Jez and I recently got married and chose Madagascar as the destination for our honeymoon for a great adventure! The local tour agency we used found a driver who could speak English called Sandratra (After trying and failing to pronouce it correctly, he said just call me "sandy"!).

Over the 10 days we got to know and understand Sandy and his situation. He worked for someone else who owned the car, and couldn't afford to buy one himself. He treated the car with the utmost respect, cleaning it every time it got muddy (which was a lot!) And fixing it when it broke down (which it did when we were trying to pass something resembling a road). Anytime anyone else broke down or was in trouble, he would ask us if we could stop so he could see if there was anyway to help. He is a firm believer of Karma and that if you help others, good things come back to you.

In getting to know him a bit better, and as he was trying to teach us Malagasy, we learnt about his family, his childhood and his other jobs.

His mum is now retired (at 69) and looks after his older brother (who is 31) in a village about 80 miles from the capital Tana, where Sandy lives so that he can work. He sends money and food back to his mum and brother via friends travelling back to the village and gets to visit every 3-6 months.

We asked why he doesn't start up his own touring business and try and save up, but its impossible to save when he is supporting three people and paying rent for a small dwelling about an hour outside the capital, where it is cheapest to live. To really start a business he needs to buy a car, and a 4x4 that can handle the roads in Madagascar starts at around £6000.

We would love to be able to buy him a car outright, but failing that, enough for a deposit so he can take out a loan on the rest would be a huge helping hand up out of poverty for him and his family.