| It's July already, and what a six months we have had at SEED! This year we have seen the Food Distribution team support 1,312 children to recover from malnutrition caused by the drought and famine in the south of Madagascar. The Schools team have been working in three schools and as a result 574 students now have classrooms, toilets and drinking water at school. Project Ala has planted 5,687 trees and extended the corridors by 14,370m2 (1.437 ha), restoring pathways between forest fragments for a variety of species in Sainte Luce. The opening of borders has enabled Stitch to increase sales bringing in over £1,000; benefits of this reaching families in three villages in Sainte Luce. And, for the first time in two years the team is back together as international staff return to our Fort Dauphin office. Life remains tough in the south of Madagascar, but with a growing team and tonnes of energy, we will continue building on the successes of the year so far. Thank you for joining us on the journey to our mission 🧡 | | Tree-planting in Sainte Luce | | | Before we delve into the good news of this month’s newsletter, we’re sad to have received news of a destructive fire last Friday night in the village of Manafiafy. Fortunately, despite 9 houses being burned to the ground, all village members were able to evacuate and no-one was hurt. However, the destruction means that 43 people are now without shelter and left with only the clothes they slept in. We’re stepping in to provide essential supplies such as food, blankets, soap, sanitary products and temporary shelter. We have already sent some emergency food but to do more we need your help. Please show your support and help us rebuild the lives and homes of these families. | | | | Measuring children for malnutrition | Food Distribution Successes 🍚🌽 | With the south still experiencing reduced harvests from drought and relentless cyclones, what has SEED been doing in response to the famine? Since January SEED has teamed up again with seven rural health clinics around Fort Dauphin, working with 82 local health agents to identify children suffering from malnutrition and providing malnutrition treatment, food, health information and access to services for them and their families. Over the past five months the team has provided a staggering 16,280 kilograms of rice, 10,582 cups of beans, and 1,628 litres of oil to support 412 families. This week we had the wonderful news that 99.3% of the malnourished children enrolled in this project round have now recovered, an amazing result for the team - and a wonderful highlight of our week here at SEED.
A big thank you to those of you who have already supported our appeal! ⭐ If you’d like to help with the longer-term programme, click here! 👇
| | | Members of the Mahampy Cooperative measuring Mahampy reeds | Women in business: Mahampy’s creative conservationists! 🧺🌾 | Supporting sustainable livelihoods is at the heart of what we do at SEED. So, when we started to look at how to support female weavers in Sainte Luce to make more money from weaving and selling mahampy (a local reed), we also knew we had to look at the sustainability of the wetlands where the reeds grow. In June 2021, SEED supported five women from the Mahampy Weavers' Cooperative to begin research to assess the effects of different harvesting techniques on the growth of the mahampy reeds. The women are the first in Sainte Luce to take part in ecological research and are at the heart of this initiative, to lead on a management strategy that will ensure the sustainability of mahampy weaving and the weavers’ livelihoods. Since their research began, all five women have reported an improvement in their numeracy skills and their ability to use research equipment, building capacity throughout the cooperative to share their knowledge and skills with others 💪 | | | Required: more space for learning! 📚📝 | | As SEED’s Emergency food distribution team work with the Sarisambo Health Clinic, providing lifesaving food, our Schools team has turned their attention to supporting the local primary and secondary school. The primary school has eight classes, but only three classrooms - and you can see from the picture above that these are in desperate need of repair! With 627 students and only 11 teachers, (a pupil to teacher ratio of 57:1) it takes dedication and real motivation to get an education in Sarisambo; yet 40 of the 42 students who took their final exams passed! Sarisambo secondary school faces similar challenges, with no dedicated school building of its own, teachers and students rely on two classrooms loaned by the primary school. With just two classrooms for 255 students, only half days of lessons are possible. With SEED securing just £50,000 towards the cost of additional classrooms, toilets and water supply systems for the two schools, we still need half of the budget, another £52,000, so that students and teachers in Sarisambo can keep up the good work in a healthy and safe school environment. With special thanks to Guernsey Overseas Aid for supporting the first half of this project. | | | | This email was sent to friend@example.com | © SEED Madagascar. All rights reserved. |
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