If you look at the picture in the preceeding blog, it shows, Dr Niall Crumlish, Nurse Sharon Brady and retired educationalist Mary Coyne, who between them have enough literacy for the whole Mzuzu area, greeting ten of the poorest and least literate women in the world.
Poles apart you might think, but literacy isn’t everything. Literacy is often for academics, using big words and particular and specific jargon to show their importance and power in order to exclude the rest of us mere mortals.
These women are special,
because everyone is,
because they are learning to become self sufficient business women,
because four weeks ago they were sitting around their primitive shacks wondering how they would survive with another failed crop
because their next meal may be someone’s charitable donation, delivered by a sparkling 4×4.
They may be poor and illiterate, but they want to work, they love to work. They already work harder than anyone I know: They are African women after all!!
This is a new project for wellsforzoe, in Sonda, about 7 km from Mzuzu city.
The article by John Waters outlines the first visit there.
The Chief or Group Village Headman (GVH) as he is called, is Matthews Lunghi, a strong 55 year old with a sly grin and great feeling for his people. He wants to know everything and is prepared to lead from the front, working harder than anyone else.
I saw his dambo (about 16 acres of swampland) which has a river and a permanent source of water, all in all a magic place for anyone who hasn’t grown up, having fun with water as John Waters calls it).
I explained to him what could be done, he nodded, made a little noise huh, and looked at me (thinking, no one has managed to grow anything here, who is this white idiot) I could start with 5 women, and men for the dam, how many, one if he’s strong enough, laugh, starting when, Monday, can you bring hoes, yes, can you bring handles and we shook on it.
I arrived at 8.30 on Monday, late because of lack of transport, they were there from 8.00, I apologised.
Ten women and four all looking at me, all waiting for utterances.
The men knew it was a dam for them: I explained, demonstrated, did the motions and sunk the first hoe in the ground, “Let me try says Matthews” and now he can’t be stopped.
The women looked awkward, not good at slashing grass which seemed to me as if it had lain there since creation. The slashers were blunt, but we had a file in our arsenal. I sat down and started sharpening, a job I had done when I was 16 and cutting meadow with a finger mower. In those days the better you sharpened the longer it lasted.
I sharpened, they tested and I sharpened some more. They hacked and slashed an opening.
I told them we needed drains. What are drains Sir. We then agreed that if they called me Sir, I’d call them Madam, so we settled on John.
I put down the pegs and lines and drains we had.
I wondered about food, they had brought none, no fires no smoke, not even sugar cane. What was going on at 2.30 in the day.
They had come for a plan, no need for food
Obviously plans are the order of the day, if you haven’t got your strategic plan you are nobody.
They expected planning to go on for a week. They expected an hour or two a day of planning.
It may never be implemented, because the one with the knowhow was away on another course or workshop learning to do more and better plans.
Malawi is very strong on strategic planning but useless on implementation.
I said we’ll do the plan together.
Would ye like to go home?
Yes: Me too. Tired, and starving.
The Plan had begun, without a word on paper. Well maybe a few drawings on the ground.
If you can read, you may need a plan.
If you can’t ….. Well
We,ll be back
Saturday, 12 May 2007
Mission moments
Ten Islanders with Malawi Team 2007 return home from church-building mission in Africa with tales to tell of this life-changing experience.
A trip abroad can result in many take-home memories and material souvenirs.
But Garnet Stewart of Cornwall left a little bit of himself behind when he and a team of Islanders, most from the Island Wesleyan Church in Hampton, P.E.I., volunteered to help build a church in Chilambula, Malawi, recently.
That’s because Stewart was given the honour of naming a new baby boy while he was there and bestowed the gift of becoming godparent to the infant.
“I got thinking, ‘what am I going to call this baby . . . .’ I thought there are no Garnets down here so I’m going to name him Garnet,” a smiling Stewart says of his new namesake.
The 10-member Malawi Team 2007’s church-building venture to Africa began with Crapaud physician Hank Visser, who had lived in Nigeria with his wife, Cathy Visser, for five years in the 1980s. When Visser returned to Africa in 2005, he visited Malawi and met Dr. Chris Brooks, an Alberta man who founded Lifeline Malawi medical ministry.
Brooks, in turn, visited the Island Wesleyan Church in P.E.I. in the spring of 2006 and challenged its members to help the people in the village of Chilambula, Malawi, to complete work on a church there.
The P.E.I. church responded by raising the $7,000 needed to complete the project. Nine members and Visser’s brother volunteered to lend a constructive hand from mid-March to mid-April.
The Island church had sent funds ahead of time, so when the P.E.I. team arrived some of the clay brick walls were already starting to take shape. The team stayed at Lifeline Malawi’s mission lodge at the village edge.
The Islanders worked alongside the people of Chilambula who showed up each day to help raise the walls and roof of the new church.
“I think the beautiful part of this for me is that the synergy — our presence and their presence together — is what allowed this church to be built so rapidly,” Visser says.
“If we had worked two weeks and they had worked two weeks, this would never had happened. But it was (us together) that made this happen. They all thought it was a miracle that it went up so fast.”
The gifts that the team brought were left with their host for distribution, with the exception of teddy bears made by some Summerside women, which were presented to children at an orphan daycare facility.
The team also presented a guitar to the church pastor to make beautiful music in the new church.
“We took it with us and decided it would be nice if someone would be interested in learning how to play and then they could use it in their local service at the church,” says Janet Lake of Crapaud, who travelled with her 17-year-old daughter, Chelsey.
“When I spoke to (Pastor MacDuff), he just lit right up and said he’d love to keep it and learn to play it over time.”
The team quickly learned that small things such as this can have a large impact on a person’s life in Chilambula, including new bicycle tubes and tires for Pastor MacDuff.
“He had yarn all sewed on old tires, trying to make them last because they had split,” Stewart says, noting that it only cost $15 Cdn to put this pastor back on the cycling path again.
“If you gave him a million dollars he wouldn’t be any happier.”
Stewart’s million-dollar moment came when Moses, the foreman of the church build, invited him and Chelsey to meet his very pregnant sister and the rest of his family in a neighbouring village.
“They got us to sit on two hardwood chairs and then they started piling in,” he says.
“They were trying to explain who was related to whom, like ‘She is the mother of her,’ and ‘He is the son of him,” Chelsey adds with a smile.
A few days later, at the request of the new mother, Stewart returned to name the baby, who is now his overseas namesake.
On the usual day of rest, the team members experienced church African-style. They split into pairs and were taken two-by-two to different village churches to experience as much as possible.
“It was very lively,” Lake says of her church service.
“A lot of singing goes on — not just for a time and then it’s done, and then you move on to something else like we might in our services — it’s sort of interwoven all the way through the service.
“And they have quite a long service, more than we would here. (It would) probably run about three hours and the time just flies.”
Some of the team visited the village school where they built a few latrines. The school has more than 1,000 children with eight teachers, and the younger grades have class under a tree with the chalkboard just leaning against a tree.
“There’s a lot of need at that school,” adds Lake.
Within 10 days, the church was raised. Spirits soared on the official dedication day, Sunday, April 1.
“We all were so excited . . . and Pastor MacDuff, I think, was a bit speechless at times, he was so touched by having a church now that he could pastor,” Lake says.
“(The team was) excited, but you knew your time was coming to an end and you were sad to think about going. There were a lot of emotions going on.”
A second team is already committed to returning in 2009 to assist Lifeline Malawi with a maternity clinic expansion project. Visser hopes to take a medical team in 2009 as well.
Some might say the money used for travel costs, which was a personal responsibility of each member of the team, would be better sent to Malawi and spent on projects there, but Visser says it is the personal connection that counts most.
“If people don’t have the relationship, you don’t have the impetus to raise the funds. You can’t raise funds that people really can’t see or aren’t part of. So people give because there’s a connection. There are people on the ground that are going,” he says.
“(Then there) is that synergistic relationship — that you could accomplish things together that you could never accomplishment separately or working concurrently.
“The friendships, the ongoing relationships, that’s really the reason. And of course our growing, what we experienced just by going there and it’s a tremendous growing experience.”
mmackay@theguardian.pe.ca
Malawi at a glance
‰ The Republic of Malawi is in Southern Africa. Countries bordering Malawi are Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia.
‰ Lilongwe is the capital.
‰ The population of Malawi was estimated at 13,013,926 in 2006.
‰ English and Chichewa are both official languages.
‰ Approximately 80 per cent of the people are Christian, one fifth are Muslim and some Malawians have indigenous beliefs.
‰ The name “Malawi” is derived from “Marawi”, the name of people who migrated to the region hundreds of years ago.
‰ In 1991 Friedemann Schrenk discovered the two-and-a-half-million-year-old remains of homo rudolfensis in northern Malawi.
‰ In 2002 around 13 million people in Southern Africa faced severe food shortages. Countries particularly affected were Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Food shortages were announced again in 2005.
‰ AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is recognized as an important public health problem in Malawi.
A trip abroad can result in many take-home memories and material souvenirs.
But Garnet Stewart of Cornwall left a little bit of himself behind when he and a team of Islanders, most from the Island Wesleyan Church in Hampton, P.E.I., volunteered to help build a church in Chilambula, Malawi, recently.
That’s because Stewart was given the honour of naming a new baby boy while he was there and bestowed the gift of becoming godparent to the infant.
“I got thinking, ‘what am I going to call this baby . . . .’ I thought there are no Garnets down here so I’m going to name him Garnet,” a smiling Stewart says of his new namesake.
The 10-member Malawi Team 2007’s church-building venture to Africa began with Crapaud physician Hank Visser, who had lived in Nigeria with his wife, Cathy Visser, for five years in the 1980s. When Visser returned to Africa in 2005, he visited Malawi and met Dr. Chris Brooks, an Alberta man who founded Lifeline Malawi medical ministry.
Brooks, in turn, visited the Island Wesleyan Church in P.E.I. in the spring of 2006 and challenged its members to help the people in the village of Chilambula, Malawi, to complete work on a church there.
The P.E.I. church responded by raising the $7,000 needed to complete the project. Nine members and Visser’s brother volunteered to lend a constructive hand from mid-March to mid-April.
The Island church had sent funds ahead of time, so when the P.E.I. team arrived some of the clay brick walls were already starting to take shape. The team stayed at Lifeline Malawi’s mission lodge at the village edge.
The Islanders worked alongside the people of Chilambula who showed up each day to help raise the walls and roof of the new church.
“I think the beautiful part of this for me is that the synergy — our presence and their presence together — is what allowed this church to be built so rapidly,” Visser says.
“If we had worked two weeks and they had worked two weeks, this would never had happened. But it was (us together) that made this happen. They all thought it was a miracle that it went up so fast.”
The gifts that the team brought were left with their host for distribution, with the exception of teddy bears made by some Summerside women, which were presented to children at an orphan daycare facility.
The team also presented a guitar to the church pastor to make beautiful music in the new church.
“We took it with us and decided it would be nice if someone would be interested in learning how to play and then they could use it in their local service at the church,” says Janet Lake of Crapaud, who travelled with her 17-year-old daughter, Chelsey.
“When I spoke to (Pastor MacDuff), he just lit right up and said he’d love to keep it and learn to play it over time.”
The team quickly learned that small things such as this can have a large impact on a person’s life in Chilambula, including new bicycle tubes and tires for Pastor MacDuff.
“He had yarn all sewed on old tires, trying to make them last because they had split,” Stewart says, noting that it only cost $15 Cdn to put this pastor back on the cycling path again.
“If you gave him a million dollars he wouldn’t be any happier.”
Stewart’s million-dollar moment came when Moses, the foreman of the church build, invited him and Chelsey to meet his very pregnant sister and the rest of his family in a neighbouring village.
“They got us to sit on two hardwood chairs and then they started piling in,” he says.
“They were trying to explain who was related to whom, like ‘She is the mother of her,’ and ‘He is the son of him,” Chelsey adds with a smile.
A few days later, at the request of the new mother, Stewart returned to name the baby, who is now his overseas namesake.
On the usual day of rest, the team members experienced church African-style. They split into pairs and were taken two-by-two to different village churches to experience as much as possible.
“It was very lively,” Lake says of her church service.
“A lot of singing goes on — not just for a time and then it’s done, and then you move on to something else like we might in our services — it’s sort of interwoven all the way through the service.
“And they have quite a long service, more than we would here. (It would) probably run about three hours and the time just flies.”
Some of the team visited the village school where they built a few latrines. The school has more than 1,000 children with eight teachers, and the younger grades have class under a tree with the chalkboard just leaning against a tree.
“There’s a lot of need at that school,” adds Lake.
Within 10 days, the church was raised. Spirits soared on the official dedication day, Sunday, April 1.
“We all were so excited . . . and Pastor MacDuff, I think, was a bit speechless at times, he was so touched by having a church now that he could pastor,” Lake says.
“(The team was) excited, but you knew your time was coming to an end and you were sad to think about going. There were a lot of emotions going on.”
A second team is already committed to returning in 2009 to assist Lifeline Malawi with a maternity clinic expansion project. Visser hopes to take a medical team in 2009 as well.
Some might say the money used for travel costs, which was a personal responsibility of each member of the team, would be better sent to Malawi and spent on projects there, but Visser says it is the personal connection that counts most.
“If people don’t have the relationship, you don’t have the impetus to raise the funds. You can’t raise funds that people really can’t see or aren’t part of. So people give because there’s a connection. There are people on the ground that are going,” he says.
“(Then there) is that synergistic relationship — that you could accomplish things together that you could never accomplishment separately or working concurrently.
“The friendships, the ongoing relationships, that’s really the reason. And of course our growing, what we experienced just by going there and it’s a tremendous growing experience.”
mmackay@theguardian.pe.ca
Malawi at a glance
‰ The Republic of Malawi is in Southern Africa. Countries bordering Malawi are Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia.
‰ Lilongwe is the capital.
‰ The population of Malawi was estimated at 13,013,926 in 2006.
‰ English and Chichewa are both official languages.
‰ Approximately 80 per cent of the people are Christian, one fifth are Muslim and some Malawians have indigenous beliefs.
‰ The name “Malawi” is derived from “Marawi”, the name of people who migrated to the region hundreds of years ago.
‰ In 1991 Friedemann Schrenk discovered the two-and-a-half-million-year-old remains of homo rudolfensis in northern Malawi.
‰ In 2002 around 13 million people in Southern Africa faced severe food shortages. Countries particularly affected were Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Food shortages were announced again in 2005.
‰ AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is recognized as an important public health problem in Malawi.
Operations Research Coordinator
Dignitas International
Dignitas International is a Canadian medical humanitarian organization founded by international health and research experts to respond to the global HIV/AIDS pandemic. Dignitas’ goal in Malawi is to increase access to prevention, treatment, care and support for people affected by HIV/AIDS through collaboration with the Malawian Ministry of Health and via a community based care model that supports and empowers local community structures.
Location: Malawi (Zomba District)
Closing date: 25 May 2007
Job Description
We are currently seeking an Operations Research Coordinator for our programs in Malawi.
The primary responsibility of the Operations Research Coordinator is to provide technical leadership in the design, management, monitoring and evaluation of the research activities of Dignitas International in Malawi, and to determine the relevant M&E systems for research and operational programs based on needs, resources and capacities. S/he will ensure the quality of quantitative and qualitative methods and participatory methodologies used to monitor programs as well as develop systems to ensure the results of operations research and M&E are integrated into program activities.
In addition to developing and implementing the Dignitas research agenda in Malawi, s/he will liaise with counterparts at government and non-government agencies involved in related HIV/AIDS response programs and collaborate in promoting high quality results and complementary efforts.
This is a challenging opportunity for a dedicated and highly motivated professional with a strong commitment to assisting those living with HIV/AIDS.
Responsibilities
* Develop and implement Dignitas’ research agenda in Malawi including clinical and community vision.
* Manage population and clinic-based research as it relates to the development of Dignitas’ Community-based care model.
* Manage the collection and interpretation of data, and its integration into continuous quality improvement and Community-based care model development, including the definition of appropriate indicators and management of electronic databases.
* Integrate operations research and M&E into program activities.
* Develop and facilitate program M&E structure in-line with Malawi national efforts which will contribute to both Dignitas’ and Malawi’s needs.
* Contribute input and technical expertise in support of research and grant proposals, publications and conference presentations.
* Manage grants and ethical review and approvals in Malawi.
* Supervise, coach and enable visiting research scholars.
Qualifications
* An advanced degree (masters a minimum) in a relevant field such as public health, medicine or epidemiology. PhD or MD with MPH and HIV/AIDS clinical experience preferred.
* Minimum 2 years of experience in operations research, public health or M&E with an international organization or in the public sector.
* Proven experience in clinical/community based research and associated programming and policy development.
* Very strong analytical skills and a creative thinker who is able to see the big picture and translate it into programming.
* Strong publication record.
* Strong networking and representational skills.
* Proven mentoring/coaching skills and an ability to work across a broad spectrum of team members with varied understanding of M&E concepts and methodologies. Commitment to capacity building a must.
* Excellent interpersonal communication and supervisory skills.
* Ability to work with minimum supervision.
* Excellent writing skills in English.
* Experience with data collection software such as STATA/SAS/Epi INFO.
* Previous overseas NGO work experience is desired.
Vacancies Contact
hr@dignitasinternational.org
Reference Code: RW_734N9N-48
Dignitas International is a Canadian medical humanitarian organization founded by international health and research experts to respond to the global HIV/AIDS pandemic. Dignitas’ goal in Malawi is to increase access to prevention, treatment, care and support for people affected by HIV/AIDS through collaboration with the Malawian Ministry of Health and via a community based care model that supports and empowers local community structures.
Location: Malawi (Zomba District)
Closing date: 25 May 2007
Job Description
We are currently seeking an Operations Research Coordinator for our programs in Malawi.
The primary responsibility of the Operations Research Coordinator is to provide technical leadership in the design, management, monitoring and evaluation of the research activities of Dignitas International in Malawi, and to determine the relevant M&E systems for research and operational programs based on needs, resources and capacities. S/he will ensure the quality of quantitative and qualitative methods and participatory methodologies used to monitor programs as well as develop systems to ensure the results of operations research and M&E are integrated into program activities.
In addition to developing and implementing the Dignitas research agenda in Malawi, s/he will liaise with counterparts at government and non-government agencies involved in related HIV/AIDS response programs and collaborate in promoting high quality results and complementary efforts.
This is a challenging opportunity for a dedicated and highly motivated professional with a strong commitment to assisting those living with HIV/AIDS.
Responsibilities
* Develop and implement Dignitas’ research agenda in Malawi including clinical and community vision.
* Manage population and clinic-based research as it relates to the development of Dignitas’ Community-based care model.
* Manage the collection and interpretation of data, and its integration into continuous quality improvement and Community-based care model development, including the definition of appropriate indicators and management of electronic databases.
* Integrate operations research and M&E into program activities.
* Develop and facilitate program M&E structure in-line with Malawi national efforts which will contribute to both Dignitas’ and Malawi’s needs.
* Contribute input and technical expertise in support of research and grant proposals, publications and conference presentations.
* Manage grants and ethical review and approvals in Malawi.
* Supervise, coach and enable visiting research scholars.
Qualifications
* An advanced degree (masters a minimum) in a relevant field such as public health, medicine or epidemiology. PhD or MD with MPH and HIV/AIDS clinical experience preferred.
* Minimum 2 years of experience in operations research, public health or M&E with an international organization or in the public sector.
* Proven experience in clinical/community based research and associated programming and policy development.
* Very strong analytical skills and a creative thinker who is able to see the big picture and translate it into programming.
* Strong publication record.
* Strong networking and representational skills.
* Proven mentoring/coaching skills and an ability to work across a broad spectrum of team members with varied understanding of M&E concepts and methodologies. Commitment to capacity building a must.
* Excellent interpersonal communication and supervisory skills.
* Ability to work with minimum supervision.
* Excellent writing skills in English.
* Experience with data collection software such as STATA/SAS/Epi INFO.
* Previous overseas NGO work experience is desired.
Vacancies Contact
hr@dignitasinternational.org
Reference Code: RW_734N9N-48
Saudi Arabia is going to take the world's orphans under their wing... we can all sleep well tonight!
Indeed, the world has witnessed the magic that the Saudi philanthropists have worked with impressionable children from places like Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan, Jordan, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines.... and Ethiopia, Eritrea, Uganda, Burkina Faso, Chad, Tanzania, Tunisia, Sudan, Ghana, Gambia, Senegal, Nigeria, Kenya, Mali and Malawi.
IIRO also sponsors orphans from the European countries of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Albani
Let the games begin!
**
IIRO to sponsor 250,000 orphans including in Indonesia
JEDDAH (Antara): Dr. Adnan Khaleel Basha, secretarygeneral of the Jeddah-based International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO), unveiled the organization's plans to sponsor some 250,000 orphans, including those in Indonesia in the near future.
"At present, IIRO sponsors 92,000 orphan boys and girls in different parts of the world. We hope that, with the support of Saudi philanthropists and benevolent people, this number would reach 250,000 in the near future," he said.
The IIRO chief listed the countries where the organization sponsors thousands of orphans. They included Asian countries of Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan, Jordan, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines.
The African countries are Ethiopia, Eritrea, Uganda, Burkina Faso, Chad, Tanzania, Tunisia, Sudan, Ghana, Gambia, Senegal, Nigeria, Kenya, Mali and Malawi.
IIRO also sponsors orphans from the European countries of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Albania, he added.
IIRO also sponsors orphans from the European countries of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Albani
Let the games begin!
**
IIRO to sponsor 250,000 orphans including in Indonesia
JEDDAH (Antara): Dr. Adnan Khaleel Basha, secretarygeneral of the Jeddah-based International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO), unveiled the organization's plans to sponsor some 250,000 orphans, including those in Indonesia in the near future.
"At present, IIRO sponsors 92,000 orphan boys and girls in different parts of the world. We hope that, with the support of Saudi philanthropists and benevolent people, this number would reach 250,000 in the near future," he said.
The IIRO chief listed the countries where the organization sponsors thousands of orphans. They included Asian countries of Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan, Jordan, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines.
The African countries are Ethiopia, Eritrea, Uganda, Burkina Faso, Chad, Tanzania, Tunisia, Sudan, Ghana, Gambia, Senegal, Nigeria, Kenya, Mali and Malawi.
IIRO also sponsors orphans from the European countries of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Albania, he added.
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