I just recently returned from my first overseas visit as chair of Catholic Relief Services to Madagascar. It seems that I was about the only living person that had never seen the DreamWorks animation entitled “Madagascar.” While I did not run into King Julien the lemur, I saw many marvelous things and reasons for hope during my five-day visit there.
Having spent almost eight years living in East Africa, I always wanted to see Madagascar. I learned that Madagascar was formed about 150 million years ago, when it was split off from both South America and Africa. It lies about 240 miles off the eastern coast of Africa and is the fourth largest island in the world, roughly the size of Texas. About 80% of its wildlife is endemic, meaning that it exists nowhere else in the world. It is home to roughly 107 species of lemurs and is home to two-thirds of the world’s chameleons. Madagascar is a truly remarkable and diverse island, home to an extraordinary range of ecosystems, landscapes and cultural traditions found nowhere else in the world.
The first human beings came to Madagascar from the region of Indonesia about 2,000 years ago, and the second group of inhabitants came from Africa round 1,000 years ago. While it had its own kingdom for several centuries, the French took control of Madagascar through a military campaign and named it as a French colony in 1896. While Madagascar achieved independence in 1960, France continued to exercise economic control of the country for some time afterwards.
In modern Madagascar, the two official languages are Malagasy and French (though at most tourist sites and hotels English is understood). About 60% of its population is under 25 years old. About 70% of its population lives in rural areas. Roughly 50% of its people live without access to clean drinking water, 88% live without sanitation facilities, and 85% live without electricity. An estimated 25% of the population is illiterate. Madagascar is highly vulnerable to climate change, with cyclones, chronic drought and famine-like conditions as well as flooding and erosion.
CRS has been in Madagascar since 1962 and operates in 11 regions of the country, managing 16 large-to-medium-scale projects in sectors such as emergency preparedness and response, agriculture and livelihoods, land restoration and climate change, health and social services, water and sanitation and education. What is unique to CRS is that it does not leave a country once a major crisis has abated but remains present and committed to the people it serves for decades. The CRS team in Madagascar, as in all of the countries where it serves, is comprised of Americans with decades of experience who have lived and served in multiple countries, but also local people who bring first-hand knowledge of the social, political, and religious landscape of their native country, along with a vast array of skills that make CRS such an effective Catholic service agency. Over time, CRS builds up trusted relationships with farmers and villagers, government officials, bishops and clergy, and the private sector who are committed to assisting the poor and the marginalized.
I was joined on our trip by an amazing and fun group of people. I could not even begin to list the number of CRS personnel who accompanied us or met us at every point in our journey, most of whom are native to Madagascar. I feel especially grateful to our CRS hosting team, headed by Katie Price, the Country Representative who lives in the capital city of Antananarivo (or “Tana” for short).
It was wonderful that Matt Davis, the Regional Director of Eastern and Southern African could fly down from Nairobi to be with us, along with Schuyler Thorup, Executive Vice President for Global Resource Management and Mobilization, and Rebekah Lemke, who is the Storytelling, Multimedia and Production Studio Manager for CRS. She must have taken a million photos while she was with us and always had a smile on her face!
The visitors included Bishop William Koenig, who is a member of the CRS Board, as well as Father Dan Groody, C.SC., a friend and fellow religious of Holy Cross, who is a professor of Theology and Global Affairs at Notre Dame and was recently appointed by Pope Leo XIV to the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, Sr. Eneless Chimball from Malawi, who is a CRS board member, and Denise Tollinche, a member of the CRS Foundation Board.
I was especially pleased that Tom and Anita Veldman, and their daughter Julie, signed up as visitors, as their family has been very supportive of the educational work of Holy Cross in East Africa and they are members of the CRS Foundation Board. I was also privileged to meet George and Mary Garvey from Santa Monica, California, who are so committed to supporting the poor and the marginalized and are also Foundation board members.
Sadly, I missed part of the first day of our visit when the bishops of Madagascar welcome the CRS group to their country. My understanding is that the bishops were quite articulate in expressing their gratitude and enthusiasm for the work of CRS in their respective dioceses. It is clear that they consider this partnership to be one of great value in their social outreach to those most in need in their respective dioceses.
I did, however, get to visit the Beyond Good chocolate factory that makes single-origin chocolate and vanilla sourced directly from Madagascar and Uganda. CRS is one of a series of partners that supports Beyond Good that supports cocoa and vanilla growers and provides numerous jobs with good benefits to its workers. They actually send a large portion of their chocolate bars to Whole Foods Market in the U.S. Before we could get our tour of the factory, we had to dress up in what looked like surgical clothing from head to toe so as not to bring any contaminants into the factor. The best part was sampling the different forms of chocolate at the end of our factory tour!
Given how broad the work of CRS is in Madagascar, we primarily focused on the SPICES program, which stands for Securing and Protecting Investments & Capacities for Environmental Sustainability (SPICES) in Madagascar. SPICES is a truly inspired and visionary work of CRS that seeks to uplift the lives of the poor who live primarily off the land. Madagascar remains one of the poorest counties in the world, with 92% of its people living on less than $2 a day and nearly half of Malagasy children are chronically malnourished. Increasing climate shocks, including more frequent and severe cyclones and droughts, together with deforestation, land degradation, slash-and-burn agriculture, population pressure, and weak governance, continue to threaten livelihoods, ecosystem, and long term development.
SPICES core mission is for CRS to partner with local communities, government institutions and private sector actors, to improve the livelihoods of small and medium holder farmers while protecting Madagascar’s biodiverse agricultural landscapes. The program promotes market-led, nature-based solutions that can be replicated. SPICES supports land restoration, sustainable agricultural production and community resilience.
Many farmers in Madagascar cultivate small plots of land but have had to deal with deforestation and the erosion caused by it during the rainy seasons. While there, I learned about a new and modern approach to this challenge called “Mixed Agroforestry.” It strives to promote a mixed, multistory agroforestry approach that organizes crops, trees, vines and ground cover within the same plot to make better use of space, shade, water and soil nutrients. This model helps restore degraded land, reduce erosion, improve soil fertility, and create better microclimates for long-term productivity. It also strengthens forest habitats and water catchment while supporting lemurs, birds, pollinators and other wildlife.
When we visited with a farm family and sat on their small plot of land, we heard from the oldest member of the family that he could remember when as a boy that the whole area was forested. He then talked about how with the cutting down of all the trees, that the area became deforested. In heavy rains, the water ran off quickly and led to erosion. It also affected the rice fields down below, as the rain did not soak into the ground because of a lack of trees and other plants that naturally hold moisture in the soil. He said with a smile on his face that because of the growth of all the shade trees, that not only were the fruit trees and cash crops were flourishing, but that animals not seen for years had returned to live there. We were also impressed by all the produce that the family displayed for us to see: vanilla pods, pepper, cinnamon, avocadoes, and pineapples.
What also impressed me were the development of farmer associations and cooperatives with their own leadership teams called bureaus. Through comprehensive training in agroforestry they learn not only how to increase the quality and production level of their crops but also how to work with private sector partners who assist them in securing fair prices for their crops. SPICES works with Malagasy and international companies committed to social, environmental and sustainable farming practices.
Working collaboratively together, everyone benefits. We heard from one woman who shared that before SPICES her farm produced very little income. She could barely afford to feed her family. Now she has enough income to send not only feed her children but to send them to a Catholic school. She can now afford to carry out needed repairs to her house and to have money set aside for other needs.
SPICES also prioritizes youth engagement and local leadership. It engages young men and women as future farmers, entrepreneurs and environmental stewards. We heard young farmers talk to us about their training in leadership and life skills, employment readiness, vocational training, business management and CRS’ Savings and Internal Lending Communities approach, where youth gains tools to save, invest and participate in agricultural-based livelihoods. These young farmers were quite enthusiastic and articulate when they shared all they had learned and experienced with us.
SPICES has proven so effective in Madagascar that it is now expanding across CRS globally and is being introduced to Tanzania, Nepal, Ghana, Uganda, and Vietnam. This unique model introduced by CRS demonstrates how strong, locally grounded, community-centered solutions can drive global learning and impact.
The Catholic Church has been deeply rooted in Madagascar for nearly two centuries and remains one of the country’s most important faith institutions. The Church has always been and remains closely connected to the social, educational and community life of the Malagasy people. It provides essential services to so many through parishes, diocesan structures, religious congregations, schools, health facilities, and social service networks. It occupies a unique position of trust and its local anchoring allows the Church to work closely with families, traditional leaders, civil society, government actors, and develop partners to promote human dignity and community resilience.
We were privileged to celebrate Mass and share dinner one evening with a number of Malagasy bishops who collaborate closely with CRS. For CRS, this collaboration is central to its identity and mission in Madagascar. In the words of Katie Price, “Through this shared commitment, CRS and the Church continue to support Malagasy communities as they build pathways toward hope, opportunity, and lasting change.”
When we traveled to the Mananjary, we were hosted at the Bishop’s Residence by Bishop José Alfredo Caires de Nobrega, who has now reached the age of retirement of 75. He has served for 25 years as a bishop and a total of 46 years of priestly ministry in Madagascar. He personally prepared a very delicious dinner for us, with the help of a few other cooks. We honored him with a special award of recognition from the CRS Board of Directors at the end of dinner. To our great surprise, he was then present for breakfast and personally waited on us table by table, replenishing our coffee whenever needed!
One special highlight was to meet Dr. Patricia Chappell Wright, the Executive Director of Centre ValBio in Madagascar. She first visited Madagascar in 1986 and rediscovered the bamboo dwelling lemur that was thought to be extinct. She was also helped established the Ranomafana National Park in 1991, which we visited and through which she gave our group a guided tour. Dr. Wright is a strong supporter of the CRS and Centre ValBio partnership, including the SPICES program. She has authored more than 200 scientific articles and four books, one of which, For the Love of Lemurs, she gave a signed copy of to each of us Visitors.
On a personal level, I felt like I was back in Africa, even though people in Madagascar do not consider themselves part of Africa. There are people everywhere, and when driving through little towns and villages in our shuttle, people of all ages would smile and wave at us. Wherever we went, we were always greeted with a smile and made to feel at home. Of course, there was always something set before us to eat and to drink. Most Americans might find this hard to believe, but there is a deep joy present among the poor and the humble that we don’t often find in our own country, which is a land of plenty. They communicated a great sense of gratitude for how CRS had so positively affected their lives and their families, and given them hope for the future.
I also marveled at all of the people who work for CRS in Madagascar, whether Americans or from Malagasy. They are all so faith-filled, bright, and full of zeal to help those most in need in any way they can. They will go anywhere they are needed, even into war zones. Each of their personal stories would merit a book or a biographical video. They see Christ in everyone and seek to serve him in everyone. They are people of vision who are in this for the long haul. After all, CRS doesn’t just come in to assist in times of emergency or incredible need, but they remain present to forge life-long partnerships with people of good will to help the poor and needy get ahead in life.
As the chair of CRS, I believe that we have to spread the good news of all that is taking place on the global level. CRS is the charitable arm of the U.S. Bishops and how few Catholics in our country are aware of the incredible scope of its reach and impact in countless countries and places. How well CRS aligns with Catholic Social Teaching and with its emphasis on SPICES, with Laudato Si, Care for Creation.
An interesting sidenote. Delta Airlines changed my flight original flight reservation which would have taken me to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris and then directly to Madagascar, and instead routed me through Johannesburg, South Africa, which required me to spend one night at the airport hotel in Johannesburg before flying the next day to Madagascar. While this irritated me a bit, as I would miss most of the first day of our scheduled program, I realized that there was nothing that I could do about it. On my return flight to the Johannesburg Airport, I found myself in a gate area with a couple of Amish families with a lot of children, all wearing their traditional form of clothing, the women and girls wearing bonnets and dresses, and the men and boys wearing hats with overalls and boots. When I went to greet them, I learned that they only spoke Low German and Spanish, the latter language being one that I speak. I also learned that they were members of the Amish community that had originally settled in Mexico in 1923 and then moved to Bolivia in Fall of 2015. The rising cost of living led to a collective decision to resettle from Bolivia to Angola in Africa.
Their flight to Angola from Johannesburg had been cancelled the night before. They did not have any money for a hotel so they slept overnight in the gate area and spent the whole day in the airport, awaiting the next flight to Angola, which was set to depart at 2 am.
While there, two different airport officials approached me to see if there was any way that they could assist these families, as they found no way to communicate with them, since the families didn’t speak English. The first thing they provided was warm milk for the bottle of one of the family’s babies and then they brought meals in Styrofoam containers for each member of the families. In the meantime, since they don’t have cellphones or any way to watch videos, I found a video on YouTube from an Amish gentleman in Angola that described the area to which they were headed. They all gathered round to watch it and it seemed to generate smiles and provided some measure of reassurance to them.
So often God uses us in such unusual and unexpected ways. Maybe the main point of being rerouted was to somehow assist these humble, gentle Amish families in this uncertain and surely unsettling move to a wholly different continent. I was also profoundly touched by the kind consideration of the two airport officials, as they went out of their way to care for the immediate needs of these families who were so far from home and resource poor.
Thank you Bishop Neary….I read the whole thiing and I want to read it again….I could feel the joy you had while you were making the sacrifices. You respected the dignity of our brothers and sisters as you mentioned their cheerfulness and generosity as they were welcoming you in another country. I have lots to learn yet. God bless you.