SEED Madagascar

SEED Madagascar (formerly Azafady UK) is a UK charity and Malagasy NGO working on sustainable development in southeast Madagascar. As part of our work we run volunteer programmes from 2 to 10 weeks.

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Sharing insights at Ghana’s WEDC Conference

In July our Urban Sanitation and Hygiene Specialist, Beth Lomas, presented a research paper at the Water, Engineering and Development Centre Conference in Kumasi, Ghana, sharing insights from SEED's application of the Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach to halting open defecation. This approach includes using shocking and taboo imagery to appeal to long-term behaviour change.  Read on to hear Beth’s take on her exciting week in Kumasi!

Landing late in the evening, the hot and humid air of Accra was buzzing with activity, an enticing welcome to my week long trip to Ghana. Once I’d made my way to the guest house, I found many fellow conference delegates who I’d be spending the next few days with. As we tucked into our first Ghanaian meal, we found ourselves deep in conversation about the potential of utilising worms for composting human poo - a sign of the things to come!

To some this might sound like a slightly strange dinner conversation, but this group had come together from all over the world precisely because of our passion for all things water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), and composting poo is just one of many solutions to the global sanitation crisis. And on this first night in Ghana, it was great to meet some of the people I would be learning so many insights from throughout the week.

The conference would be an exciting platform for over 500 delegates to listen and share their research findings; sharing knowledge and lessons learned from projects around the world. To enable me to present research from SEED’s urban sanitation project in Madagascar, I was fortunate to secure funding from the CLTS Knowledge Hub at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex. The CLTS Knowledge Hub aims to bring together practitioners working on community sanitation projects to help share knowledge and insights from the field.

The next day we travelled through the lush green landscape towards Kumasi, a five hour drive, where the driver tried to distract us with amusingly dramatic Ghanaian soap operas. Once we arrived at our bustling destination and made ourselves familiar with the town, we made plans for the coming week and continued our discussions on recent global sanitation research.

Our week kicked off with an all day workshop on CLTS, which stands for Community-Led Total Sanitation, a methodology which encourages communities to take action to improve their own sanitation situation and move away from defecating in the open, which unfortunately remains the only option for over a billion people worldwide. My role was to help facilitate discussion among participants and ensure that all the important insights and research were documented.

The following day was the official opening ceremony of the conference. We were greeted by traditional Ghanaian drummers and a poet who had written a special piece to wish us well with the proceedings. Keynote speakers followed, explaining the importance of the conference theme, ‘Ensuring Availability and Sustainable Management of Water and Sanitation for All’, identifying some of the current challenges and the many of the ongoing achievements in this area. The theme drew on the global call for improved sanitation from the recently announced Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs follow the Millennium Development Goals, acknowledging the successes and shortcomings of the MDGs, and over the next fifteen years will aim to significantly reduce extreme poverty and many of its dimensions. The SDGs focus on the universal access to services and reduction of poverty, aiming to leave no one behind. For the WASH sector, this means universal access to improved sanitation and water sources by 2030 and reducing the avoidable diseases spread by the lack of adequate toilets and clean water.

Filled with inspiration of the integral importance of universal access to clean water and sanitation from the opening speeches, we started the conference presentations. Over three days, practitioners and researchers shared their important work and received questions from the audience. When the time came for me to speak about SEED’s Project Malio, discussing our experience of using controversial images to ignite behaviour change, I was encouraged by how engaged the audience was. Earlier this year Project Malio had begun to pilot these images, and the reactions of the community members and opinion leaders, as well as staff within the organisation itself, were extremely varied. These reactions subsequently became the topic of some extensive research by the Malio team, focusing on the impact of social norms on behaviour change and the effect of pushing traditionally taboo boundaries. Many other conference participants had similar in-field experiences working in behaviour change communication and were really interested in listening, sharing and debating this interesting topic. Even after the presentation further lively discussion continued, and I had the chance to exchange details with staff working on similar projects, who were interested to maintain an information sharing network, and keen to keep up with SEED’s progress and the achievements of the Project Malio more generally.

Following many incredibly interesting and ground-breaking research presentations, the last two days were concerned with practical workshops run by large international NGOs. The topics were varied and the sessions highly interactive, focusing on building capacity of participants in different skills. It was a further opportunity to access many important skills and practical lessons learned from around the world and take knowledge back to the team in Madagascar, where we are always looking to improve and adapt our project working. I attended a UNICEF session on creating inclusive WASH programming, looking at menstrual hygiene management and gender, as well as an outcome mapping planning workshop by Participatory Development Associates. I also was able to attend a field trip to a waste treatment site to look at how Kumasi is trying to tackle faecal sludge management, supported by an organisation called Water Sanitation for the Urban Poor.

As the drummers played out their final beats at the closing ceremony, we reflected on all the important discussions and research learnings we had gained from the week. Ghana had welcomed us with open arms, but also provided a practical illustration of the importance universal access to improved WASH. While a magnificent host, Ghana still has 5 million people who use an unsafe water source and 4000 children die every year from diarrhoea, often caused by lack of adequate toilets. The location of the conference carried an important reminder that despite global progress, there is still a long way to go to meet the Sustainable Development Goal of universal WASH access for all.

If you’d like to take a look at the paper Beth presented, check out the CLTS Knowledge Hub!

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Adventures in the North

IT and Media guy Michael has just returned from the north of Madagascar, where he’s been working with Operation Wallacea on their long-term ecological monitoring programme.

Back in June I travelled to the opposite end of the country to work with Operation Wallacea, an environmental research and expeditions organisation, on their research site in a village called Mariarano. Along for the ride were Steve, who coordinates our Project Oratsimba and works on the OpWall database; Sam, Executive Conservation Programme Coordinator and general all-around animal expert; and Ryan, one of our past research assistants who came as a herpetology (reptile and amphibian) specialist. Every summer OpWall bring around 50 university students and many more school children to the field site, where they carry out practical conservation monitoring to add to a long-term database.

Before Mariarano I hadn’t even looked around Madagascar’s capital, let alone explored the north of the country, so I was excited for the new experiences that this 6-week field season would bring. To say that I wasn’t disappointed would be a massive understatement! The forests and wetlands around Mariarano are host to an absolutely dizzying range of wildlife, and on our very first casual wander out of the camp we spotted chameleons, kingfishers and snakes in the light of our torches as sportive lemurs screamed from the trees and flying fox bats soared above our heads. As a slightly-lapsed zoologist and IT guy I usually feel quite superfluous on these expeditions as my identification skills are quite lacking, so I was very pleased to spot a tiny gecko with a tail like a dragon clinging onto a leaf. Uroplatus ebenaui – exciting!

My role on the expedition was to run a pilot replacing paper datasheets on surveys with smartphones. There’s some great reasons for going paperless: saving trees; reducing mistakes in transcription; reducing data entry time to virtually nothing; and the ability to take GPS coordinates directly on-device, among many others. I was working with Open Data Kit, or ODK, a fantastic suite of open-source data collection tools developed at the University of Washington which allows you to easily collect data using smartphones or web browsers. The setup required a bit of reengineering as it expected to have an internet connection to upload collected data – not ideal when you can’t even get phone signal! I set up a local network and exported data in the form of CSV files, which can easily be imported into the main long-term database. This year’s pilot ran with 15 phones on four surveys, namely lemur and herpetology routes, bird point counts and opportunistic surveys. It was a great success and next year I hope to have every survey taken on a phone or tablet, across all three camps.

15 smartphones...and a whole lot of charging cables!

Once the system was up and running smoothly I found myself with some free time on my hands, so I took a couple of forest plot survey groups out, put together a basic photography lecture to familiarise the students with their shiny new cameras and typed in a vast number of datasheets! I also visited the other two camps at Matsedroy and Antafiameva: the former with five beautiful lakes and a huge array of wetland birds and crocodiles; and the latter hosting hundreds of flying foxes and a pair of Madagascar fish eagles, plus their baby! Every day came with new experiences (fish samosas definitely count, right?) and it was incredible how the north just feels like a different country compared to my usual surroundings down in the south easy. Madagascar truly does earn the nickname of “the eighth continent”.

It was fantastic working with Operation Wallacea and we all appreciated the opportunity to share knowledge between our two organisations, providing expertise in species identification and receiving ideas for our own Conservation Programme in Sainte Luce, as well as generating income for our Stitch women’s association and the association in Mariarano (more on that later). Bring on next year!

Steve and I on our journey back to Tana

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Using practical triggering tools to promote handwashing in Madagascar

Studies show that handwashing with soap can reduce the risk of contracting diarrhoea by up to 47%. In Fort Dauphin, a small town in the South East of Madagascar, poor hygiene practices and widespread open defecation has had serious consequences for a population struggling with diarrhoea and malnutrition. Poverty and poor infrastructure means that the overwhelming majority of residents do not have in-house water connections. Water must bought by the bucket, at public water points throughout the town. With water such a scarce resource, handwashing is not always seen as a primary concern. It is in this challenging environment that we must develop persuasive strategies to communicate the importance of handwashing with soap and the huge potential for the reduction in diarrhoea rates.

As part of our urban sanitation and hygiene project at SEED Madagascar we promote the use of handwashing stations, usually in the form of tippy taps, alongside newly constructed pit latrines. However, as many behavioural change studies show, this does not necessarily mean stations will continue to be used at critical times. Therefore, we must also look towards effective communication techniques which promote the sustained use of handwashing stations and disseminate key messages regarding handwashing with soap.

Using ‘Frontiers Issue 2: How to Trigger for Handwashing with Soap’ as a guide, our Malagasy team trialled some of the practical tools developed by UNICEF Malawi and Salima District Council with the aim to increase handwashing with soap at critical times within our target population.

The structure of our project enabled these new tools to be incorporated into existing activities via focus groups held within the community.  These groups are run by community liaison officers (CLOs) in conjunction with natural leaders who have emerged through the triggering process. Focus groups, held over a 3 month period, provide a platform for community engagement in sanitation and hygiene issues, allowing for knowledge sharing amongst residents and an opportunity for CLOs to provide advice on hygiene practices.

After identifying the most relevant tools within the guide, training was provided for the CLOs on the following activities:

Anal cleansing materials

Shit and shake

Charcoal smearing

Food Sharing

Once CLOs were fully trained and confident with the tools, focus groups were carried out across our target areas within Fort Dauphin. Comparable to other triggering events, the effectiveness of these tools depended on the facilitator’s ability to engage participants and build rapport with the community; therefore we found it was beneficial to use facilitators who were already experienced at triggering. CLOs identified that these tools were useful to facilitate more participatory and engaging discussions compared to just giving advice on good hand hygiene. The shocking nature of the tools provoked greater discussion allowing community members to take a more active role in focus groups. Furthermore, CLOs indicated that participants were often willing to give examples of poor hygiene practices they had witnessed or experienced.

Our monitoring activities showed that on average, 88% of households with newly built latrines who attended a ‘triggering for handwashing’ focus group had also built a handwashing station (with 70% also using soap or ash). This was a significant increase in handwashing stations compared to data collected on participants a year earlier who had only received handwashing advice without the use of practical tools; 66% of households had a handwashing station and only 40% were using soap or ash.

Although it is difficult to measure whether these handwashing stations are in constant use at critical times, we feel as a team that these practical tools have helped to trigger people to build handwashing stations and create more discussion on handwashing within community focus groups. Subsequently we feel that these tools can be very useful to incorporate into CLTS programmes to trigger handwashing with soap and will continue to use them as part of our behaviour change communication.

For details on each triggering tool, please see http://www.communityledtotalsanitation.org/resources/frontiers/how-trigger-handwashing-soap

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My last week with the Pioneers

The Pioneer Programme ends with 10 days in Sainte Luce with the ACP team, so once again we found ourselves loading up the camion from Lanirano camp, and sitting alongside our turkeys Bernard and Matthew. Before this trip, I hadn’t anticipated having turkeys as close travel companions, but now this seems totally reasonable and normal!

The camp at Sainte Luce is luxurious, with tables and benches in the Long House, solar powered lighting, concrete shower block and flat pitches to place our tents! Whilst tempting to spend a lot of time relaxing in the hammock, we were able to get involved with the interesting conservation surveying that ACP conducts throughout the year. These include stream and transect mapping, lemur behaviour and nutrition surveys, and bat surveys, to name just a few. The local guides are fantastic at spotting the wildlife from a distance, including the tiny pygmy chameleon, geckos that hide in the leaves of the Pandanus plant and brown lemurs. Night walks showed us the Microcebus mouse lemur, tree boa and paradise fly catcher asleep on branches. Matt then had us planting seeds in his nursery to help the Moringa sustainable livelihoods project, and we attended the lively conservation club sessions with the children, who are currently learning about the importance of sustainable farming of lobsters.

We were also able to get involved with the sustainable livelihood projects within the local community. Project Oratsimba works with local fishermen to introduce sustainable fishing techniques to tackle the decreasing lobster population. We joined Christin, our local lobster monitor at 6am on the beach to monitor the number of boats leaving to fish and wait for their return to record and measure the lobsters that had been caught. An early start, but rewarded with incredible sunrises, mofo and coffee in the village and of course, lying on the beach!

Sainte Luce is also home to Stitch, the womens’ embroidery organisation providing their households with an additional income from the beautiful creations they make. Below are some of the wonderful items for sale. Check out http://stitchsainteluce.org for more!

There was also time to discover the most idyllic beach at S17 via a pirogue ride across the lake with Solo. Beautiful clear waters and white sand and all to ourselves. Paradise.

It is with sadness that our time as Pioneers has come to an end. Whilst here, we celebrated with a proper bush party with music from the locals, and finished off with the inaugural Annual Camp Olympics between Pioneer and ACP teams.  For the last two weeks, Callum and the guides had been feeding up the turkeys, who were sacrificed to provide us with an extremely tasty final camp dinner.

We’ve had an incredible time over the last 10 weeks. The Pioneer scheme allows you to get involved and make a difference in so many of the development projects taking place. We’re going to miss the people and the work, although perhaps looking forward to having a break from the daily rice and beans for a while!

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WASHing up with the Pioneers

Back from the bush and the construction of Manambaro Lycée, the Pioneers were spending the next 10 days in Fort Dauphin with the Project Malio team working on the various WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) initiatives.

Through Project Malio, SEED Madagascar helps to alleviate poverty through promotion of good hygiene practices and improved sanitation, enabling people to have fewer days lost from work or school due to sickness. One initiative is to provide public and domestic latrines in the different fokotany (districts) of Fort Dauphin. However, the biggest challenge is around changing cultural beliefs and behaviour. Despite toilets being available, often these are not used, with people preferring to use the beaches for open defecation.

A newly built public toilet in Fort Dauphin

Our first task was to assess how successful the Malio radio campaigns have been in town through questionnaires to locals within three fokotany. We sat with individuals and families either on their verandas, at their small shopfronts, or were invited into their homes. All took the time to answer our questions and had the patience for us to try and ask the questions in Malagasy! Luckily, our guides Yvon and Aime came to our aid to get the questions across properly when our accents and pronunciation could not be understood. I think they appreciated our attempts though?! The results were mixed for how successful the message is being delivered via radio. Not many households own their own radio; however, several people had heard the Malio commercials whilst passing by radios in the street or at other’s houses. The encouraging finding was that, from the households questioned, the majority could identify and relay the Malio WASH messages and health campaign, either through mass mobilisations in the community, signboards or the work of the Malio Community Liaison Officers in their fokotany.

A SEED domestic latrine

During the week, we visited households that have benefited from a SEED domestic latrine, whereby they have committed through partial payment and help in erecting the latrine to using and maintaining their toilets. Often, one latrine is used by several households. We then conducted maintenance assessments and usage surveys of the SEED-built public latrine block at Shipwreck Bay. Sitting on the hill opposite, it was good to see people coming to use the toilet and then wash their hands afterwards. During 1-hour periods, we recorded 10-15 people using the latrines. According to the guardian, approximately 140 people on average use the toilets each day. The sad realisation however is that during this time, we witnessed several people walk straight past the latrines onto the beach to take a poo. It is suspected also that latrine use would also be higher if they could open for a full 24 hours. At the moment, they are open from 6am – 6pm, which is too late for the fisherman (that make up the majority of households in the area) to be able to use the toilets and so open defecation continues. In fact, we hope the data from our surveys showing use throughout the day and therefore perhaps an indication that usage would increase if opened all hours, can be used to support the campaign for a night guard to be employed by the local community to enable to latrines to stay open.

One of the most fun Malio initiatives is the education sessions and mass mobilisations held in the primary schools, spreading the message of good hygiene practices through songs, quizzes and puppet shows. At the same time, we Pioneers would build tippy taps outside the school latrines, to provide the kids with a means to wash their hands after going to the loo. We take it for granted washing our hands from a tap, but that is not possible here. Tippy taps are bottles of water tied onto a wooden pole frame with string that have holes in their bottle caps that allow the water to flow out in a measured way when tipped upside down. Soap made from zebu fat is also nailed to the frame hanging on string. Once we had erected these, volunteers from the children were asked to come and demonstrate how to wash their hands; washing up past the wrists and under their fingernails. Did you know you are supposed to wash your hands for 15-20 seconds?  

The team showing off their tippy taps and Malio t-shirts!

The children are always excited to see us and would swarm around us as we built the tippy taps. At the same time, Lea would lead the children in songs about hand washing and by the end of the four education sessions, we were able to sing the handwashing song in Malagasy: “zaza manasha tanana” – children wash your hands.

The mass mobilisations are a really effective way to educate the children. They love to see the large puppets up on stage, who tell a story about how you get sick if you don’t wash your hands. There is then a quiz held about why it’s important to wash hands and when you should do so, and all were able to answer that it’s to help kill the microbes and prevent you being sick and that you should wash your hands before preparing or eating food and after going to the toilet. Alongside the importance of the message, it was also good fun and lovely to interact with so many smiling and laughing kids. We even got to use the microphone at the mass mobilisation to teach them the “heads, shoulders, knees and toes” song, which we had learned in Malagasy (to the surprise of our Malio team). This got a lot of laughs when we sang “pokopoko sy ratsatamboky” (knees and toes) – a lot to get your mouth around when you sing it quickly!

It wasn't all project work for the week and we were able to join the interns for volleyball on the beach, have a group meal out at Bernard’s restaurant and help celebrate Jess and Ben’s birthdays at a J and B themed fancy dress party!

By the end of our 10 days, thanks to Callum’s great idea, we had somehow become owners of two turkeys, who would be accompanying us up on the camion to Sainte Luce where we were heading next. They’ve been named Bernard and Matthew after that famous poultry company. They will feature more in our next blog…

To find out more about SEED’s volunteering opportunities in Madagascar, visit our website: http://madagascar.co.uk/get-involved

To find out more about Project Malio, our sanitation and latrine construction initiative in Fort Dauphin, click here: http://madagascar.co.uk/projects/community-health/malio

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Building a school in Manambaro

Our group of Pioneers has spent the past six weeks in Manambaro, a small village about half an hour’s drive out of Fort Dauphin, where they’ve been constructing two new buildings for the lycée (high school) there. This week we join Kathryn to find out what they’ve been up to!

On arrival to Manambaro, the town our Pioneer group was to stay in, I was stunned by the scenery. Our camp sat on the top of a hill next to the school we would help to build, with views of mountains on three sides, miles of irrigated land and a beautiful landscape. The trip there had been equally stunning.

The facilities were simple (long drops, bucket showers and tents) and so was our daily routine; breakfast at 6:30 (rice, banana, mofo balls and banana cake) followed by our Malagasy lessons, lunch at 12:00 (rice and beans), and dinner at 19:00 (spaghetti, fish or meat, and a range of vegetable dishes). We started work from around 8 until 12:00 and 14:00 until 17:00. Life was great!

Our aim was to start constructing the second of four school buildings and to finish off the first. It could be physical work at timesm but with a supportive team of pioneers, our guides Yvon and Aimé and construction crew - and many laugh-out-loud moments - the time flew by. Work was varied. From digging foundations, moving materials and cement mixing, to bench making, painting and wire work. The best part about it was seeing the growth and progress of the school building; that you could say, “I helped build that!”

Pioneers with the construction team. Romino is the youngest member, having just celebrated his second birthday!

After a hot and hard day’s work, it was your time to grab a nice cold bucket shower, relax, and maybe enjoy a cheeky beer in the town’s only refrigerated bar. A group of kids were often gathered in the field next to camp and this gave a great opportunity to play games and interact with some of the locals. It would get dark quite early and this meant sitting in candle light, eating the tasty food of Manga and Romain, chatting and playing cards together before a good night’s sleep.

Education is particularly poor in many areas of Madagascar so it was very rewarding to be given the chance to teach English to a number of students. This was arranged for every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon and there was a large turn-out of students. Through the lessons we taught we were able to develop their construction of basic and intermediate sentences, and encourage the practice of speaking English - something they clearly hadn’t had the opportunity to do frequently.

However, not everything was work. We had a great opportunity to interact with the local community, visiting the local market, exploring the surrounding area with the children and supporting the Lycée’s annual football tournament. In fact, we provided the trophy for the tournament, which they can re-use in following years. Our days off were spent visiting national parks or back in Fort Dauphin enjoying the beach!

Playing football with Manambaro Lycée’s team

By the end of our time in Manambaro, we had made great progress on the second school building, whilst the first needed just a few finishing touches. At the end of our six weeks there it was sad to leave behind our camp, the beautiful setting and the great friends we had made.

Progress on the first building - just the roof to paint now!

The second building - walls nearly complete!

To find out more about SEED’s volunteering opportunities in Madagascar, visit our website: http://madagascar.co.uk/get-involved

For more on Manambaro Lycée or if you’d like to donate to the project, visit our GlobalGiving page: https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/save-manambaro-lycee/

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Getting government on board

Independent WASH Consultant, Mimi Coultas, considers what it takes to engage local government effectively in the remote Anosy Region of Madagascar

At the end of July last year, I attended the 38th WEDC International Conference, a global gathering of people working to improve water, sanitation and hygiene – or “WASH” – around the world. It was a fascinating week filled with presentations, discussions and workshops on topics ranging from hygiene behaviour change and capacity building to ecosan toilet design and rainwater harvesting. For me, one of the highlights of the week was EWB Canada’s workshop, all but hidden in the very last slot of the very last day when most people had (unfortunately for them) already left. The focus was on “Sustaining Service Delivery in Low Resource Environments: The role of NGO support to permanent institutions”. Despite being tired, suffering from a severe case of information overload, and taking several attempts to understand its rather long title, the session proved to be interesting, insightful and really relevant to the context I’d recently been working in. All too often the presentations I’d been to until that point had discussed great-sounding approaches to a whole host of WASH problems faced by the developing world but left me wondering how they’d work in the most challenging environments: the really remote places with extreme levels of poverty, little government support and few technological options.

Whilst many organisations seem to shy away from such contexts, EWB Canada, it appears, does not. They prompted participants to take a real look at the long-term sustainability of development projects and pushed us to consider what happens when project funding inevitably comes to an end. Is it realistic to expect permanent institutions to take on and continue activities in the long-term? Do they want to? And if they do, do they have the resources they need to do the job properly?

These were pertinent questions for me. I had just left Madagascar having spent the last three and a half years working for Azafady UK – another organisation that aims to support hard-to-reach communities despite (or perhaps because of) the challenges of doing so. EWB Canada’s message struck a chord. Azafady UK has long since strived to partner the local government effectively, consulting them in each project’s design phase, involving them in activities and monitoring, and supporting government stakeholder platforms bringing actors from various fields together to discuss progress and plans for the Anosy Region, the remote south east corner of the country where the organisation is based. Despite these efforts, however, once a project ends that’s usually it. Unless Azafady UK secures follow-on funding for a project, it’s up to the communities and individuals to continue any activities they wish to on their own. Whilst this certainly happens in many cases to some extent, without the funding to keep monitoring things we can’t really be sure.

To counter this whilst keeping its “projectised” approach (to use EWB Canada’s term), Azafady UK have purposely not expanded. They have chosen to use their limited resources to keep working in a small geographical area, revisiting communities and building on previous project successes (and failures) with further NGO-run activities. Whilst this is undoubtedly improving the lives of people in the here and now, where will things stand if Azafady UK closes?

This projectised approach also means that Azafady UK’s work is restricted to community capacity building. Whilst this is a vital area – and Azafady UK’s real strength – the organisation has recognised that without concurrent changes on the infrastructure side of things, Anosy’s development will always remain limited. As such Azafady UK are trying to place more focus on national-level advocacy alongside community activities back in Anosy in an attempt to secure better resources for the region. However, with intangible and unpredictable results that may not be realised until well into the future, this advocacy work is proving frustratingly challenging to fund. The planned scale-up of Azafady UK’s hugely successful maternal and child health initiative, Project Votsira, for example, includes support for safer home births with skilled attendants in combination with advocacy at a national level for better medical facilities to allow more women to give birth in a clinic in the future. Proposals have been rejected by multiple major donors, however, with common criticism that the initiative is not sufficiently increasing the number of births in a medical facility NOW. Although Azafady UK recognises that the ideal is to support all women to give birth in a medical facility, with one under-equipped government hospital serving 65,000+ residents this just isn’t feasible at the moment. The hospital regularly stocks out of basic supplies, women in labour are frequently turned away and, for those that do get a bed, costs can be cripplingly high. And so instead of encouraging women to plan to give birth here regardless of their situation, Azafady UK want to scale up their programme of education and birth planning support for local women (which has proved hugely effective and extremely popular over the last two years), encouraging the majority to give birth at home with a skilled attendant and prioritising those with signs of complications to go to the hospital whilst all the while pushing the government to improve facilities.

So campaigning at the national government level is an important starting point, but what happens if more funds are sent to the region? How can we make sure that this results in real improvements for local people?

It seems to me that many of the problems faced in Madagascar stem partly from the fact that the government is not only unstable (there was a political coup in 2009 and although elections were held in late 2013 the situation remains decidedly uncertain) but also highly centralised. Not many funds ever leave the capital and very few make it as far as remote regions like Anosy. This is also true of skills. With poor education (largely the result of an inadequate education budget) and few opportunities in Anosy, the proportion of the population with a good education is small and many of those who do make it through school leave to seek employment elsewhere. And so the region is left with an underfunded, under-skilled local government tasked with achieving ambitious targets set by the central government that look great on paper but are unlikely to be met. I remember one consultation with a local government department in which my colleagues and I were trying to get their input on the design of a major urban sanitation project, to which their response was essentially “we don’t have any funds to do our own activities so we’ll support anyone with funds to do anything”. Not a promising start.

So having previously thought that until the government stabilised or somehow procured more funding there was little point aiming for long-term government involvement, it was refreshing to hear EWB Canada advocate otherwise. Whilst their approach is to place people within local government departments to build skills and capacity over a long period, they also presented ideas on how to design projects that could realistically be continued by the authorities long-term within the confines of their existing budget and capacity limitations. Thinking points included not funding ongoing activities from the start – and not doing them at all if the government’s budget isn’t enough to cover them – and including time and budget to transition, or phase over, activities to the government towards the end of a project. For example, a well maintenance project might set up a network of trained pump mechanics which an NGO could fund, but the ongoing monitoring, maintenance and top-up training for the mechanics should be led by the local government from the start. It’s fine for the NGO to support this process initially with ideas and capacity building but not with funding. Never pay for something the government will ultimately take over was EWB Canada’s mantra. The argument being that if you cover government costs from the start, they’ll become reliant on external funding and will never prioritise their own budget for these activities further down the line.

Interesting stuff – and all so seemingly obvious. Based on my experiences though, I reckon it’s easier said than done. Certainly in the context of Anosy and Madagascar it made me think of a few things that need to be considered.

1.      This is all very well for improving things in the long-term but what about now? Building government capacity somewhere where it is so low could take years before communities see the benefits. Call me impatient but changes are needed today! Is there a way of meeting people’s immediate needs without undermining the longer-term development of the authorities?

2.      This isn’t just a case of building capacity and skills, it’s also a case of changing institutional mind-sets and expectations. NGOs have funded projects and government participation for so long that external payment of every day costs like per diems, transport and food have become expected in many places. To change this, everyone will need to work together. One organisation advocating a new approach whilst everyone else ploughs on as before won’t work.

3.      Work at a local level really needs to be combined with advocacy at a national level. Azafady UK is doing a fantastic job supporting communities in and around Fort Dauphin and works well with the government at a local – and increasingly national – level. But without the central government allocating more resources (in the form of money and skilled staff), changes will always be limited. And if the central government changes, will all this work need to start again or is there a way of embedding it in the system?

Maybe I’m late to the party but this structured approach to really looking at government involvement is new to me so I’d love your thoughts on this. If you have any tips or experiences about successfully (or unsuccessfully) engaging local government somewhere like Madagascar then please get in touch at [email protected].

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What happens when the pit fills up?

Independent WASH Consultant, Mimi Coultas, explores faecal sludge management options in Fort Dauphin, southeast Madagascar

Azafady UK, a British charity working in partnership with local NGOs in southeast Madagascar, are approaching the end of the second year of Project Malio, a three-year sanitation initiative aiming to reduce open defecation and improve hygiene practices in the isolated urban centre of Fort Dauphin. With a population of about 65,000, Fort Dauphin is the biggest settlement for several days’ drive and, like many towns in the developing world, has grown fast in recent years. The result? Overcrowded and unplanned residential areas, where households have little access to public utilities. Decent, fly-proof latrines or toilets at the household level are rare, and open defecation is a big problem along the roadsides and beaches. This not only affects people’s health but also their livelihoods as tourists are put off by from staying in the town, despite its reputation as one of the most beautiful in Madagascar. Wealthy households have flushing toilets with their own septic tanks but these are expensive and take up too much space to be a realistic option for the majority. With no sewerage network in the town and few households with their own water connection, simple pit latrines are more feasible. But with these come the need for emptying and the crucial question of what to do with the waste.

As most households are only accessible via narrow, winding, sandy alleys, getting any kind of pump to them is challenging. Houses are built as close as 0.5m apart in places making it difficult enough to walk between them, let alone get a piece of machinery through. And with no formal pit emptiers in the town, there is nobody (that Azafady UK has found) who has a pump that they’re willing to use for the still-taboo task of emptying latrines. There’s also nowhere for the sludge to be treated.

So how can we ensure that the latrines are emptied safely?

This is something that Azafady UK has begun to explore. The latrines built through Project Malio were designed to be easy to empty if the household has room for a little extra space around the latrine. The rectangular latrine pits, which are lined with concrete to support them in Fort Dauphin’s sandy soil, have a hatch at the bottom of each wall which can be opened. When a latrine needs to be emptied, the household simply digs another, deeper hole next to their latrine, opens the hatch and shovels the waste through. The hatch is then closed, the hole covered over and the latrine reused. When it comes to empty it again, a hole is dug on a different side of the latrine and the process repeated. By the time a household gets back to the first side, the buried waste will have been composting for long enough that it will be safe enough to dig up to bury more.

But what happens if there’s not enough room around the latrine? If there is no space, the concrete slab covering the top of the latrine can be removed, the waste emptied out of the top and carried to a hole somewhere else on the compound.

So the latrines can be emptied. The problem is, both of these methods still expose people – and flies – to dangerous faecal matter which is what the latrines are trying to stop in the first place. Safely navigating the emptying clearly requires some more thought…

Until there is somewhere to treat latrine waste in the town and the infrastructure to mechanically empty pit latrines, let’s assume they will have to be emptied manually. Azafady UK reckons that there are two ways to make this process safer:

1.       Provide information and education to enable people to empty them safely using protective equipment.

This would not only support safer emptying but could also provide livelihoods in a town with high levels of unemployment. It’s really important that people recognise the importance of safety with this so they don’t cut corners and put themselves or others at risk. Given the existing taboos around sanitation though, it could also be challenging to find people willing to do this as a profession (most pits are currently emptied by casual labourers willing to do it as a one off for the right price).

2.       Design the latrines so the sludge being emptied isn’t harmful

Could ecosan latrines be promoted which compost faecal matter, rendering it harmless? This would be a great solution but Azafady UK are cautious that these typically take up more space and are more expensive than simple pit latrines. If households could be persuaded of the lower emptying costs down the line they could be feasible though. They also require more maintenance by households to keep them functioning as intended. Would households which are only just developing the habits of using a latrine be ready for this? Perhaps it’s one to look at once latrine use has become the norm in Fort Dauphin.

Azafady UK are considering both of these options as Project Malio continues to support people to build their own latrines so watch this space for further updates. If you would like any more information or have any ideas or suggestions that could help the team, please get in touch at [email protected].

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There’s a fine line between supporting and doing

Azafady UK’s former Urban Hygiene and Sanitation Specialist, Casey McCormick, explores the challenges of implementing a truly participatory approach

The urban commune of Fort Dauphin, in southeast Madagascar, has some of the prettiest beaches in the world. It also has some of the dirtiest. The majority of Fort Dauphin residents live in overcrowded residential quartiers, or fokontany, where water and sanitation infrastructure at the household level is seriously lacking. The practice of open defecation is widespread and poses a major health hazard to both the people and environment of the town. Where are the most common places for people to openly defecate in Fort Dauphin? The picturesque, sandy beaches that surround the town. And when the beach is too far, spots on the side of the road or in the spaces next to houses become community toilets, often alarmingly close to where a household’s food is prepared.

Azafady UK is aiming to address the bleak sanitation issue in Fort Dauphin through its three-year Project Malio. This CLTS-centered project works at the household, school, community and local government levels to eliminate open defecation in a locally appropriate and sustainable way. Project Malio is implementing a range of activities that aim to tackle the problem from all sides, including: household latrine construction support; community-wide focus groups on sanitation and hygiene; school workshops; capacity building of local associations; one-to-one visits to increase motivation; support for the management and maintenance of a public latrine; and hygiene promotion via mass mobilisations, billboards, and an original, radio-based Fort Dauphin drama series. The multi-sector, wide reaching, evidence-based project intends to impact the entire commune. With just one person openly defecating required to put the entire community at risk of disease, everyone in Fort Dauphin must be included.

Project Malio works under the CLTS cornerstone that the provision of latrines does not guarantee their use, nor assures a decrease in sanitation-related disease. Latrine ownership is not the be all and end all. Instead, Project Malio triggers community members to improve their own hygiene and sanitation themselves before systematically identifying the most vulnerable households to receive latrine construction support – if they agree to pay a small but meaningful fee of 5,000Ar (£1.20 / $1.80). It is crucial that this support is not confused with complete provision. While Project Malio provides the materials and technical support for selected households, it is the household’s responsibility to do the bulk of the construction work. Having given their time and effort to construct their own latrine, the theory is that households will not only acquire the skills to keep their facilities well-maintained but they will also gain a vital sense of ownership and a motivation to receive a return on their initial investment by using and looking after their latrines in the long-term.

Since the start of latrine construction support in November 2014, the Malio construction team has been monitoring not only the distribution of latrine materials, but also the involvement, motivation, and progress of each household. This monitoring is proving incredibly useful and illuminating. One of the most common comments from members of the Malio Construction team continues to be that the progress of latrine construction is hindered by the lack of construction skills amongst participating households, who lack the experience and skill necessary to take the distributed materials and turn them into properly assembled and durable walls, roofs, doors, and floors. With frustrated households comes decreased motivation to continue building, undermining efforts to ensure the long-term use and maintenance of the latrines.  

Whilst it is not the job of the Malio construction team to build households’ latrines for them, it is their job to support households in their latrine construction. But, what exactly does support mean? As mentioned earlier, in order to sustain motivated use and maintenance, and to instill a sense of ownership, the Malio team feels that it is important that households invest their time and effort into constructing their latrine. However, not every household has an experienced builder. Some households are headed by single-mothers or older adults who are motivated and willing to build, but lack the expertise to properly assemble, say, a sturdy wall.

So how does the Malio construction team – with limited time and human resources to support over 200 households each year – provide assistance without just building the structures for them? How does the team strike a balance between supporting households and just doing the building? How does the team guarantee that so many latrines are built efficiently while also instilling ownership in the households and ensuring that latrines are built to last?

It is the goal of Project Malio to navigate this fine line, not only to facilitate sustained behaviour change and improved hygiene among Fort Dauphin residents, but also to add evidence-based practices to the evolving urban CLTS community. We’ll be back with more on this issue but in the meantime, please send any thoughts or suggestions to us at [email protected]!

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Project Malio: a detailed insight into Azafady UK’s lessons from Year One

Project  Malio  is  Fort  Dauphin’s  largest  sanitation  and  hygiene  behaviour change  initiative  and  the  biggest project ever run by Azafady UK. It’s taking an innovative and broad-ranging approach, tackling Fort Dauphin’s hygiene  and  sanitation  issues  from  five  main  angles:  Community  Led Total  Sanitation  (CLTS)-style “triggering” and follow-up in communities, household latrine construction support, school hygiene education and  latrine repairs,  capacity  building  for  implementing  partners,  and  mass mobilisations  and  media campaigns. All this means that the Malio team are encountering unexpected events, reactions and barriers – and are learning a lot. Whilst some of the things coming up are likely associated with the particular context in Fort Dauphin, some may be applicable to  urban CLTS initiatives elsewhere. Some are approach-specific and  some  are simply  down to  good  project  and  people  management.  Many  are  neither  new  nor groundbreaking  –  and some sound startlingly obvious with the benefit of hindsight!  –  but all have proved  key to Project Malio’s success.

Broadly speaking, the Malio team’s learning can be grouped into eight key themes: 1.  Project preparation: taking time to recruit, train and plan with your team from the start 2.  Scheduling and coordination: ensuring activities run as smoothly and effectively as possible 3.  Monitoring and evaluation: identifying practical ways to measure what really matters 4.  Quality control: training and trusting frontline staff working with limited supervision 5.  Stakeholder engagement: realistic involvement of local government 6.  Equity and inclusion: making sure the most vulnerable are participating 7.  Project design: a miscellaneous selection of unforeseen challenges and potential solutions 8.  Budget: what would we change if we designed it all again?

To read more, about the lessons learnt in Project Malio Year One, visit http://madagascar.co.uk/application/files/2314/5002/4824/Azafady_UK_Project_Malio_-_Lessons_learned_from_Year_1_detailed.pdf. 

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What is Project Malio achieving?

Progress made during Year One: May 2014 – April 2015

Azafady UK’s Project Malio is working in the remote town of Fort Dauphin, south east Madagascar, to reduce open defecation and improve sanitation and hygiene practices. The project started in May 2014 and will run until April 2017 with funding from the UK’s Big Lottery Fund and Guernsey Overseas Aid Commission. After a  three  month  planning  period  to  recruit  and  train  the new  team,  timetable  activities  and  liaise  with  local authorities,  Malio  was officially  launched  in  August  2014  and  the main  activities  kicked  off  in September. 

Here’s  an overview of  we  at Azafady  UK  think  the  project’s  biggest achievements  during the first year  were and an update on the main activities we implemented to get there.

Achievements…

  18% decrease in incidence of self-reported under-five diarrhoea amongst Malio latrine beneficiaries: At the start and end of Year One, parents were asked how many times any of their children under five years old had had diarrhoea in the last month. Prior to project activities, 21% of parents  reported having at least one child under-five who had had diarrhoea four or more times in the last month, compared with just 3% of parents who had received a Malio latrine and 5% of parents randomly selected from the general population  at the end of Year One.

  18% decrease in the number of people using established open defecation sites: At the start and end of Year One, the Malio team counted the number of people using common open defecation sites at key times of day over a number of days. At the start of the project, 346 people  on average were using the sites observed every day, compared with 289 at the end of Year One.

  6% increase in the number of people who believe that using a latrine is healthier than open defecation: Before Project Malio began, 94% of the population reported believing  that using a latrine is a better and healthier option than open defecation. At the end of Year One, this rose to 100% amongst people who had received a latrine through the project and 96% amongst a random sample from the general population.

  85 households pro-actively approached Azafady staff requesting support to build their own latrine: One of the targets of Project Malio was to ensure project messages spread beyond those who were receiving the most direct form of project support: the latrine recipients. The fact that during Year One 85 households sought out Malio staff to ask advice about building a latrine outside project activities is an encouraging start! 

Whilst these achievements are a promising start, we know that continued monitoring and refinement will enable us to increase its impact even further. Feedback from community evaluations conducted at the end of Year One suggested  that the thing people like most about Project Malio is getting a latrine, and the thing they like least is having to pay for one. Whilst Azafady UK believes that it’s important that people who can afford to contribute to latrine costs do so, we’re now investigating ways we can identify and exempt those who really can’t afford to. People also said the Malio latrines were poor quality so we’re also revisiting the design to make sure they’re as durable as possible whilst remaining cost-effective, and that fines for people defecating in the open need to be better enforced so we’re looking into ways that we can support that too.

The Malio team have benefited from learning shared by other project teams and we hope that our experiences will be interesting and useful for others too. The full baseline and Year One reports for Project Malio as well as a range of other project documentation are available upon request so if you’d like to know more about Project Malio please get in touch with us at [email protected]. 

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A Much Anticipated Journey: Debut Trip from Fort Dauphin to St. Luce

Despite having only been on-the-ground in Fort Dauphin for a matter of weeks, the mystical glory that surrounded St. Luce was palpable amongst the Azafady staff. More commonly described as “the bush” – a term whose vagueness only added its unknown magic – I felt almost under pressure to conform to this unrelenting love of this far flung place, which would no doubt redefine my idea of a “weekend in the country”. It was clear early on, however, that I wouldn’t need the pressure to align with the adoration for St. Luce.

Of course, when I say “far flung”, this is not technically accurate. In terms of distance, St. Luce is but 40km away from Fort Dauphin – a nip down the motorway in British terms. It is far flung in another way, however – in terms of journey time. Approximately three hours it was due to take to nearby Mahatalaky, before a quick 15km walk into St. Luce, which would take a further couple of hours.

The legendary “taxi brousse” would be our first form of transport. A reasonably common sight across Africa under different guises, this hefty vehicle not dissimilar to a lorry rocked up after being fixed-up in a nearby yard, and was consequently loaded-up. Layered with bags of rice across the floor, we were lucky enough to get a place on the bench that ran up one side of the brousse, as people and all other forms of items imaginable were Tetris-ed around us. As well as the cliché poultry, other items transported included mattresses and some sort of makeshift roulette wheel, as people piled on into whatever space they could make for themselves. Whilst somewhat of a novelty for me, it was a staunch reminder of the importance of such services to the region, acting not only as an urban-rural link between families, but also a courier to provide vital resources. 

So the journey began, and immediately hilarity ensued. With the rusty ceiling littered with small cracks above us, a box of tomatoes that was piled onto the roof rack proceeded to drip regularly through one of these cracks and onto my head, like some an agricultural sleep deprivation technique. With the whole bus anxious to see how we were to deal with the situation, various tissues and plastic bags offered to us were stuffed up into the crack in attempt to stem the flow, including a member of the gendarme removing a skinny pole from his gun to allow us to poke it in the gap sufficiently.

 And so we continued along the road. I say “road”, but it was only a road in the sense that some cars drove along it, often resembling a competitive mountain bike track more than anything else. Titling from side-to-side at a slow pace, there’s little for you to do other than sit there and endure it. I don’t think anyone really enjoys taxi brousse journeys, but I found that if you pretend it’s not happening, it’s perfectly manageable.

At Mahatalaky, where the brousse terminated, we hopped off and began the walk. Arriving around 3.30pm, our porters grabbed our bags as we made our way deeper into rural Madagascar, fully aware that a stunning sunset would be upon us soon.

It would be fair to say that the following few hours more than made up for the discomfort of the previous few . Strolling along sandy paths, you are surrounded by an almost savannah-esque environment around you, populated with occasional spindly trees and bush growing out of the grainy soil.

In the distance on one side you have the coast. Whilst far away forest prevents you from seeing the ocean, you are constantly reminded of its presence through a gentle sea breeze; the only thing that disrupts the peaceful silence that encapsulates the area.

Whilst you cannot see the sea, the view if you look inland is very much a visual pleasure. With a range of hills in the distance, these seemingly spring up from nowhere, as if only existing to provide a stunning backdrop for the sun set behind them. Lacking the same aggression of a mountain range, the hill peaks are beautifully rounded off at the stop. Some hills conjoin, others prefer a life of solitude; seemingly emerging from the ground like the Pokemon Diglet - for all you Nintendo fans out there.

As you home in on camp, we became surrounded by the forest which defines so much of what St. Luce is about. With the wildlife getting louder as sunlight fades, you look into this dense section of trees and wonder what joys lay within, as you gain an appreciation of the scale of this much-fought over resource.

After this trip, I am now in full understanding of the aura that surrounds St. Luce. I feel that I too shall be hit by a pang of jealousy when I hear of a fellow colleague having the opportunity to take this journey. 

  top":{�E;=)�

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From one Specialist to another…..

One of the great things about Azafady is the opportunity to learn about areas you might not know lots about. As the Sexual Health Specialist, a lot of my time is spent either in the office or in the schools, so when Casey, the Specialist for the Malio Project (our sanitation project) asked if I would like to help the team with their latrine audit, I jumped at the chance of a morning out and about! 

We spent the morning in the fokontany of Esokaka. We were observing and counting how many latrines had been built through the project. We were checking that they had been constructed properly, with the help of Lomba from the Construction Team and checking also the hand washing stations; making sure there was access to water in either a bottle, bucket, ‘tippy tap’ or tap and most importantly soap.

When households weren’t meeting the correct criteria, the Malio team would take the opportunity to give some education and stress the importance of why things were important. For example many families would not replace the lid of the latrine after use which was encouraging flies to swarm. 

 It was such an interesting morning for me, finding out more about another area of health I hadn’t been involved in before and also seeing a whole area of Fort Dauphin that had just been hidden. I learnt so much in one short morning! I’m hoping in the next few months I’ll make it out to Saint Luce! Watch this space!

Lizzie Henden, Sexual Health Specialist

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Saturday 14th March 2015 - Charity Dinner for Stitch Sainte Luce

The evening was a huge success!  We sold 90 tickets and had a waiting list for those wishing to attend! The village hall, set on a green in the heart of the New Forest, was primed for the occasion.  Guests arrived in the dark and entered through a foyer which was dark, jungle noises in the background and had to walk through ‘greenery’ into the hall!  (A soft cuddly ring-tailed lemur was hanging from the branches!).

Nogabe was playing his music and each guest was given a glass of bubbly to get the evening going!  The tables were marked with names of Azafady projects, which was a nightmare, as when we told people where they were sitting we couldn’t pronounce any of the names!

The evening began with a welcome from Paul he introduced Harry (return Azafady volunteer (twice!) and great supporter)  who then in turn thanked and introduced Nogabe!  Harry talked about his involvement with Azafady and his love for this small corner of the world and how we could improve the lives of the local people by supporting Stitch.  We then watched the film of Sarah describing the structure of Stitch and how it had made a huge difference to the women of the village in more ways than one.

After the starter, we had a simple game which everyone joined in! 'Heads and Tails’, Nogabe and Harry took to the stage and flipped a coin!  If it landed on head and you had your hands on your head you stayed standing! If your hands were on your bottom you sat down!  This continued until we had a winner and the last 3 standing joined Nogabe and Harry on stage!  Everyone had been primed to bring £5 to put in an envelope on the table in order to join in the game!  An easy and fun way to raise £450  (much easier than a raffle)!

The evening progressed and we had our main meal, dessert and cheese.  The ‘Bush Bar’ was well supported and the profit from this paid for the bubbly given to everyone at the beginning of the evening.  Nogabe was the star of the show and played continuously after the main course until everyone departed!  We were meant to be out of the hall at 11 pm (very early – but we were in the middle of a New Forest village!).  The last guests left at 12.15 and we left exhausted but delighted about 1.30!

We had the most amazing support from friends for the evening.  Four of my friends helped with the food (we each catered for 18) and Harry had 6 friends from Uni with him, who waited at the tables and washed up and cleared the kitchen throughout the evening.  Jess, the sister of Kit Pickford (who was with the Pioneer volunteers at the time in Sainte Luce working on the new Stitch building) also returned home to help for the evening.  We had many donations during and after the evening and raised a grand total of £2682.50!!

  By Jane and Paul Chaplin (aka Harry’s parents)

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My Internship at Azafady

Hi, I am Marta, and I’m from Poland. I completed an internshipwith Azafady as part of the Leonardo da Vinci European Union project. I’m very happy that I decided to go to London,  although I was in England for only a month, I learned many new things.

It was my first visit in London: new ambiance, new responsibilities and new people. I was welcomed very kindly; although Azafady has a very small office, the atmosphere is really very nice. I worked with many young people; because Azafady has a big team of international volunteers, and everybody was friendly and helpful.

I learnt many useful and interesting things about non-governmental organisations, voluntary services and Madagascar. My duties were related to my studies and interests, and I worked to raise the profile of Azafady in Poland, to attract Polish volunteers and support. The internship in Azafady was a great opportunity for me, and in the future I would now like to work in a charity and help people.

Unfortunately, in Poland non-governmental organizations aren’t popular, and Poles are just not interested in charity work. But now, thanks to Azafady, I know how to use social media and marketing to promote the activity of charities in my country, and I hope I can help them raise their profile to attract more support. I hope too that my work in the office will help Azafady to find new Polish support and volunteers in Madagascar.

My internship lasted a month, and that time seems to have passed so quickly, as though it had only been a week, because I was happy every day I spent there, and because of the great people I met. I am so glad I could work with people who are crazy about Madagascar and are doing an amazing job, in the best charity in London!

Thanks Azafady for everything- for the great placement and all the support!  It was amazing working with you and I have enjoyed every moment.

Stay in touch!

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Mahatalaky Blog

I spent 3 lovely days in Mahatalaky earlier this week,experiencing the setting and work I had been writing about for months. Having come from a project development internship in Azafady’s London office, to working in the Madagascar office two weeks ago, it is amazing to see first hand what it is we are working for.

The new school building

Days with the pioneer team in Mahatalaky start early – breakfast is at 6.30, then work begins around 7.30. The main structure of the building at Mahatalaky EPP (primary school) had already been completed, so the remaining work was largely the finishing touches – cement mixing and filling in the floors and walls, painting, and putting in the doors and windows. It is hard hot work, but very rewarding and satisfying – even in the 3 days I was there we made a lot of progress. And it’s lovely to work as part of such a supportive team – the construction team, guides and pioneers all work together and help each other to get the job done.

Laying the cement on the outdoor decking

At 12 o’clock we receive a delicious lunch of rice and beans, and then can rest until 2, when afternoon work begins. This is a lovely relaxing time of reading and sleeping in the sun. It also gave me the opportunity to talk to some teachers and students and get their opinions on their school and Azafady’s work. I had a very interesting interview with the head teacher, in which he was extremely grateful for the new building and the work Azafady is doing, but highlighted how many problems the school still face, largely related to the education system and lack of government provision. For example, in the first year at primary school all 140 pupils are taught by 2 teachers, one paid for by the government, and one by parents. The parents cannot afford to pay for another one, and the government will not provide another. This creates unacceptably high student:teacher ratios not conducive to productive learning.

Painting the latrine

In the afternoon work continues on the latrine, the other building being constructed as part of this project. This again involves cement mixing and painting, both outside and inside. We also go to Mahatalaky CEG (middle school) in the afternoon to teach an English class. Their English teacher rarely comes from Fort Dauphin, so the student’s level of English is low and inadequate to prepare them for the English they will need at high school. They are very keen and conscientious and try hard in class. We covered basic greetings and introductions with them (with a bit of help from a guide who could translate into Malagasy!), and played a great game outside where they had to run around and swap places with each other. This was evidently something they don’t do very often, and which they seemed to thoroughly enjoy.

Teaching in the CEG (middle school)

After work, a bucket shower in the open air, rice and vegetable stew for dinner, and maybe a game of cards before early night to bed in our tents. There is something quite lovely about the simplicity of life in the bush.  

Helping out on this build was particularly special for me, as 6 months ago I had been searching for funding to enable it to happen, and wrote an application which secured £10,000 towards the project. And now I was there seeing the money being spent to build amazing new classrooms for a severely needy and overcrowded school. I had come full circle and felt so lucky to have got to see this project through, and especially to have met and talked to the children who will now be able to attend school for a full day every day in a building that actually has open windows and doesn’t leak. They were all so enthusiastic and grateful, and it was a truly humbling experience to be amongst them.

New school building, next to building still in need of repair.

Eve Hadshar

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Lemur Graveyard discovered!

Paleontologists have discovered a  huge number of fossilized lemurs, bats and  other rodents dating back hundreds,if not thousands of years in Madagascan underwater caves. This exciting discovery is expected to hold important clues to our understanding and knowledge of the ecological history of Madagascar, how creatures used to live, and how some species became extinct. This veritable graveyard is now submerged underwater in inland caves and divers have been working to uncover the unusual remains. 

Further information on the divers work can be viewed here: 

http://www.nbcnews.com/watch/nbc-news/huge-underwater-fossil-graveyard-explored-in-madagascar-381528131720

Researchers, led by Alfred Rosenberger, believe that the find will be able to shed light on Madagascar’s past climatic conditions and its impacts on endemic inhabitants, and perhaps entire species. One relatively recently extinct species of lemur, the giant Melagadapis lemur, has been discovered amongst the cave remains. It is known for its unique appearance, being stocky in size with a very large skull measuring approximately 1.5 metres long! 

Unfortunately the Giant Melagadapis Lemur is thought to have completely perished around 500 years ago as a result of human presence in the region and concomitant slash-and-burn agricultural practices. However, these finds are helping to keep its memory alive!

Further amazing finds include fossils of elephant birds- again unfortunately now extinct- which lived in Madagascar until the seventeenth century. At the time they were the world's largest bird weighing up to 500 kilograms and reaching three metres in height. Other notable finds include remains of a now extinct crocodile species the V. robustus unusual in comparison to the crocodiles of today due to its horns.

A final key find was the discovery of extinct Malagasy Hippo Species highlighting  the diversity of the country's wildlife. It is hoped this discovery can continue the huge drive in Madagascar by organisations such as Azafady to educate people about the importance of protecting and sustaining our ecosystems and wildlife populations. 

An artist’s impression of the extinct Megaladapis lemur.