Volunteering in Malawi
During a stay in Malawi in the spring of 2009, Christa and Günter Schlager, two secondary school teachers from Austria, worked on three different AIDS projects. Their personal letters and reports about the situation on the HIV/AIDS frontline in Malawi will be the focus for two articles in our newsletter.
Bangwe/ Malawi, April 4, 2009
As we mentioned in our first email, it's not often that we can establish an internet connection. We can't use the •GAIA offices as they are being renovated. We've managed to set up a computer and printer in our room at the guest house. It makes work easier as we don't have to travel to the office; we can stay at the guest house and spend the whole day working. We cook in the evenings, go shopping at the People's Supermarket from time to time and spend the rest of our time designing our seminars.
We're both doing really well. We’re healthy and in high spirits. We've settled in well and have developed something approximating a daily routine. Today we'll be taking the minibus to Limbe to do some shopping at the market and get things for the weekend. The market has a really wide range of fruit and vegetables and is pretty cheap – at least for us. It has struck us how few Malawians do their shopping at the market. This is one clear sign of the total poverty that a majority of Malawians suffer. There are very few jobs with decent wages for qualified people and jobs for gardeners, houseboys, night watchmen and other service sector jobs are offered with almost unbelievably poor rates of pay. A night watchman earning 200 kwacha (1 euro) per day is regarded as relatively well-paid. 1 kg of rice, alongside maize the second staple food for Malawians, costs 150 kwacha.
Last Wednesday we travelled to two villages in the tea-growing Mulanje region with Alice from •GAIA / Global Aids Interfaith Alliance. It's a wonderful area, with green tea fields, mountains up to 3,000 metres, maize, pineapple, guava, and vegetables growing everywhere, it rains a lot and the lush tea plantations, which are owned by large-scale, white Zimbabwean farmers who pay their tea pickers 50 kwacha (~ € 0.24) per day.
GAIA works in villages with HIV-positive and AIDS infected people. On this day, mosquito nets were being handed out. GAIA is well-organised; its staff in the villages (caretakers) had already identified particularly vulnerable villagers and produced lists of those who should be given priority. Hundreds came – older children, women and a few men – three quarters of whom are HIV-positive (only the very old are not infected). We were introduced to the village chiefs and the village's womenfolk sang and danced for us. Their song was a song of lamentation for the fact that they have to live in these conditions. Many of the villagers thanked us personally for the fact that we came to visit them. It was extremely moving, touching and at the same time normal – life here with HIV, poverty and human dignity. No one here needs to have pity or fear, but they do need mosquito nets to protect them from rampant malaria (a net costs 850 kwacha = ~ €4.11), medicine against tuberculosis, high-quality nutrition, advice, education and information. And this is what GAIA is providing. The caretakers (all women in the villages) are all trained, mentored and looked after by GAIA coordinators (trained nurses who work for GAIA).
Christa and I held workshops for the coordinators (11 women) from April 13th to 18th, 2009. The GAIA management had asked us to focus on training counselling techniques and lifestyle and behaviour. The knowledge and practical skills these coordinators would need for jobs, as well as those they should pass on to the local caretakers, were also major topics.
Over the last few days we have been able to develop impressions of the living conditions for the majority of Malawians. We have spoken to lots of different people and have the feeling that the workshops we have delivered meet the requirements of our clients.
Hunger is our enemy
Blantyre, April 14, 2009
Dozens of children are enthusiastically clapping their hands, chanting the days of the week and the months of the year and shouting out the numbers from 1 to 100 – and all in English. They are moving, led by their caremothers in games to develop their coordination skills and ardently singing verses and refrains from children's songs. The children are all between 2 and 8 years old, the older children carrying their younger brothers and sisters on their backs.
They have all come, as they do every day, to this small centre on the outskirts of Bangwe Township near Blantyre. The one thing they all have in common is that they have lost either their mother or father, or both parents, to AIDS. In the best case, these orphans are cared for by their grandparents or relatives. Unfortunately, it is often the case that in their new families there is not enough food to provide for everyone. As we were told by Sister Edina, a 68-year-old Catholic nun who works for the Orphans Care Programme of the archdiocese of Blantyre, without their morning portion of likuni (a porridge made from soya flour, milk powder, sugar and nuts) and a plate of nsiema (pureed maize with vegetables), these children will suffer severe physical and psychological damage, or even starve.
We spent a few days with Sister Edina and her two young colleagues, Florence and Anny, in the villages and townships around Blantyre. We visit a number of very basic facilities for children in the area, often only after hours of walking. We are greeted everywhere as we were in Bangwe. Edina and her assistants receive reports from the local caremothers, check that the donated provisions are being distributed correctly and inquire about the health of the children. Under the supervision of their caremothers, two or three widowed women from their village, the children show us what they have learnt during the morning school session, which takes place between breakfast and lunch. “Food for the brain” is how Sister Edina refers to it. We can see from the children's enthusiasm and commitment as they play games, sing, read, write and learn, just how important this daily intake of food really is. “Hunger is our enemy” we hear the children sing. As Sister Edina explains to us that for most of these children this afternoon's plate of nsiema will be the last thing they eat before tomorrow morning's portion of likuni, we fully realise for the first time in our lives what hunger really means.
Support for Aids orphan projects in Malawi
During our time in Malawi we became acquainted with three different projects:.
•GAIA (Global Aids Interfaith Alliance) works in remote villages offering HIV prevention working with people living with AIDS. Sister Edina's “Orphans Care Project” provides sustenance for 1700 AIDS orphans in the Blantyre region.
Grace Chipondas “Mike's Heart Home” offers accommodation to between 4 and 6 AIDS orphans.
We can personally vouch for the effectivity of each of the three projects. Each of the three projects makes efficient use of donor's money. We worked on the ground with each of the projects. That is only one way of supporting the projects. A one-off or regular, monthly financial donation is another extremely effective way to support and help expand the valuable work done by these projects and to help secure a dignified future for the orphaned children.
You can support these valuable projects with a regular donation of €5, €10 or €20, or with a one-off donation to the following account:
Spenden für AIDS Waisen in Malawi
Raiffeisenbank Region Ried i.I. reg.Gen.m.b.H.
Bankstelle Neuhofen im Innkreis
IBAN: AT 20 3445 0001 0372 6742
BIC: RZOOAT2L450 (O=letter O, 0=zero)
A-4912 Neuhofen im Innkreis, Hauptstraße 8
Tel: +43 7752 83141 77
Fax: +43 7752 83145