Current Events in Malawi

Last week, the Malawi Humans Rights Commission (MHRC) urged for human rights issues be included in HIV/AIDS programs in Malawi. At a meeting held by the MHRC in conjunction with District Commissioners in the Northern Region, concern was raised over the human rights violations that occur in response to the stigma of HIV/AIDS. This bias against people who are HIV positive leads to further discrimination within society and the workplace as well. The MHRC are urging district commissioners to gain and acquire tools to combat the degrading stigma that exists. This stigma in the workplace and public sector has caused many people to go untreated. The MHRC believes sensitization to this issue and the needs of the HIV positive community in Malawi is vital in ensuring human rights are applied to all people, regardless or HIV status. Similar meetings in Central and Southern Regions of Malawi are anticipated in the near future.

http://www.nyasatimes.com/malawi/2012/10/21/integrate-human-rights-in-hiv-activities-urges-malawi-human-righsts-commission/

A New Geographical Focus

A New Geographical Focus

Picture Ideas: map of schools in Malikha zone plus others

Hand-drawn map of the Malikha Zone

History: World Camp has been in Malawi for eleven years now and we’re proud of the progress we’ve made. We’ve worked with over 20,400 students  in over 190 schools. We’ve conducted workshops with hundresds community members and met with countless organizations to learn even more about Malawi and the work being done by others.

What we’re doing: We have added year-round staff to our Malawi office so we can implement a geographic approach in order to increase both our programming and presence in partner schools. For the next few years, World Camp will concentrate solely on one primary education zone that comprises 11 primary schools and their communities in order to create a stronger and more sustained impact.

Why we’re doing it: A geographic focus will allow us to delve deeper into locally challenging issues; we can identify needs and address them individually and specifically. With year-round programming, we can provide more sustained support to students, teachers, community members, and grassroots organizations. We’ll be able to improve our monitoring, tracking, and evaluation processes to more thoroughly assess our impact. 

World Camp Club Mentor, Cyrus Jenda
speaks with stakeholders at the Teacher
Development Center

Where we’ll be: The zone WC selected is called Malikha Zone. It is under the direction of a single Primary Education Advisor, Ms. Elizabeth Kasomekera. It’s located about 45 minutes outside the city, on the way to Salima (Lake Malawi). WC has already visited five of the eleven schools in the zone and is excited to continue meeting new students and teachers as we conduct educational camps and community workshops in the coming years.

What we’ll do: We’ll continue to host volunteers and hold educational camps focused on HIV, the environment, gender equality, and literacy. We’ll establish and support a World Camp Club at each school to foster youth activism and involvement. We’ll support teachers who go through our Teacher Workshop to ensure students continue to receive correct information and interactive lessons.

Who we’ll work with: We’ll continue to work hand in hand with the Primary Education Advisor, as she is directing and giving the final approval on a lot of our programs in Malikha Zone. We’ll meet regularly with schools to check on their progress, provide additional support, and answer any questions that arise as they implement new programs. We’ll meet monthly with World Camp Clubs to encourage youth activism and participation in community development initiatives. Students will remain our focus - they are, after all, the future of their communities!

Benefits for World Camp volunteers and interns: World Camp will give first time World Camp volunteers more information about the schools they will teach in based on experience, data collected, and current community projects. This can only benefit their teaching effectiveness and understanding of the situation of their students. World Camp Alum will hear more about the results of their efforts (and their past students!) as World Camp staff revisit communities, track the successes of clubs, test knowledge, and facilitate continuous learning and community growth.

We at World Camp are excited about this change, and would love to hear your feedback and ideas!

Our Inspiring Visit with a Community Based Organization in Malikha

World Camp Country Manager Michael Kumwenda, Program Coordinator Karen Clark, and Professional Capacity Building Intern Rufus Faggons ventured to meet with the leadership and members of Kasumba CBO (Community Based Organization) near Liwera Full Primary School in the Malikha Primary School Zone.

We were warmly welcomed by the staff, who had arranged nametags on our seats. They dove right into sharing with us the meat of their efforts. The Kasumba CBO membership hovers around 30 and they serve 58 villages! There are over 200 orphans living in their catchment area, but the number is increasing at an alarming rate.

The CBO has been serving the Kasumba area for five years, and when asked why each member joined, they all provided different and very personal responses. One woman’s sister-in-law was handicapped and she wanted to provide support not only for her sister-in-law, but for everyone in her area who faced physical handicaps (both women are pictured right). One man, frustrated that his children couldn’t go to school during the rainy season because the road washed out, has personally vowed to plant 1,000 trees during the year 2012 to combat deforestation and preserve his environment. Another man observed the human rights of youth being abused in his community.  He joined the CBO to learn more about child rights and use the group as a way to educate and sensitize the community to the fragility, resilience, and potential of youth. One woman noticed the growing number of orphans in her community and the fact that they weren’t getting the support they should from their extended families. She’s been at the forefront of Early Child Development Centers and Orphan Support Units in the area.

The main room in the CBO’s office. The sign reads,
“2010: HIV and AIDS Outside the Box: Living Positive with HIV and AIDS.”

So far, the CBO has realized amazing success: they have set up and sustained seven Community Based Childcare Centers, supported school drop outs and orphans through the donation of school uniforms and feeding programs, held weekly after school athletic events and tutoring sessions during the school year, handed out five wheelchairs for those with disabilities, and sensitized the community to the benefits of education and the risks of early

marriages. But there’s still a long way to go. HIV rates are rising, the Home Based Care group lacks adequate training, the CBO shares a building with all other community groups and the church, some of the husbands of the female members don’t like when they go to meetings, adult literacy is low, and funding is a large problem.

Two CBO members show a map and posters
used to log information

Despite the future struggles of Kasumba, we were struck by the members’ openness, articulation of past success and future objectives, complete commitment to positive growth and development, and passion for those living in their communities. Kasumba Community Based Organization is a forum for activists in Liwera to plan and accomplish their dreams for community improvement, and with the passion we saw this week, we have no doubt they will!

A Community Collaboration: World Camp's Activism Club at Mchezi

Cyrus meeting with community members at Mchezi

Last Thursday Reinier and Cyrus made the trip back to Mchezi, just 45 minutes outside of Lilongwe, to meet with the brand new World Camp Club as well as with several key stakeholders in the community to discuss how we can continue to work together on educational improvement.

We all agree that activism clubs are very important in continuing the debate among students around HIV/AIDS and the environment as well as in decreasing drop-out rates (students have something on their hands after school instead of engaging in risky behavior). The potential of activism clubs is huge (if you haven’t already done so, watch the video of the HIV/AIDS club at Matapila FPS on our facebook page), not just in engaging its members through educational activities but also by spreading messages about HIV/AIDS, deforestation, gender equality, and nutrition into the community. However, as our field assistant Cyrus Jenda noted, what these students and club mentors (teachers) need is continuous support from World Camp by giving them that little push in the right direction. 

Club Members holding a (semi)secret voting for officers

Three weeks ago we started our first World Camp Club at Mkoma FPS and when we revisited them last week we realized that Cyrus was right: over a hundred kids showed up (proudly waving the World Camp Club flag created by our interns in January) but they did not know what to do next. Cyrus sat down with them and the students elected their president, secretary, vice-secretary, and treasurer. After a long brainstorm session the students decided that this week they will start an outreach project focused on how to care for HIV positive people and they are going to meet with  Mchezi CBO and the group village headman to see how they can all work together to plant more trees. Also, their mentors will continue weekly empowerment writing workshops that we introduced during our 4-day camp and the students brought some of their stories to class for us to read.

Club officers preparing to assume their new duties

The elected students were nervous at first about their responsibilities but their mentors told them that they should not worry as this is a learning process and this will prepare them for dealing with their responsibilities later in life. Cyrus told the club members that just like World Camp they are a group of young minds who think creatively about finding simple solutions to complicated issues and by working hard they too will grow!  

In the meantime Reinier had a meeting with representatives of the CBO, surrounding schools, and the Ministry of Education to discuss how we can increase collaboration between the 11 primary schools in the area as well as have the wider community more involved with educational strengthening. World Camp has been working on narrowing our focus through an innovative and holistic model, and listening to their ideas has convinced us even more that we are going in the right direction! More on that will follow in our next blog post; stay tuned! 

Week 1 at Mchezi

It has been an eventful, slightly soggy week in Malawi. We have successfully navigated another week of village living. This time the school was not too far from Lilongwe in a charming hamlet called Mchezi that we will actually be returning to for our last week as well. The school sits on a slight hilltop giving a most excellent view of the surrounding area, and some of the coolest sunsets we’ve seen. Mchezi kept all of us busy. We are now working with the Community Based Organization on personal projects for this coming week. I think it is safe to say we are all fairly excited about next week. Mark, forever the Red Sox fan, is organizing a baseball game and providing the

youth groupwith homemade bats and balls for after we leave. He is also working with the secondary school students on their more advanced math skills. Christine and Cara are teaming up to work with the local HIV/AIDS support group to bring in some new perspectives and resources. I will work with farmers from the area on the permaculture

Last week we were also given the task of completing a cultural scavenger hunt - Boys vs Girls. I am not ashamed to say the girls won by a considerable margin, so tip of the cap in their direction. To win, they spent hours preparing the traditional Malawian dish of nsima, so they truly went that extra mile. I think I can speak for the group when I say that I hope it rains less this week than last. With a couple of well placed cracks in the roof you might be surprised how moist we got while sleeping. We are getting delicious Malawi tea in the mornings though, and that pretty much negates the nagging sogginess.lifestyle. So, in addition to teaching until two, we will also be filling our afternoons with these hefty projects. It should be fun, but we do anticipate drooping eyelids in addition to smiles come this Thursday.

In other news, we climbed a very cool mountain by the name of Nkohma on Sunday. It was a spectacular hike, and we hear that the views from the top are incredible, but somehow near the peak we found ourselves in a very persistent cloud, so our pictures from the roof of Malawi look remarkably like Scotland...

So, we are still all having fun in the sun. We are all excited to head out and teach and inspire for one more week. Time here has flown by so fast. I find it hard to believe that we will be prepping to leave one week from now. But until then, more kids, more songs, and more memories!

Submitted by: Tucker Johnson, January 2012 Intern

Block Party

Imagine this: You wake up to the cock-a-doodles of a rooster that is literally perched on your windowsill. If that didn’t wake you up completely, the buzzing of 2800 children heading to school certainly will. After your bucket bath and jam sandwich, you step out into the near 90 degree heat, hoping for the occasional gust of wind to keep you cool. Your destination lies 2 kms away through cornfields, over a bridge, past a maize mill, and up a hill. The entire walk is filled with children and adults chanting “wazungu,” “obama,” and any English words they may know. Expect tons of requests for pictures; wouldn’t you do the same if you never saw your reflection? You reach your destination twenty minutes later, complete with a back full of sweat and a swarm of children at your heels. Welcome to our morning routine!

We spent the rest of the a.m. teaching Christopher, the director, basic Excel skills and preparing an informational brochure about the CBO. Class was spent introducing a business/marketing plan to rejuvenate the scone baking business that had failed three years back. This was definitely their first time forming a cost-analysis of a future IGA… and hopefully it will break the cycle of past failures. Our main goal is to leave the CBO staff with some sustainable tools, such as budgeting and business planning, to avoid further failures.

Like every other day, a few children were waiting patiently outside the classroom for us to finish teaching. From the moment we dismissed class until the sun had fully set, hoards of children gathered outside of our house for Darren and Molly’s block party. Highlights included boys vs. girls keep away, jungle gym (on Darren), dancing, singing (“AIDs, AIDs, AIDs is a killer”), and karate. The kids were most pleased when Darren brought the camera out for a sunset photo shoot.

Exhausted, we used Momma Lillian as our scapegoat and sat down for a delicious nsima and niemba (beans) dinner.

Meet William Njovu

William Njovu had us over for dinner recently. Njovu means “Elephant” in Chichewa and we think that this is very appropriate since he is a wise old man who never forgets a face. Before retirement, William worked for a grain research firm here in Malawi. It was a good job, especially back then, and he never stops talking about when he was sent to Mexico in the 80’s on a research mission. There he bought lots of clothing and four pairs of the same leather shoes that he still wears to this day. We enjoy speaking in broken Spanish with him when our broken Chichewa and his broken English become tiring.

William married Selena, fitting for the wife of a Spanish speaking Malawian. Together they have 9 children. Chimwemwe (their youngest daughter) is pictured with them and her two children. Chimwemwe had her first daughter at the age of 17, out of wedlock, and William, to teach Chimwemwe a lesson, refused to let her finish school for 8 years. Chimwemwe is now 30 and is in Form 4 (12th Grade).

When William is not volunteering at MCBO, he helps out at the local church and also farms a patch of land where he grows delicious tomatoes and bananas. He is definitely one of our favorite students and always has something insightful to add to any conversation.

One of our favorite Malawian experiences thus far started with our visit to William’s church, where both the youth and womens’ choirs performed for us. It felt like we were listening to the Greek sirens; we didn’t want to leave. The African sunset served as the ideal backdrop while the women harmonized their voices and swayed their hips in sync. Darren had a field day snapping photos during this unreal opportunity for any photographer. We shared our gratitude (thanks to William’s translating) and left surrounded by a swarm of children.

From the church, we interrupted about five different soccer games on our way to dinner at William’s house. Once we arrived, we were introduced to the Njovuyalema clan, ranging in age from 95 to 5. How often do you get 8 people of four different generations living under one roof?!

The next two hours provided a first-hand look into the structure and culture of a Malawian family. Let’s just say… Men have it easy. As William’s daughter, Chimwemwe, prepared all the food, the men sat inside discussing Malawian politics over candlelight. Molly attempted to stir the nsima until she realized her arm muscles are awfully weak. Chimwemwe’s daughter was a huge help in preparing dinner. We were surprised to see how compliant she was in taking orders from her mother. There must not be a word for whine in Chichewa!

After we thanked Jesus for dinner, the guests and William were the first to eat. His children and wife all had to ask permission to join us….cultural difference #87.

William walked us home, guided by the light of the stars and our cell phone screens. We exchanged a dozen tomatoes for a handful of chocolate and thanked William for an amazing evening.

Another successful day in the lives of Chisomo and Napili (our Chichewa names)…

The Chicken of the Sea

"This morning we got off to an early start. Christopher joined us on an excursion to Lilongwe. To Molly’s delight, Christopher brought a friend…a smelly friend…a loud, flapping friend. That’s right…a living chicken “sample” to persuade restaurant owners that MCBO chickens are plump and healthy. Today, our main priority was finding a home for 230 chickens. We had two successful visits to a hotel and a local restaurant. We await confirmation phone calls tomorrow, but both owners seemed confident that they were interested in buying the whole lot of chicks.


While in Lilongwe, we also ran a few other errands. We stopped by the hospital to pick up a few thousand male and female condoms. We also made a visit to the vet because some of our chickens have fallen ill; he provided us with some medicine. Lastly, we headed over to the Ministry of Education’s office to hand deliver an invitation to MCBO’s Distribution Day next friday. Distribution Day is a community-wide event where the volunteers at MCBO will hand out school supplies and clothing (all donated by Goods4Good) to school children and OVCs in the community. The guest list includes: the Minister and Secretary of Education, 10 student reps and 2 teacher reps from 7 of the neighboring schools, 46 village headmen and their favorite of their often, many wives, MBC TV, and the most special of all, Cheryl Levitt. You read correctly…Mama Levitt is gracing MCBO with her presence in ten days!

The remainder of our day was filled with a long executive meeting and a fight amongst travel companions over canned tuna. If Darren used silverware, maybe this debacle could have been avoided. We are finally friends again, but Darren is not permitted in arms distance from Molly until the tuna has had 24 hours to remove itself through whatever bodily excretions are necessary."

Hot Water...

"We love bathing in a bucket, pooping in a hole is much easier and cleaner than we had predicted and nsima is totally the new sushi.
This morning, just after our bucket bath, we were introduced to the entire primary school (all 2800 students). It wasn’t the introduction we could have forseen.
While preparing for the day we were surprised to witness our Malawian mayi (mother) Lilian sprint out of the house in the direction of all the school children. Amazed, we followed suit to see what was going on. Our mistake. As soon as we were in sight of the growing crowd, we became the object of everyones attention.
The running of the bulls is the best description for what happened next. Before we could blink the school children had rushed towards us, completely engulfing the unsuspecting ‘wazungus’ (white folk). They chanted wazungu and laughed and stared. It was a bit overwhelming. Out of nowhere two older students pushed their way to the center of the circle. One held a microphone which was attached to a brick, held by the other. We were then interviewed for Malawi TV.
Making sure they got everything on brick, we were escorted by the herd of students to our house. Lilian came appeared to save the day as she pushed us inside and shooed away the mob of school children. Good morning!
We later learned that what had originally taken place is very similar to what we call a ‘snow day’ in the States. Rumors of a Satanic Person had spread like wildfire throughout the community, reaching the primary school at prime time. Supposedly this Satanic Person was headed towards the school to drink the blood of the little children. Students dispersed in great numbers and school was forced to close. This wasn’t the first time something like this took place. It is a common occurance throughout Malawi.
We spent the remainder of the morning at the satellite office working on OVC spreadsheets and writing a proposal to the Nike (RED) Campaign. MCBO is applying for a grant from Nike which supports organzations who fight HIV through soccer. We created a pretty sweet application and will send it in tomorrow.
After lunch we had our first official lesson with the MCBO executive staff. Today’s topic: Leadership skills. We introduced it with a really fun activity that was basically follow the leader, blindfolded. It was certainly a sight to be seen. Afterwards we spent the next hour discussing different types of leadership methods and when it is deemed necessary to utilize each method. We concluded the lesson with an assessment quiz to identify each members’ leadership type and were pleased when they asked for more copies of the quiz to be used in the future."
"Overall a very successful day!"

"Tomorrow’s topic: Teamwork. We’ll let you know how the Trust Fall goes!"

Week 1 Concludes at Mchezi!

We have finished our first week of assessments and are feeling right at home here. Our week was busy meeting community members and assisting the Mchezi CBO staff through some housekeeping affairs and we are looking forward to our schedule for this week! Exciting reports should be coming in daily as we begin our training with CBO staff and helping with various outreach projects. Check back each day!

This week we experienced our first Mchezi CBO executive meeting.







Pictured above (from right to left) is Christopher the MCBO Director, Jordan the Youth Coordinator, William OVC Coordinator, and Mackenzie the Vocational Skills Leader.
***
The agenda included:

1. "How/where are we going to sell 256 chickens and at what price? They have been growing for the past six weeks and are now plump enough to have their heads chopped off. Every day they aren’t sold we lose money on their feed and security."
2. "Prices for school uniforms that have been made by the tailor workshop. Selling them is not a problem. They are in high demand throughout the community."
3. OVC Sundays. We had a few simple ideas that could improve the efficiency and order of registering the orphans we didn’t get to. Yesterday was kind of mayhem with some kids running around, some filling out forms, and some getting pictures taken. It’s going to take a few days of shuffling through papers to match all the info up.
   
   

Molly working with William, the OVC Coordinator, compiling the information we gathered yesterday about each orphan. This is the lone computer for the CBO at their satellite office across town.

This was their first introduction to Excel and we think that it will make their lives a lot easier if they stick with it.
***

We had our first experience making and eating Nsima (pronounced ‘n-seema’) which is pretty much papp, or maize flour and boiled water. Bland but filling. Gotta learn to love it. It’s all we have out here in the bush.
EDUCATE.INSPIRE.CHANGE.

Hello from Mchezi!!!!

Hello everyone! Molly and Darren here from Mchezi in Lilongwe, Malawi.
We have officially begun our very mini peace corps. We are going to try to keep the updates coming as often as we can get them written.
When we first arrived around noon on Sunday we were immediately put to work. On most Sundays at Mchezi CBO all the OVCs (Orphans and Vulnerable Children) gather together to sing songs, play games and mingle. Today however was a unique situation. Our arrival coincided with the lone computer at Mchezi CBO crashing earlier in the week and the OVC register was completely lost. Today we spent a few hours going child to child gathering their information. To rebuild the OVC registry we needed to conduct face-to-face interviews to collect the lost information. This included name, age, grade, reason if dropped out of school, which parent had passed if not both, current guardian, living situation and any acute problems, such as lack of clothing, food, school supplies, etc. It was a tiresome experience. Molly filled out paperwork while Darren took head-shots of each child to upload onto the new register.
Molly wants to bring home every single child. The little girls sat on her lap the entire time, and one even fell asleep there. Later we learned that she was positive for HIV...
The OVC gathering concluded with the children lining up while we passed out pens (from a pharmaceutical company in the states, thanks to Goods for Good) to each child. They were ecstatic.
After the kids had left, we finally got the chance to move into our new abode.
We know, it looks (and is) a lot nicer than you would expect to find in the African bush. It comes complete with solar powered lighting, a kitchen (a camping stove and trash can full of water), a room with a hole leading outside (aka shower), an outhouse with feet placement and a key hole pee hole, and three bedrooms. It was built for the staff of the primary school, but as we know they are lacking teachers. Our next door neighbor is Mr. Kumanga, the headmaster.
After we moved in we got a brief neighborhood tour which ended at the hut of the local village headman. He is in his late 70s and is responsible for 34 different villages. He welcomed us with open arms and an open heart.
‘Zikomo’ means thank you in Chichewa. It was just about the only word we heard all day long.
We walked back to our house under an African painted sunset as children from all directions came running up to hold our hands and laugh at Darren's funny hair color.
We are very excited for this next chapter.
Check back tomorrow for more on life at Mchezi!
EDUCATE.INSPIRE.CHANGE.