Category: Don’t Miss
Some of the best posts from our archive!
Celebrating women who inspire change
I'm currently volunteering with the Safidy programme in Andavadoaka, and was offered the opportunity to write this special blog post for International Women’s Day...
Tsy manavaky: female fishers find strength through learning
By Olivia Kemp, Sustainable Fisheries Programme Manager, Toliara, Madagascar Andavadoaka beach, 6am. As our team loaded up the comarine pirogue with our gear, we scanned the cloudy skies for signs of what weather surprises might be in store for us...
How can rice sacks help prevent diarrhoea?
By Mahasoa Lahatse, Health Education and WASH Specialist, Velondriake, Madagascar It makes us, the Safidy community health team of Blue Ventures, happy to share with you this short story about sand-bag latrines. This story takes place in our village of Andavadoaka, where...
Safidy at the start of 2014: behaviour change in a time of new year’s resolutions
By Caroline Savitzky, Safidy (Community Health) Programme Coordinator, Velondriake, Madagascar Behaviour change is hard. Anyone who has tried to stick to a new year’s resolution, whether it’s quitting smoking, eating well or being more patient, knows this to be true; especially...
Staff Q&A with Antoine Rougier, Aquaculture Advisor
In the fifteenth instalment in our series of Q&As with Blue Ventures staff, we ask Antoine Rougier, our Aquaculture Advisor (previously our Aquaculture Coordinator for 3 years in Madagascar), some searching questions about science, conservation and superpowers… What is your...
PHE is alive and kicking: inspiration and endorsement from Addis Ababa
By Laura Robson and Caroline Savitzky The excitement was palpable as we gathered with almost 200 of the world’s finest Population-Health-Environment (PHE) practitioners, researchers and advocates in Addis Ababa for the International PHE Conference earlier this month! With all of...
Reaching the hardest to reach with reproductive health choices
Two boys splash across the shallows as the tide goes out in the channel by Begamela, a small fishing community on Madagascar’s southwest coast, chasing after their model pirogues, adjusting the sails and setting them off in a race towards...
In search of the elusive event: coral spawning in Madagascar
By Erika Gress, Field Scientist, Madagascar One of nature’s most unusual, mysterious and least witnessed events happens in the ocean; coral spawning. Despite years of data collection and night snorkelling trips, for the BV Madagascar team, this rare sight has...
A summer of youth-led activities in Velondriake
By Paul Antion, Velondriake Education Coordinator, Madagascar Our education team has been busy facilitating an expanded range of extracurricular activities during the long summer break in Velondriake, as this is a vital time to continue engaging our scholars in...
Coast-to-coast fisher exchange: from reef octopus to spiny lobster
Lobster fishers from Sainte Luce travelled almost 1,000 kilometres across southern Madagascar to learn from Velondriake’s experience of temporary octopus closures Blue Ventures is working to support some of Madagascar’s most isolated coastal communities to manage their fisheries and marine resources. Starting with a...
Nature on your doorstep: adventures on the Belize Barrier Reef
by Saskia Ponce, Centro Escolar México Junior College student, Belize Foreword by Jen Chapman, Belize Country Coordinator Centro Escolar México Junior College (CEMJC) is a Belizean tertiary education institution in the Corozal District. Its mission is to provide opportunities for students from...
Blue forests: progress made and looking forward
By Trevor Jones, Geospatial Analyst and Manager, Vancouver If someone had told me three years ago that I would come to work in Madagascar’s mangrove forests, I wouldn’t have believed them. Fast forward to July 2011 and I found myself commencing...
Telling our story: capturing the complexity of Blue Ventures’ integrated work
By Charlie Gough, marine scientist, and Laura Robson, community health coordinator What do you get if you put twelve evaluation specialists in a small room with four Population-Health-Environment (PHE) [1] practitioners? Five hours of mind-blowing conversations about capturing the complexity of...
Uncovering family planning needs in Belo sur Mer
By Lison Garrel, Safidy (Community Health) Programme Coordinator, Belo sur Mer My involvement with Blue Ventures started at the beginning of 2013, with a two-month mission to Belo sur Mer on Madagascar’s west coast. The aim: to conduct an assessment...
Fisher exchanges to change fisheries
by Shawn Peabody, Country Director, Madagascar Examples of coastal communities coming together to take on overfishing and reduce destructive fishing aren’t too hard to find. In nearly every region there are good examples of these “positive deviants”, as the literature...