SEED Madagascar

As the dust settles from Severe Tropical Storm Jude, the scale of the damage is becoming clear. Following record-breaking dry weather, wildfires, and looming aid cuts threatening vital health and education projects, this storm—the first strong weather system to cross the entire southern region—further highlights the growing threats facing already vulnerable rural communities and the environment here.

On 15th March, Jude struck Fort Dauphin and the Anosy region head-on, bringing strong winds and heavy rain that caused widespread damage. Several SEED staff lost roofs on their houses, many in the community lost their homes entirely, the town’s largest food market was partially destroyed, and details are now emerging from rural communities revealing significant impacts across all of our programme areas.

In Sainte Luce, the Mahampy Weavers’ Cooperative workshop suffered major roof damage, leaving it unusable and spoiling much of the handwoven stock inside. The roof of the Stitch Sainte Luce workshop is also leaking. In nearby Mahatalaky, the CEG (Lower Secondary School) is flooded, while the former Lycée (Upper Secondary School) building has been completely destroyed. In the wider communities where SEED works, solar panels installed just last month to provide essential lighting at the CSB (community healthcare centre) in Manambaro fell through the roof. Although all cyclone-proof roofs on SEED-built schools since 2022 withstood the storm, many older school buildings suffered significant damage, including EPP (Primary School) Tsiharoa Ambodro, EPP Mahialambo, and EPP Tsihalagna. Fallen trees crushed several beehives at the Project Renitantely apiary in Vatambe.

In just three months, Madagascar’s south has felt the full force of the climate crisis. Unseasonably dry weather late last year is likely to disrupt crop cycles well into this year, worsening food insecurity in a country already ranked 124th out of 127 in the Global Hunger Index 2024. Our Project Miatrika team expects a rise in malnourished children. Climate-driven wildfires in January torched parts of all five Ala Programme habitat corridors and precious remaining natural forest, and impending aid cuts and announcements of budget cuts from the US, Germany, and the UK will create funding gaps, particularly for projects in the south.

Help SEED respond to the near-monthly climate-related destruction we’re experiencing this year, and bridge the funding gap at the link below. Thank you????

https://madagascar.enthuse.com/cf/don-t-let-history-repeat-help-madagascar-build-resilience

Project Miatrika is in partnership with Humedica e.V. and kindly supported by Auswärtiges Amt (Federal Foreign Office) Germany.