News Archive 2006

Development Photography Award Winners

Our own Nathalie Raharilaza wins – The Photoshare 2006 Nikon Development Photography Award. This award, sponsored by Nikon and awarded exclusively to a photographer from a developing country, is part of Photoshare’s efforts to promote photography as a tool for communicating health and development issues. Photoshare received applications from 39 photographers in 18 countries and Feedback Madagascar’s Nathalie Raharilaza won; receiving a much needed new Nikon Coolpix 4800 Digital Camera.

The prize will allow Feedback Madagascar and Ny Tanintsika to use photography as an educational tool and a way to promote global efforts to improve health and save lives. “ I can carry out a good number of reportages of our work now that I have my own camera,” says Nathalie. Please check the new Gallery section of this website to see more of Nathalie’s photos of our work in action.

Washing hands saves lives

Diarrhoeal disease is one of the three biggest killers of children in Madagascar. We have been busy providing clean water supplies to communities & helping build latrines, as well as holding community trainings & film sessions on disease prevention.

The Fianarantsoa WASH committee (http://www.wsscc.org/) was created in January 2006. It regroups over 30 organisations & bodies working in the field of water, sanitation & hygiene who share the common aim of achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. Efforts are focused on promoting the adoption of 3 simple actions essential to reducing diarrhoeal disease; the use of hygienic latrines, washing hands with soap & ensuring the quality of drinking water.

Busy bees increase villagers’ incomes

Feedback are supporting a new bee-keeping project in Ambohimahamasina which aims to increase villagers incomes whilst also promoting forest conservation. The project has successfully trained 50 collectors of wild honey in modern beekeeping methods, thereby improving honey production & removing the need to collect wild honey - which often destroys the queen bee & her colony as well as forest trees.

Weaving their way to sustainable development

A second project hopes to conserve an endangered species of reed called Pandanus. Villagers’ reliance on this reed to produce baskets to supplement their family income has led to its overexploitation. Pandanus harvesting now requires a walk of up to 4 or 5 hours into the surrounding rainforest.

Feedback are currently working with 500 women to develop a management strategy for Pandanus, as well as experimenting with new varieties of reed. Basket-makers have also been trained to identify & respond to current trends in the local market, to increase their sales & income.

Sam at the Palace!

The Queen awards Feedback Madagascar

Feedback’s programme coordinator, Sam Cameron, was awarded an MBE last year for her commitment to healthcare & community development in Madagascar. Sam traveled to London from Madagascar in July to receive her honour at Buckingham Palace, saying

“This is a great honour, I just hope it will lead to more awareness of our work. Madagascar is commonly thought of as a tropical paradise, no doubt exacerbated by the film ‘Madagascar’, but people are so often unaware of the extent of poverty & its links to environmental degradation on the island”.

Beautiful scarves for sale          

By Eugénie Raharisoa

We have been very busy with our silk project this year. It has been a huge success, made even better by the World Bank support we received, and soon I will be attending an “Aid to Artisan’s ‘Market Readiness Program” in New York. I think it will be an excellent opportunity to network and find an export market for our unique hand-made silk products.

Our biggest challenge is generating enough reared silk and wild silk to satisfy demand. The scarves themselves are beautiful and very good value for international customers.  Only purely natural dyes are used and every scarf is a one-off with a story to tell. And part of that story is how every scarf makes life better for some of the most needy women in rural Madagascar!

Fighting the spread of Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the most deadly diseases in Madagascar today & is on the increase, reinforcing the poverty cycle & malnutrition by undermining peoples’ abilities to work & to look after their family. We have been very successful in increasing the recovery rate of TB sufferers & to identify those suspected of carrying TB.

The root of our success lies in our grassroots approach. We work with community leaders to deliver numerous awareness-raising sessions & have trained 112 community educators. Improved access to health services for TB sufferers has resulted from, amongst other things, assistance with transport costs, the establishment of a referral system, & closer monitoring of treatment.

Community competition takes off

Last year we launched a “Champion Community” competition to encourage local communities to be the best at health education, family planning, environmental action, agricultural production, disease prevention and treatment. A year on and the competition has really taken off!

Farmers have been trained in improved agricultural techniques & in turn teach fellow disadvantaged villagers, & we work with teachers to integrate health & environment into the school curriculum.  Results have been impressive in many areas with objectives for prenatal consultations, vitamin A supplements & de-worming for children being surpassed by almost 300% over a 9 month period, & contraceptive users have doubled in one borough.

Over 160 children continue to die each day in Madagascar from preventable causes [source: UNICEF]. Find out more

2006 in numbers

The effectiveness of Feedback Madagascar & Ny Tanintsika’s work is due to our integrated approach. We help local people identify their needs & create their own solutions. In the last year that means:

ECONOMIC BOOST

• A turnover of US$ 15,000 was achieved by 66 female weavers in 2005, thanks to project support.
• Our award-winning silk project targets 66 women through weaving & spinning trainings.

FOREST PROTECTION

• Increases of up to 10-fold in rice production takes pressure off the rainforest.
• 6 community forest protection bodies are now gaining official status to better manage the tapia forest
• 1 scientific study carried out on the biology of the wild silkworm. 

SAVING LIVES WITH EDUCATION

• 166 Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) were trained in safe motherhood, bringing the total to 736.
• 11,136 children de-wormed in 3 of our project areas, increasing school attendance.
• 184 community family planning providers, teachers, health & agricultural educators were trained.

CLEAN WATER & SANITATION

• 3 gravitational water systems built & over 30 springs protected to improve community water sources.
• 409 latrines built by communities after project awareness-raising activities, 59 of which received material support from Feedback.
• 1 international volunteer working on water and sanitation issues.

COMMUNITY ACTION

• Projects have expanded into 7 new communities, covering 2 new districts.
• Continual support to 100s of community educators through our 15+ full-time field agents.
• Monitoring committees established in 3 boroughs, & training provided for their 44 members. 

NEW WEBSITE

• The development of 1 fantastic new bilingual website: Feedbackmadagascar.org  – a huge THANK YOU to Greg Franklin & Pippa Couch for donating all their time & talent for free!!  

 

News Archive

2005 News archive