Wind Energy Pictures!!!

First run of our new wind energy curriculum on Wednesday was a huge success!!  

Photo 1: volunteer teachers Keyoor and Sara Jane and field assistant, Patience, facilitate a discussion about natural resources that are non-renewable vs. renewable. 

Photo 2: A student in Sarah, Elizabeth, and Chris' class had seen a wind turbine at an orphanage about 20 km from this village. He was able to draw a 3D picture on the board and promised to take the rest of his class to see it.

Photo 3, 4, & 5: students were pumped about their individual pinwheels and ran outside to test them in the wind. Community members trickled in to check it out.

Photo 6: Even the teachers, led by Kristin, Amanda, and Doreen, built a model wind turbine to show how we can use the power of the wind to "do work," by pulling up a pen.

Exploring Alternative Energies in Malawi

One of the exciting aspects of our new 4 Day curriculum is the expansion of our environmental section. We began with our current solar energy activity-testing one mock solar oven painted black and one with a black bottom and foil sides. Early volunteer arrivers, Elizabeth Smith and Blair Lindley, assisted Coordinators with this endeavor. No surprise there, but the second oven got about 10 degrees hotter! Indeed, black to absorb the sun and foil to reflect the heat back in does work.

Coordinators Karen Clark and Katy Lackey have also been researching ways and partnering with a few organizations to actually bring real solar ovens to the communities we work in. More on these opportunities to come. 

Partly inspired by a desire to bring a more practical alternative energy source to our schools' villages (cardboard solar ovens have a little trouble heating nsima), partly by questions raised in Teacher Workshop meetings, and partly by William's story in The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, this summer we'll be piloting World Camp's first ever wind energy section!!

Each camp participant will make their own pinwheel, while each class will build a model wind turbine that demonstrates how wind can convert energy to "do work," as evidenced by the model pulling up a pen. Karen Clark built our first ever model (a success!), while Blair Lindley taught our Summer Session 1 group our to deliver the material to our kids during orientation.  

A huge shout out and thanks to former volunteers Gretchen Visser, David Ederer, Caitlyn Cunningham, Maggie Savage, Monica Ralston, and Coordinator Rachel Dudasik for their help in developing this section!!

Stay tuned and we'll let you know how it goes!

Malawi Orientation: We're a Tight Knit Group

This summer's Malawi Coordinator Team happily welcomed the arrival of our 1st session volunteers this week! Our group of 11 arrived safe and sound on Tuesday and Thursday. After enjoying one of John Chizimba's delicious vegetarian meals, we jumped right into orientation and training. 

Our 4 day training program orients volunteers to focus issues (HIV/AIDS, deforestation/alternative energies, and gender equality/human rights), what it's like to teach in  Malawian schools, and the challenges we face working here. 

Getting to know one another has been no problem for this group. We had plenty of time for bonding while going over the morning games in our curriculum. 

We spent some time team building and working on our comfort levels while trying to fit everyone on an "island" that continues to shrink due to global warming (see above).

We've also practiced trusting one another and our communication skills as volunteers led each other in a trust walk around the WC house (see left). 

We also did a run through of our curriculum, practicing teaching in front of a class and with a Field Assistant translating into Chichewa. Here Keyoor-assisted by Rachel, Karen, and Chikabachi-demonstrates how HIV attacks T-cells in the immune system.

 

Kicking Off the Summer in Malawi!

This past week we officially kicked off our summer programming in Malawi. Our Coordinator Team arrived and setting up the WC house for Session 1 has been going really well! We’re excited to launch a new position this summer as part of our Youth-to-Youth (Y2Y) program. Our Y2Y program brings high school volunteers from the U.S. to work with some of the younger kids at our target schools here in Malawi. Focus issues include malaria prevention, HIV awareness, environmental degradation.  On Thursday, we met with Malawian Secondary School students who are enrolled in an SAT prep class in Lilongwe. The students will take the SATs in the next few months and then start to apply to colleges; many were excited about studying in the United States! We talked with them about our new Field Intern position and they seemed really excited! Field Interns will be Secondary School Malawian students who work alongside our Y2Y volunteer teachers.

The Field Intern position will include many responsibilities, such as acting as a liaison between foreign volunteers and local Malawians, translating curriculum material, and participating in all other aspects of the WC program. The students were obviously excited to get to work with an organization like World Camp for a number of reasons. Aside from a great reference for college applications, they were all genuinely interested in the issues WC works on and connecting with foreign youth. It will be great to have such excited and young field staff working in our Y2Y program this summer!

1 in 12. The Refugees' HIV/AIDS Epidemic in Malawi

You'd never know, but about 70 km north of Lilongwe, over 12,000* refugees living in Malawi. The place is known as the Dzaleka Refugee Camp and was established largely in response to civil unrest in Mozambique causing 1.2 million refugees to settle in Malawi. With the Rwandan genocide in 1994, the camp opened to other nationalities. Today there are refugees from over 10 nations, including Burundi, Somalia, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Sudan, and Zimbabwe.

Below: Outskirts of the camp. Photo by: Katy Lackey

We ventured to the camp for a meeting with a church group last week. Having never been to one before, I had no idea what to expect. About 10km before we reached the camp, our car was stopped and questioned. Apparently monthly rations hadn't been delivered yet, and many people had illegally left the camp seeking food in nearby trading centers or to hop a bus to the city. The authorities were trying to locate and bring everyone back. For one of the few times I can remember, I suddenly felt really angry at Malawi as a country, as I was reminded of poor immigration policies and border checks in the U.S., restricting people to a certain location and kind of life. 

Once inside the camp, it was shocking how permanent the area felt. I mean, being a refugee is supposed to be a temporary situation right? Despite not knowing what to expect, I guess I pictured tents and people new to the country. Many of the refugees have been there for 10 years or longer. And most of the houses seemed more permanent than some of the villages we work in. The World Food Program and Red Cross deliver monthly rations to refugees and there are a few stores that try to stock and sell things in between those gaps. Still digesting all that.

Anyways, one of our Malawi Development Project goals is to localize action by extending our outreach. So when this church group from the refugee camp requested an HIV/AIDS program from World Camp, we thought it could be a great opportunity to extend our resources and encourage awareness we don't usually reach-religious institutions and non-Malawians.After all, people in throughout the many layers and sectors of a community impact social issues like HIV.

Above: Pastor Joshua and HIV Project Coordinator, Marcel outside shop that provides rice and soap when rations run out. Photo by: Lusungu Masamba

Above: The whole group! Church staff, WC Translator, Lusungu Masamba, WC Coordinator, Katy Lackey, WC Volunteer, John Haas.  Photo by: Cyrus Jenda   

While HIV testing is available inside Dzaleka Refugee Camp, the nearest place to receive ARV treatment is 

at a hospital more than 15km outside the camp. Prostitution is frequent among many age groups of refugees, and condoms are a rarity, both in the supply availability and the monetary sense. Unlike many other parts of Malawi, people report that much of the awareness education about HIV needed still centers on basic transmission and prevention information (elsewhere in Malawi these facts are becoming "common knowledge," and programs are moving more towards addressing testing, stigmas/discrimination, etc.). 

At least an estimated 1,000 refugees are living with HIV. 1,000 out of a population of 12,000. That's 1 in 12!! Which is actually less than the national average. So why does that statistic seem so incredibly daunting? Perhaps because of the overall small population size (I mean, compared to the 14 million in Malawi, 12,000  is not that many). Perhaps because it is within such a confined space: the physical constraint of a camp location could see a ridiculously quick spread in infection. Perhaps because of the lack of basic information and resources to address the epidemic. 

Most of the people we met with were from the DR Congo and have been in the camp for 9+ years. As part of our pilot Community Outreach Projects this summer, World Camp volunteers will be conducting workshops through this church's HIV Awareness Project. We'll provide an HIV awareness training with the church's staff members, a community condom demonstration, work alongside a group of refugees living with HIV, and serve at an children's center for kids orphaned in the camp or the home countries by HIV. 

Be sure to check back to read about volunteer's experiences with our outreach initiative in the Dzaleka Refugee Camp. 

*Please note the statistical information was provided to World Camp by someone in the Camp. Online sources vary in confirming these numbers. 

the Circumcision Debate

The thing about Africa is that every day is a challenge; sometimes in wonderful ways, sometimes in disappointing, frustrating, and heart-heavy ways. Can I generalize like that, saying "Africa" instead of just "Malawi?" I think so. Because the general sentiment I've discovered here, as have many people living, visiting, or working in African countries will tell you, is an incredible co-existence of pain and beauty. Which is mystifying in and of itself. Though most are happy, life is tough. Tough situations, problems, questions. It certainly doesn't stop people from living , but there's no real way to escape it all, even in the beautiful moments.

A hike in Dedza with some friends the other week quickly unfolded as a perfect example of this. Sweating, tired and in awe with where we were, a debate about circumcision and HIV rapidly unfolds. With a beautiful view like this:

How could a heavy topic not come up in conversation? Of course, we're in Africa.

The Great Circumcision Debate. According to the CDC and UNAIDS, studies indicate that male circumcision can reduce the risk of contracting HIV by almost 45% because:

Dedza, Malawi. Photo by: Katy Lackey

1.  foreskin is more concentrated with cells susceptible to HIV transmission
2. foreskin is more likely to tearing during sex
3. higher rates of some STIs exist among uncircumcised men

 The CDC also reports that in countries where 80% of men or more are circumcised, HIV prevalence rates lower by 20% for the entire population. Male circumcision leads to a reduced HIV infection in female partners as well.

So what's the debate? Where do I start... First, circumcision can have complications, and (not that I would know), painful! Some are arguing the Malawi government should mandate male circumcision. Many are against such a mandate for religious or cultural beliefs. And others feel something like that is simply a personal choice. The other afternoon Chikabachi, a WC translator, and I were discussing the significantly higher rates of HIV in southern Malawi. He spoke of a clinic that performed 200 free circumcisions; apparently almost all the men who went for the procedure agreed to be tested for HIV as well! Those who tested positive were referred to a VCT clinic where they were supplied with free counseling and ARV treatment; those who tested negative learned about proper condom use to further prevent transmission.

Among the mind boggles: Should a government be allowed to make circumcision mandatory? What about in a country where HIV rates are 1/5 or higher? If so, should there be an age at which males should be circumcised?  When there is such abhorrence towards female circumcision concerning human rights, violence, and personal choice, is it fair to mandate male circumcision?  Although circumcision does not guarantee prevention of HIV transmission, in places where HIV prevalence rates are astronomically high, is it a necessary first step, especially when it is so difficult to change behavior (e.g. multiple sexual partners, unprotected sex. etc.)?

SO much to consider. What do you think?

As you struggle and debate through these ideas, just make sure you have a view of something to remind you that, amidst all the suffering and questions and tough stuff, the world is still a beautiful place:

Taslani bwino (stay well),
Katy and World Camp in Malawi
WC Program Coordinator