students are unable to return for a second year because their French fluency is deemed unacceptable (courses are taught largely in French which causes difficulties for students who are taught in rural schools, where French is almost never spoken). Two-thirds of the population lives under the international poverty line (1.25 USD/day) and health care services are limited country-wide. On a positive note, Madagascar is known as THE biodiversity hot-spot in the world. More than 80% of its plant and animal life is endemic to the country and can be found nowhere else in the world; this causes a huge tourism interest every year and indirectly accounts for one of the country's biggest money makers. | Country Offices:We currently do not have offices in Ghana. For information about jobs and internships, please contact Kim Reuter.
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