Improving Maternal and Child Health in Madagascar

We continue to make meaningful progress with Project Votsira in strengthening maternal and child health (MCH) outcomes across our targeted communities. The project has reached 1,200 community members through a combination of 420 MCH group sessions and 6,300 household visits, allowing for consistent monitoring, counselling, and personalized support for mothers and caregivers. In August, we held capacity building efforts through the training of 28 community health workers and 14 CSB staff. This training focused on essential MCH competencies, including breastfeeding best practices, safeguarding principles, and patient-centred care. These sessions aimed to improve both the quality of service delivery and community trust in local health structures.

Recruitment for the next sessions round is currently underway, accompanied by baseline surveys to evaluate participant needs and initial knowledge levels. Our planned Roundtable and Community Feedback Meetings were, however, rescheduled for late October. Furthermore, the results of our Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) from the previous program round showed significant improvements as there was an increase of 21% in participant knowledge, reflecting an effective session and high community engagement. In addition to this, 1,315 children were vaccinated, 90% of deliveries were attended by skilled professionals, and 95% of mothers completed the minimum recommended number of antenatal visits.

We are very grateful for all of the activities achieved that contributed to these remarkable milestones. We wouldn’t have reached them without your unwavering support. We want to thank you for your trust and continued contribution to the work we do at SEED.

Since May, the second round of the Maternal and Child Health (MCH) education programme has been unfolding with purpose and precision. SEED Madagascar’s dedicated staff, together with Community Health Workers (ACs), have led a total of 336 community-based education sessions while conducting 5,040 households visits to reinforce essential learnings, building on the momentum of earlier efforts that saw 420 sessions and 6,300 home visits overall. Each visit is more than just an exchange of information; it is a personal touchpoint, a reaffirmation that health begins at home.

28 community health workers (AC's) recently completed a three-day refresher training, sharpening their delivery of the MCH curriculum. In parallel, SEED’s team conducted the second endline survey for the first round of education. This crucial step will help assess how well caregivers are retaining health knowledge, ensuring that lessons are truly understood and carried forward.

Crucially, Project Votsira supported the Ministry of Health’s vaccination campaign, with a special focus on children under five who had never received a vaccine dose. In communities where misinformation and access barriers have left children vulnerable, this partnership helps overcome the lack of access to vital information.

Through the Positive Deviance approach, Project Votsira identified 12 Model Mothers. These are women whose everyday practices have protected their children from malnutrition. Their stories are now being shared, transforming lived experience into local leadership and proof that solutions already exist within communities.

Now, Votsira is setting its sights on Phase VI. This next phase promises to bring life-saving education and support to even more families in rural Madagascar. Behind every statistic, every training, every home visit is a simple but powerful idea: every mother deserves the tools to keep their children safe. Project Votsira is turning that idea into reality; step by step, story by story, mother by mother.

The journey continues; thank you for being part of this transformative journey.