ICS blog

Our first week in Malawi was an orientation training week in which we learnt the essentials about living in Malawi. It also included meeting with the National Malawian volunteers; our partners for the next nine weeks. Just in that week already we had learnt lots from them, as they had from us. We performed an exercise where the British volunteers and the Malawian volunteers formed groups and wrote about their first impressions of each other and what had surprised us about the behaviour or cultural elements of each nationality.

On Saturday Casa Gastronomica celebrated its near completion by throwing a party. While the lively music of a local band played in the background, local artisans sold their beautiful handcrafted jewelry and a generous selection of corn based canapés were passed around. In between traditional dances performed by local children dressed in flowing white dresses trimmed with blue embroidery, the crowd raised a glass to all the Progressio volunteers who have contributed towards the development of the restaurant.

Nicaragua has given the world several well known authors, among them a famous poet Ruben Dario; however a surprisingly big part of population is not literate or does not appreciate written word. Reading books is not perceived as a rewarding past time and the newspapers can be seen more often in the latrines than anywhere else. Bookshops are aimed at the tourists and have books mostly in English, German, and other European languages. The reason for such neglect of literature is very simple - education has a low social value and not everyone manage to even graduate from secondary school.

The fourth week of our stay in Nicaragua is coming to an end and the halfway of the project is clearly visible. During this time we worked along the national volunteers and professionals, attended fiestas and indigenous celebrations, and met many people along the way. 

Pictured Above; Phalazi women singing at the HIV awareness campaign 

In my previous blog I discussed specific activities that we have been involved in over the past few weeks and the importance of them. I will continue that trend as there are a lot of significant stories to share, a couple of which stand out as the highlights of our Progressio placement. My last entry was concluded with the promise of writing about the nutrition assessment in Phalazi as well as the HIV awareness campaign that was held there, so it seems appropriate to talk about these first.

(Above, from left to right; ICS Project Officer Ruth Flores, return volunteer Sinead Coulson, renowned artist Miguel Angel Ruiz Matute, return team leader Lucy Usher, Honduran Ambassador Ivan Romero-Martinez and returned volunteer/project administrator Duncan Frankis)

In the final week of our placement we began working on our personal project. Over the time we have spent in Mdeka we reviewed what the community really needed and those who we felt deserved a change in their life.

This week Progressio volunteers have organised the Day of the African Child event for our local village. The Day of the African Child is an annual event which remembers the sacrifice African children have made in terms of education for all. Each year villages across Africa organise an event for children from local schools to perform songs, dances and drama to highlight a certain issue. The issue this year is early and forced marriage and its effect on community, children and parents. “Girls not brides” was the message that we wished to spread through the Day of the African Child.

Thoko is 16, this year both his parents died and his house collapsed, leaving him and his three younger siblings orphaned and homeless. When Progressio volunteers from the last Mdeka placement heard about Thoko and his family they donated and raised money to build a new house for the children.  Upon our arrival at the house we found that building work had stopped and the house remained unfinished. After speaking with the builder we volunteered our help to ensure the children would have somewhere to live as soon as possible.

In the past two weeks Progressio volunteers in Mdeka, have begun visiting the sick, the elderly and people living with HIV and AIDS. Each visit includes speaking with the vulnerable person and their family, finding out about their health and current condition, their life and their specific needs. Although health care is free in Malawi, it is hard for the poor to afford transport to the hospital, and once they get there, the health care they receive is questionable. One of the visits took us to the home of a man suffering with the effects of Parkinson’s disease.