ICS Malawi

I’m going to begin this by introducing myself and giving a couple of personal details because I think it’s nice to know whose words you are reading. My name is George Green and I’m a 21 year old student in my third and final year at the University of Birmingham.

I study English Literature and Philosophy and my likes include sport, twitter, and reading, whilst my dislikes include bad manners, spiders, and The Jeremy Kyle Show. These may be irrelevant details, but I think they’re fun to start with.

We cannot believe it has been another two weeks already, with a jam packed schedule, proving to be both fun and enjoyable. To reach our targets we have been planting trees and soya beans and attending youth club meetings. So far we have surpassed our soya bean planting target and have planted over 70% of our pine tree seedlings. We have continued meeting our partner youth clubs in preparation for World Aids Day, taking place on the 1^st March 2014; that we - as a group, are hosting.

Waste management is an ongoing issue throughout Malawi. The country is deprived of an efficient or consistent waste disposal system. Bins are a rarity so waste is often collected on the floor before being transported to rubbish pits. For convenience these pits are situated in unhygienic areas near to markets and even on school grounds. 

Well, where on earth do I start?! Our time in Africa, so far, has been epic! We have met so many great people and even been in very close proximity with a real life Malawian Minister!

The January-March placement is the first team of Progressio ICS volunteers to pioneer a project in Mulanje district, under Wildlife and Environmental Society of Malawi (WESM) in partnership with Mulanje Mountain Conservation Trust (MMCT). 

Monile! Mwawuka Uli? Nawuka Makola, Kwali Imwe? Nawuka Makola. Yewo Chomene, Tawonga. 

Progressio and People Serving Girl’s at Risk (PSGR) have been working with a number of people in the Blantyre region of Malawi over the past year and that work is being drawn to a close by the current cohort of national and UK volunteers in Cycle 4. The previous cycle of volunteers worked with Mr Laillo Salad, 56, who lives in Chinyangute village, in the rural north of Blantyre, Malawi.

‘Monitoring and evaluation’… doesn’t sound like the most exciting job ever does it? But it is one of the most important aspects of our development work here in Malawi. There is no point holding a conservation agriculture awareness campaign in a village or giving an educational talk on HIV/AIDS to a school, unless we know how effective it has been. It’s also essential for us to follow the progress of our long term projects, such as the Moringa trees which were planted in their thousands.  The aim being to provide an important source of nutrition and income for the local community.

Wawa! Masukani! Hie Feel free! These were our welcoming words for our UK volunteers on 1st October 2013 at Messa’s Lodge in Lilongwe city. On Wednesday, 2nd October 2013, we started our orientation lessons on the culture of Malawi and the common language used in Malawi i.e. Chichewa. By the end of the orientation lessons, UK volunteers were able to understand Malawian culture and language. For example they were able to greet one another in Chichewa “Mwadzuka bwanji? which corresponds to Good morning! in English.

On 21st October 2013, we visited Kampanje village where we went to clean the house of Alima Malijani, one of the elderly who is benefiting from SWAM. We also went there to see if materials given to her were used, the materials given included window frames, door frame and black sheet of paper for roofing her house. It was found that the materials were indeed used.

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