Family planning & Community Health Programme

The southwest of Madagascar is home to one of the world's fastest growing populations, with the average woman in Velondriake giving birth to nearly 7 children. Over half of the 7000 residents of Velondriake are under the age of fifteen, spurring on a continued population boom over the next several decades. At this rate the number of people living within Velondriake is set to double in about 20 years, and this doesn't account for immigrants. Growing populations require more natural resources in the form of food and building materials, and therefore pose a severe threat to the future sustainability of both marine and terrestrial habitats upon which the livelihoods, culture and future economic wellbeing of these coastal communities depend.

In an attempt to address this, Blue Ventures opened a family planning clinic in the village of Andavadoaka in August 2007 to provide access to reproductive health services to women in the community – particularly addressing the high unmet demand for family planning. Called Safidy, meaning 'choice' in Malagasy, this initiative aims to empower and enable individuals to make their own reproductive health choices, and protect themselves against sexually transmitted infections. In addition to clinical services, the programme uses a variety of community education activities to raise awareness. The project has grown steadily over the years, and there are currently 33 community-based distributors throughout Velondriake and neighboring areas who sell condoms and birth control pills.

In 2011, the Safidy program expanded to include water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) outreach, and will soon begin providing support in maternal and infant health.

Implanon fitting day

The program is currently expanding into a broader Population, Health and Environment (PHE) program through integrating sexual/reproductive health and maternal/child health initiatives into existing conservation efforts.  This pioneering, integrated approach to population, health, and conservation offers opportunities for these different interventions to work synergistically, enabling far more effective achievement of the combined projects' objectives than could be achieved if these projects were carried out in isolation.