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I left London on a lovely early autumn Sunday afternoon, bound for Malawi, to see our work and meet the team and volunteers. This time I was with my soon-to-be Chairman. It’s always good to see the little VSO sign at the airport when you arrive in a country for the first time especially after an overnight flight I feel.
And then off to the office to get a briefing on the health, education, and livelihoods work going on in Malawi. A few striking facts and stats I learnt: the nurse/patient ration is 37/100,00; 1 in 36 women die in childbirth; the average teacher/student ratio is 1/80 but can be 1/250; only 40% of children complete a primary education; most of the work is agricultural, subsistence farming, but that doesn’t produce enough food for some families even to eat let alone to sell and make a living, and where produce can be sold there isn’t the access to market. Just a handful of reasons contributing to why Malawi is 172rd out of 187 on the UN Development Index.
So what is VSO doing about it? Working with local partners there is skills development & building capacity through volunteers such as in the health and education services; improving awareness of and access to, those same health and educations services, and access to the market; and advocating for pro-poor policies. Over the next 4 days we were to see this in action largely in central Malawi, with a day of health, a day on education, and a day on livelihoods, seeing programmes and meeting partners and volunteers, and a few stakeholder and staff and volunteer meetings too to keep us busy.
I’m not really a bird person but I do notice them on the rare occasion I hear them in London, but it’s the first thing I’ve learned I notice when I wake up in an African country. So Tuesday dawned with the welcome sound of strange birds. Today we headed for the District of Salima to see a project, which tries to mitigate against the effects of climate change on the homes and livelihoods of people in villages along the course of the river, with knowledge and technical support provided by VSO, and this cascaded to Village Management Committees.
Our first stop was a visit to the District Commissioner who explained how his area in particular was affected, being down river, in fact down 3 rivers, which by the time they reached Salima had the volume (during the Wet Season) and contents, of all that had gone before. He welcomed the support of VSO and other NGOs and the project we are engaged in is in response to a district-wide analysis and approach.
Then off to one of the villages who are active in trying to mitigate against this problem themselves. We were greeted by singing and dancing and then the villagers showed us the nursery they operate and the seeds they plant in small plastic bag tubes, which are then planted down by the river to try to protect the river bank from erosion. Not for the first time I was to find over the few days, the villagers warmly welcomed the international volunteer, a Singaporean, recruited in India, saying ‘he is one of us’.
Then quite a long walk to the river bank, under the hot sun, all in a line. As we know, rivers play a vital role and are used for all sorts of daily needs, and women were busy washing clothes as we arrived. The effects of erosion are stark with swathes of riverbank missing. All I, with my unfamiliar, urban eye can see, is that it takes away land, but as I learnt, each of the plants and each patch of land, belongs to a family. The pressure on land is so intense in Malawi that the loss of the bank has a real impact on the families affected simply but devastatingly meaning no food and no livelihood.
Having walked back to the village it was time to be under the tree for speeches. Unlike at home though they were interspersed by singing and dancing. Not that I can dance but it did make me smile as to how effective it is at engaging and energising the group, and the contrast with the little ‘energisers’ we often have at home during a conference.
We needed to head back to the city for an afternoon of meetings with the British High Commissioner and UN Women, but being so close to Lake Malawi we allowed ourselves a brief diversion, It’s huge and the water was warm as I did a British paddle. Lunch on the way was a bottle of sprite and a packet of corn snack Jiggies at a roadside stop.
The focus of our next day was VSO’s health work in Malawi and we headed first to the Ministry of Health and met UK volunteers who are working with the Ministry and THET, a health & education trust, on an online human resource data tool so the Ministry can see where the limited resource they have of medical staff, is based and how best deployed.
Then we headed to Nkhoma Nursing College, peacefully nestling in the hills. It’s an ex-church college established by missionaries in the 19th century and we were greeted by one of our younger and one of our older UK volunteers, and a volunteer from the Philippines.
The College Principal and her colleagues explained what they were trying to achieve at the College by training midwives, and the vital role VSO volunteers play in sharing their skills. We visited the ward which was the classroom; saw the outside teaching area; and met student midwives. On then to the ward to see mothers with new babies and a labour ward where we met student midwives taught by our volunteer and where she also delivers babies. This is with the women who actually make it to the hospital: the practice of traditional childbirth is common in Malawi and women often don’t know about the availability of healthcare, or aren’t able to reach a hospital or clinic in time, and face the shortage of midwives and support. We visited the Kangaroo Room where women are encouraged to wrap and hold their babies at the front instead of the back as is the practice. Tiny babies, days and weeks old, some premature, being held and cared for.
By now the work-day was ended and we popped into the house where the 3 volunteers who work together, live together.
The journey back to the city was made in time to watch the VSO volleyball team play under a nearly full moon, at The Shack, where locals, ex pats, volunteers, gather to play one of their favourite sports. We did our duty and cheered, and guess what, we won!
Our next day was a focus on education, and specifically to see the schools where a education & technology project is taking place; and the teacher training college and demonstration school. First stop was Biwi Primary School, where there are 2,000 pupils. The children were in the 2 first parts of primary education, and were having their 30 minute ipad session that day. They were attentive, sharing the solar-powered screens, and their results were proudly displayed on the notice board. Teachers can also monitor their progress online on another ipad and when the children achieve goals the whole class claps as the successful names are read out and the certificate is given. The result show children can do up to 18 months maths learning in 6 weeks. Then though we moved to classrooms at the next level, where there are only scrappy books, if there was anything at all. The plan is obviously to roll it out if there is funding so children at all levels can have the opportunity.
We spoke with teachers and the Head and wondered how they managed at all in such trying circumstances. This was an even bigger question for us when we went to Ngwenya Primary School where there are 9,000 pupils! They have to work in 2 shifts for a school day and there is simply not enough room in any way. The first class we visited has 105 pupils. When primary education was declared free there was of course only the same resource.
Our next stop was to a Teacher Training College which also had a demonstration school attached. It’s a Child Friendly school, a concept funded by UNICEF who are the partner, with VSO providing the methodology and supporting the teacher training, this time with a volunteer from the Philippines. We were briefed by the Principal and trainee teachers and then, to the sound of music and dancing, visited some of the classrooms. We saw a ‘before’ room, so typical of many classrooms, and an ‘after’ room, where there are low/no cost bright posters on the wall, which the volunteer had shown the trainee teachers how to make without any kind of budget available. You could only imagine what they could do with even a tiny budget. The over-crowding of course was still a problem: one room looked like a store-room for desks but is apparently a classroom. When I asked how the children reached the further side I was told they ran along the inner ledge and jumped!
Sometimes it’s possible to see what can be done in a few moments, and so it was too with the young boy who had written a poem about his school: his presence, delivery, he glowed. It will be an all too-likely waste if he isn’t able to fulfil his potential.
Another visit for me comes to an end. I had seen and heard about some awful situations our fellow human beings live in, not least the deaths of mothers and babies, loved, with names; children who sit on the fringes of a huge class even if they do manage to be at school at all; people fighting for survival and trying to make a living. I met wonderful people facing impossible odds who just keep going. Whatever we do feels and is a drop in the ocean. But it is a drop. And we can make it matter. For my part, I will do all I can with VSO in the mission to bring people together to fight poverty, and create a fairer better world.
photos here:
https://www.icloud.com/photostream/#A2JRveFpJsGUM7
- comments
Gillian Yorke I really love to hear your VSO news Angela and marvel at the stories from places I will never see with my own eyes. The extraordinary struggle of the people of Malawi that you speak of touches my heart and so too does the picture you portray of the individual international volunteers who are trying, against daunting odds, to make a difference. Please don't ever think that I wouldn't want to know. Thank you from here, with lots of love, Xxx
Beryl Salt A moving experience Angela as all your work is no doubt. I often think about the situation some people live in especially when I'm tucked in my warm safe bed at night and I always appreciate our life here.I'm sure you have to make yourself to be strong minded so as not to become downhearted at times.So may you and the team realize some of us do appreciate the work you do , and we thank you and hope for a better world one day..