Miss World Madagascar 2020, Nellie Anjaratiana is helping to save abandoned twins for her Beauty with a Purpose project. In the Antambahoaka tribe of the Mananjary region of Madagascar, there is a traditional taboo causing the painful custom of parents abandoning twin babies. The Miss World Madagascar organisation wants to raise awareness of this custom and support the affected families. They are waiting for the roads to Manajary to reopen, after the Covid-19 lockdown, so the Beauty with a Purpose video can be produced.

Mananjary’s 'cursed twins' is a brutal taboo, dating back to the first Antambahoaka tribe leader. The first wife he chose died in childbirth of twins. Unhappiness then struck his second and third wives so the twins birth was seen as a curse. Another theory is that twins were a threat the later Queen Ranavalona's power. An astrologer convinced the queen of the hypothesis that twins were “exceptional beings with a grandiose destiny.” This resulted in twins being killed. This taboo is still believed and reinforced by today’s Antambahoaka leader. Twins are no longer killed but they are abandoned due to misconception. The alternative options are that parents leave the area to raise their twins, have them adopted elsewhere or place them in a foster home. Staff at Manangary’s hospital are asked to give twin babies away and have had to contact associations or charities because parents have refused to take their own babies.

Custom is given a greater value than law in Mananjary. Normally, it is illegal to reject children but in Mananjary this custom has a supra-legal value so it is impossible to prosecute.

Fortunately, Mananjary has associations and people who receive the abandoned children. They try to find foster families or keep the children and negotiate with parents. They nourish and take care of the children and provide financial support to the parents.

Miss World Madagascar will be aiding these associations in removing the cursed twins customs and breaking the taboo.