In Madagascar, 70% population lives in poverty and cannot access education or health services. People suffer from preventable illness like water-borne disease which causes over 6 million lost work/school days/year. Problems are most extreme in the isolated, impoverished Anosy region; 90% rural people have no safe water and very little access to sanitation. Child mortality is 3/10 in some villages. TVF have implemented a programme which builds on previous operations to create sustainable improvements in health through an integrated program of community training, education and infrastructure development. Aligned with the Africa-wide WASH (Water Sanitation and Hygiene) initiative it will use PHAST (Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation Transformation) techniques tried and tested in the area.

The aim of this programme is to reduce the high rates of disease and mortality and bring sustainable relief from poverty for people living in the Anosy region of South-East Madagascar and to construct 12 Pharmacies, 12 wells, 12 pumps and 4 latrines. 36 pharmacists will be trained, and a comprehensive health education programme undertaken. 15,500 people will become direct beneficiaries of this project, with benefits extending through the population of the urban commune of Fort Dauphin and the surrounding rural region which has a population of 200,000 people. Health committees will be developed in each village or urban area, assisted and monitored by health extension workers.