ICS Malawi

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.

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.

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.

Pictured above: UK volunteers, National volunteers, and men of the Katengeza community sit down and discuss their income from crops and how best to utilise their produce.

On my iPod I have a song called  ‘Everybody is free to wear sunscreen’ by Baz Luhrmann. In this song it says “…..accept certain inevitable truths - prices will rise, politicians will flounder”

But when you can’t feed your families or send your children to school - how can you accept these inevitable truths?

From my short stay in Malawi, I have listened to the people around me in Mzimba. Their main problem is their lack of money due to inflation. I can see people struggling to cope with basic needs.  Every day I hear again and again “Everything is toooo expensive”

‘We are happy when these things happen to us’, were the words of the women’s song that broke spontaneously into our planning session in Phalazi village. Despite the formality brought to our sessions here by the presence of chiefs (or ‘traditional authorities’), we have found people here more than willing to find time to express themselves in less rigid ways such as this.

Tobias is a young Malawian boy, under 18 years of age. He lost both his parents at a tender age and had no one to take care of him apart from the part-time supervision of his aunt and uncle. Tobias’ young life has been at great risk from a poor peer group, pressurising his behaviour, smoking and drinking alcohol, insisting Tobias join their way of living. They know Tobias is in a relationship with Effie-whose parents have died of HIV/AIDS and have started discouraging him, adding that Tobias should get a good girl, instead of Effie.

Effie is a young Malawian woman. Her mother and father have recently passed away due to HIV & AIDS leaving her alone to care for her younger sister. She pulls herself out of school and is left alone as her aunty wants nothing to do with her because of her mother’s condition. The village chooses to ignore the presence of AIDS saying instead that her mother died of Malaria. Because of this Effie feels isolated and feels like she cannot tell anyone the truth about how her mother died. HIV & AIDS can be a taboo subject. Effie is the victim of real stigma in her village.

The team first met Msofi during facilitations at one of the villages we visit, Chaleza. A friendly lady who was keen to participate and ask a number of interesting and challenging questions, she was already becoming memorable. Since then I think it’s fair to say that Ella Msofi has had quite an impression on us, so much so that we thought we would share her with you.