Healthcare & Hygiene
Hygiene and sanitation programme
Except for the houses built by NGOs , traditional households in Nosy Komba do not have toilets nor bathrooms. Local people normally bath in the river and defecate either in the sea or in the river. Besides the lack of privacy, this raises serious health issues spreading diseases, such as cholera.
The goal of this project is to develop, produce and install toilets with a sink and a septic tank at low cost in the local households.
The programme aims to minimise cost and production complexity, increasing the local know-how and creating a new local company capable of building and installing a whole bathroom.
Following the pilot phase in 2015, the project entered the full production phase with the development of three new moulds allowing for a more efficient production and installation.
How we contribute:
INSTALL BATHROOMS AT LOW COST:
a toilet, a sink and a septic tank
STIMULATE LOCAL COMPANIES:
self-sustainability
WATER FILTER SYSTEM
Maternity and health centre
Madagascar has extremely high child mortality and maternal mortality rates. The population of Nosy Komba is particularly exposed to this due to the distance from medical centres and the lack of trained personnel to support the families throughout pregnancy and during childbirth.
As a result, not only is there a high risk that the child or the mother dies during labor, but there is also a high number of disabled children due to the poor follow-up of pregnancies.
In 2016, we opened a maternity centre and contributed to adapt a building to host delivery rooms. The project is supported by local nurses and midwives who manage the maternity centres autonomously and commit to be at the service of the whole population, independently of their age, origin or income.
Due to the absence of any medical support on the island, the nurses also provide primary medical care to the local population and manage a small pharmacy. The midwives also support the education programme by organising health and hygiene school lessons.
In 2024, we opened our second maternity clinic on Nosy Komba, staffed by an experienced midwife who has safely delivered numerous babies. This new facility extends our reach to serve more expectant mothers across the island's rural communities.
Here is how we contribute:
CREATION OF A MATERNITY CENTRE
SUPPORT FROM NURSES AND MIDWIVES
FACILITIES, EQUIPMENT AND BASIC PEDIATRIC CARE
Emergency fund
The population of Nosy Komba has extremely limited access to healthcare infrastructure. Besides this, for the vast majority of the population, there is a great lack of awareness and especially of means for people in emergency situations to be treated. This often results in tragic situations and the local population frequentlyrequests our group’s support.
In 2018, we decided to start raising an emergency fund and have allocated for this 2000€, or about 5% of our budget. This fund has allowed assisting in a more structured and consistent way people in urgent need. Just this year, besides assisting people in several small emergencies (e.g. deep cuts, infected wounds or working accidents), we also supported financially three people in need of help for surgeries to treat life threatening conditions.
How we contribute:
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
