Improving children's health and education

SEED is excited to celebrate the completion of its WASH and Education Infrastructure project in Esohihy Primary School! From March to December 2022, SEED’s construction team successfully built a three-room school building that will offer a safe and comfortable learning space for Esohihy’s 144 students and four teachers. SEED also built two three-cubicle pit latrines with menstrual hygiene management facilities, a house for the headmaster and their family, and a 10,000-litre capacity rainwater harvesting system which will provide access to clean drinking water on-site. 

The construction team has effectively overcome important challenges throughout project delivery, such as the flooding of the construction site due to heavy rains, levelling the uneven terrain commonly seen in this region of Anosy, and digging through hard clay which takes much longer than other types of subsoil. Despite these challenges, the team has produced a cyclone-resistant school that can now withstand the unpredictable weather patterns which are sadly becoming more common in Madagascar. 

SEED has trained all four Esohihy teachers in delivering WASH education sessions and installed behavioural nudges and a mural on the latrine walls which will aim to encourage healthy hygiene practices amongst students and teachers. The head teacher revealed that the students were all very excited when they first visited their new school, particularly about the new desk-benches to sit on! The central location of the new school will contribute to making education accessible for the entire community in Esohihy, and the structure will provide space to accommodate for the growing student population.