A GROUP of volunteers from Orkney has been reflecting on the success of a recent trip to help rural communities in the African country of Malawi.
Fifteen people from the Mainland, South and North Isles spent at least a fortnight helping to build a church and a library, fixing a water pump to provide fresh drinking water, painting and furnishing new classrooms, teaching villagers how to knit, and educating people about HIV/AIDS.
Project Malawi, as the mission was called, was the brainchild of Stromness minister Reverend Fiona Lillie. Having witnessed at first hand the lack of resources and general hardship of life in rural Africa, she set out to raise awareness, and cash to alleviate the plight of five villages in the Ntchisi district of Malawi. But once they got there, another set of neighbouring villages also received help.
Fourteen other people came forward to make the physical journey to Malawi to ensure that the figure of £20,000 raised in Orkney over the past two years would be used wisely.
Karen Scott from Stromness was one of the local people who took time off work to go to Malawi.
"We got far more out of the trip than we put in. That's for sure. I always viewed it as being a sort of life-changing experience. It wasn't a 'trip of a lifetime' because I will be going back. And every one of us will be going back. The people are so friendly and they are not greedy folk. They are just looking for a bit to help them."
One of the projects which the Orkney volunteers worked at was decorating and furnishing a school in Ntchisi.
Karen commented: "The kids were absolutely fantastic. They wanted to help. They just got in there, wanting to do all the work. They just had bare concrete benches and tables to sit and work at. Once we got the concrete benches out, we limewashed the windows and walls and then we painted pictures on top of that. Fiona Lillie, Cristine Ferguson and Annabel Laird were the main artists. The rest of us just did the colouring in. We used a Noah's Ark theme. We bought 20 new tables and plastic chairs for the three classrooms. We also had toys and toy boxes, books and mats. I ordered three big mats - one for each of the classrooms and six small ones. The small mats cost 200 kwacha each -roughly 60p.
"The school seemed to have a roll call at the end of the day, as well as in the morning, to see who has stayed. It took us a wee bit to get used to the structure in the school. But once we got to see it working there was a very good structure in the school.
"As soon as you go out there, the kids surround you and ask your name, how many children you have. They are interested in you. The teachers were interested in where we came from and the size of population. So there was a two-way exchange process."
But over and above decorating and furnishing classrooms, people in Orkney have paid for longer-term help for 200 pre-school Malawian children, so that they have a better start in life.
Karen explained: "We have set up a training scheme for ten teachers and a food programme for a year. So that those 200 children - 3, 4 and 5-year-olds - get a meal every day. That cost £600 to train the teachers, to buy pots for cooking the meal and for the food every day for a year. We thought that was really worthwhile. Three schools in Orkney - Eday, Papay and St Andrews - bought parachutes for the children to play with. What fun the kids had with the parachutes. We also took out some footballs with us. They love football."
Another kind of education programme was started in Malawi by the Orkney volunteers - learning to knit.
Karen said: "We took out knitting needles with us. We almost created a riot with the knitting, because we didn't have enough wool. They were desperately wanting to knit. One of the things they were doing was buying wool out there, for them to set up a knitting class, so that they could have a cottage industry to knit things for sale. They were getting about a ball of wool, and they couldn't do much with that amount. But the boys, lasses and the mothers all knitted - some beautifully. There was one boy who really took to knitting, and he came up to our road-end every morning, waiting for another ball of wool."
Churches in the Ntchisi area of Malawi also benefited from Orkney folk's generosity.
The Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP) was given a new keyboard and its choir received a new uniform, which enables the group to get paid for singing at events.
Karen noted: "They were so proud of their new outfits and so delighted with what we did for them, that they decided to sing for us one afternoon. So we had the women's choir and the church choir who spent 2.5 hours with us, which was absolutely wonderful. It maybe took away from our limited time there. But they felt that they needed to do it, to thank us properly."
Although from a different denomination, the chef at the lodge where the Orkney volunteers were staying hinted that if there was any money spare at some point in future his church needed a front door and some cement and limewash for the walls.
The Orkney contingent simply paid for those materials and also bought the Baptist congregation a new keyboard. One of the highlights of the trip, said Karen, was to see how appreciative the chef was of those donations.
The biggest single physical project which the Orkney group got involved in was the rebuilding of the local church in Ntchisi, which was supervised by Kevin Kirkpatrick from Longhope.
Karen said: "We thought we only had to put a roof on the existing building when we went out there, not build a whole new church. Hence the 'Raise the Roof' campaign we held at the Dounby Show among other things, getting sponsorship to pay for the new roof.
"They wanted a 25-metre-long new church, but we compromised and went for a 17-metre building. But rather than build the new church alongside the old one, they wanted it on the same site. So we realised that we would have to knock down the existing building. When Kevin (Kirkpatrick) said it would take the whole time we were out there to demolish the old church, the local folk set to and it was down in half an hour. They hauled at it and shook it, until it fell down."
The new church was well on its way to completion by the time the last of the Orkney volunteers returned home. Local builders had made 50,000 bricks in advance, although the church would only need 6000 bricks. So that gave them surplus assets to sell.
One of the most devastating things the Orkney contingent saw was the effect that HIV/AIDS was having on African communities.
Funds from Orkney will be channelled into helping combat the stigma and consequences of being diagnosed HIV positive.
Karen Scott explained: "These people are left at the back of the queue for care and support. But they've all got families. They
are frightened to come out into the open because it is still not really very well accepted over there. They have made up a group and they have got part of a plantation to grow food, so that they can sell it. We're going to be providing them with some chickens, goats and fertiliser, to encourage other folk to come forward and get tested, to show that they are going to get help. They need better food and protein to help their body fight the illness. We are looking at a programme to help folk who are HIV positive because our money goes a long way there."
In the run-up to the trip to Malawi, clothes and sandals were bought with the money given by people in Orkney and sent out to Africa for distribution.
Karen Scott highlighted a slight problem they had with all the clothing.
"We had a struggle to think of how we were going to divide this out among the five villages that we were originally going to help. So we gave one bag of sandals and two bags of clothes to each of the village headmen. They took that back to their villages and dished them out, as and where needed.
"Basically, our contact from now on will be by letter. We've got all the contact direct with the villages and the groups because each one has its own committee. There was no communications within the villages we were working at. Our feeling is that they are 'our bairns' and 'our villages'. One person said: 'Mind on, don't get too attached. There is no way you can't get too attached. You just can't help yourself but take it on board."
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