HIV and AIDS is a deadly pandemic which has led to deaths of millions of people worldwide and has also led to an increased number of orphans and reduced the rate of development worldwide. World Aids Day is held on 1st December every year, this is a day for people to show their support for people living with HIV and AIDS, unite in the fight against the disease, increase awareness and fight stigma.
Tamara is one of 16 goats that were donated to four support groups as part of cycle 4’s special project. Now, that cycle 5 is quickly drawing to an end, the team has gone for a second follow up to see how the previous cycle’s project is going.
We travelled to Ngabu, which is about an hour’s drive away from where we are based. So far in Ngabu, the team has met four support groups to which COWLHA (Coalition Of Women Living with HIV and AIDS) women belong. Last cycle, the team used their special project budget to initiate a pass on a goat project with them.
There have been 638,000 people estimated to be affected by the flooding here in Malawi according to the UNICEF USA website. 276 people have been declared dead or missing and as the rains continue, more and more are affected every day. Research done by COWLHA (Coalition of women living with HIV and AIDS) has indicated that over 1000 COWLHA members are also among those affected. Many in the camps and other shelters around Chikhwawa district have been going without food.
On 1 March it was Zero Discrimination day. On 28 February, we decided to visit Teen Club, who meet at the Chikhwawa District Hospital ART clinic every month. Teen Club is a group of children living with HIV and AIDS and are already taking ARVs (anti-retroviral drugs). The reason we visited Teen Club is because we wanted to talk about child therapy. In terms of HIV and AIDS, child therapy includes psychological, health, social and medical support. It also involves a technique called, progressive disclosure.
WESM ICS volunteers have been continuing with their environmental awareness and recently attended and contributed to a tree planting event at Monjo Primary School in the area of Namata under Traditional Authority Kaduya in the Phalombe District.
ICS volunteers, in conjunction with some of the Mulanje Mountain Conservation Trust employees assisted at the event because Monjo Primary School is often badly affected by heavy winds almost every year.
On the 8th March International Women’s Day is celebrated worldwide. In countries like Nepal and China women even celebrate the day with a public holiday.
Team Dziwe wanted to celebrate the day by producing a training session on the history of women and how they fought and are still fighting today for issues surrounding gender equality. Team Dziwe have been working closely with an all female, Muslim boarding school, Mai Halima, which is where they decided to conduct the session which was most effective and had a very encouraging outcome.
Waste management is a huge issue in Mulanje with communities disposing of their waste anywhere and everywhere without thinking about the local environment. Waste is unwanted or unusable materials whereas waste management implies the collection, transportation and disposal of garbage, sewage and other products.
In Malawi it is extremely common for girls to go no further than Primary School education. Such is the case at Nalipiri Primary School in Mulanje district where over 10 girls dropped out of school last term due to early pregnancies. Therefore, WESM ICS volunteers decided to get involved in a girl child empowerment awareness campaign alongside the previous placements ICV’s to help combat this issue. In particular, the volunteers talked to the Nalipiri Primary School girls about the dangers of early pregnancies and marriages.
A song once said “I believe that children are the future” it was a well-known song by Whitney Houston. The words ring true no matter who is singing them. With Ungweru we have been assessing 10 Community Based Child Care Centers (CBCCs) to assess which centers would benefit most from being supported with milk producing goats. These centers were originally set up to help look after those children who had, or had parents living with, HIV and AIDS. However, these centers now serve any child who is not guaranteed one meal a day at home as the centers try to provide porridge for all children.
