SEED Madagascar

SEED’s largest school build to date, Ranomafana high school (Lycée), was completed in March 2020. The school now has three fully-furnished classrooms, an administrative office, two three-cubicle latrine blocks separated by gender, and a menstrual hygiene management facility. Students and teachers have access to running water from the newly installed water pipe and three outdoor taps. As the only upper secondary institution within an 80-kilometre radius, the new lycée provides a vital, safe, and comfortable learning environment that will enable students in this remote part of the Anosy region to receive and complete their education.

A key part of this project was strengthening students’ and teachers’ capacity to implement good water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) practices. Alongside provision of sanitation, handwashing, and menstrual hygiene facilities, SEED has delivered WASH education sessions to 36 teachers in Ranomafana High School covering topics such as handwashing, latrine use and maintenance, and water treatment. In order to ensure the sustainability of the new infrastructure, the school’s WASH committee, formed of 24 teachers and parents, has also received training in proper cleaning and maintenance of the new buildings.

SEED is planning to hold a handover ceremony later this year, during which responsibility for maintaining the school and equipment will be formally transferred to the community. This ceremony will be particularly important for SEED and the community as they remember SEED’s staff member, Dadah, and a teacher at the high school, who were tragically killed in a bus accident in December 2017 while travelling to the school site. Both men were passionate advocates for the education of young people in Ranomafana and will be commemorated in a framed photograph installed at the lycée. The teacher’s wife has also kindly offered to donate a football uniform to students, helping to preserve their legacies in this newly thriving educational environment.