coldness in the Warm Heart of Africa

The weather in Canada has slowly been getting warmer while here in Malawi it's been getting colder, dipping below 10*C at night. It really does get quite chilly at night and the only heat we have is what the bricks of our house absorb from the sun during the day. So we're enjoying sleeping with blankets and wearing sweaters and jackets, things we hadn't really thought we'd be experiencing in the Warm Heart of Africa...

Today was the first time that the weather in our Canadian hometown and our current home were exactly the same (partially cloudy, high of 21, low of 8, according to AccuWeather at least).

before & after

I just wanted to showcase the Rotary project at the school in Namasalima. The paint job has made a marvelous transformation of the learning environment for the students -- still way below any education standards without desks and packing up to 400 students in a classroom but it's transformation nonetheless. BEFORE & AFTER

The community participated in the project by providing bricks and sand for the renovating of the one school block and school office/library as well as the borehole rehabilitation. Some of them also helped with the painting. A big thank you to Rotary Teams 1&2 for all their hard work. Zikomo kwambiri. [check out their team blog]

Planting Malawi - March/April newsletter

pdf download
Planting Malawi - April newsletter

March - April 2009 Emmanuel International Planting Malawi Isaiah 61.3 an update from the VanWoerdens in Malawi Prayer & Praise: • Malawi elections are on May 19(ish). Please pray for peaceful elections (the kids’ school has implemented some precautionary holidays) and for the future of Malawi. • We are thankful for the Canada Rotary and the ZAP Ireland donor teams and the great work they are doing here. Pray that they will be impacted and have safe travels back home. • Praise for lives that are being transformed through EI and ZAP projects. Pray that more lives will be changed. • Having guards, gardener, and househelp may sound like a luxury but can also be challenging. We pray for peace in our home. (We do miss the luxuries of home). • Our gardener’s wife is due to have a baby anytime (no actual due date). Pray for a safe delivery. Tackling Poverty [tapping into unrealized potential] I once asked my colleague, and millions of dollars of aid Charles Mukiwa, a long-term money have been poured into development worker with Em- the nation but how much of it manuel International, “If you has really made a difference? could do only one thing to The father of a teacher at address the probLara and lem of poverty in “If you could do only Talia’s school Malaw i, what one thing to address used to teach would you do?” He the problem of poverty i n Malawi told me something in Malawi, what would many years along the lines of, ago. Now visityou do?” “Help people use ing his son, he local resources to work their was asked, “In the last forty way out of poverty.” And that five years, what has is what we are trying to do changed?” His response was, with the Disaster Risk Reduc- “Paved roads, men wearing tion project (DRR) that he and jeans, women wearing pants.” I are working on. Program Essentially nothing has after program has been im- changed, despite years of plemented here in Malawi international aid. But perhaps too much of it has created a dependence on international resources. [continued on p. 2] community woodlot School Makeover [reality change for students in Namasalima] Misango Primary School is a rural school bordering the dike along the Domasi River in Namasalima, where we helped the community to rebuild the dike last year. The school has 1,674 students but only 7 qualified teachers, 3 volunteers, and 7 classrooms (a pupil-teacher ratio of over 200:1). Grade 2 has 475 students. One teacher, one classroom. They don’t fit in the classroom so there are always students outside the windows. Sometimes the teacher stands at the window to teach because there’s no room to move inside. The students sit on the broken concrete floor. The school hasn’t been painted in years. There are no doors so there’s graffiti etched in the dirty paint. The school has 3 pit latrines. That means 558 students per toilet. They had built some temporary grass shelters with a hole in the ground for latrines but they have collapsed with the rains. Kids go to the toilet barefoot and return to their classroom to sit on the floor, which is also their desk. Textbooks are scarce but they share what they have. Teachers live on a meager salary and are provided housing – dilapidated 3-room houses with makeshift kitchens and toilets behind the houses. They must be dedicated teachers. Last year 7 students were selected to go to secondary school. Supposedly that’s a high number. Given the school’s resources it [continued on p. 3] Planting Malaw i | March - April 2009 Disaster Risk Reduction: Tackling Poverty [continued from front] In DRR, we focus on development using local resources. A recent visit to Nyanya Village paints a good picture. The first thing the community showed us was a woodlot – rows of small trees in a landscape where only a few scattered trees remain standing. EI has been encouraging reforestation to address the problem of deforestation and promote environmental responsibility. The trees are grown from local seed and the woodlot is expanded each year to provide a sustainable source of firewood and poles and to provide protection for the soil. can sell them to others and generate income. The last thing the community showed us is how they used the fuel efficient stoves and fireless cookers (food warmers) to prepare a delicious meal from a variety of foods. A typical Malawian is “hungry” if she hasn’t eaten nsima. To change the mindset that food=nsima, EI is training communities in food processing. We can encourage people to grow crops like cassava and sweet potato, but if a Malawian doesn’t see it as food and doesn’t know how to Next, the community prepare it, we have accomplished nothing. But with trainshowed us their gardens of cassava and ing, cassava and sweet potato can be turned into flour to eassweet potato. Most farmers de pend ily make nsima or store for mostly on rain-fed future use, and other local maize production, but foods can be utilized to prewith changing weather pare nutritious balanced meals. patterns, this poses a With a diversified diet, famifarmer showing cassava high risk for food inselies are also much more food curity. Cassava and secure since they no longer sweet potato are drought tolerant crops depend solely on maize production. that are easy to multiply. EI has provided the initial stock of cassava cuttings and There is no simple solution to the probsweet potato vines to plant in community lem of poverty in Malawi – for most gardens, but from there the seed is easily people it’s a vicious cycle. But with a multiplied and cuttings are transplanted to individual gardens and shared with other villages so that lots of households benefit from improved food security and a viable cash crop. Walking back to the village, they showed us the kiln used for making fuel efficient stoves. Most Malawians use three stones to cook over a small fire. EI is not only promoting the use of fuel efficient stoves that use only a fraction of the firewood to cook a meal, but also helping communities make the stoves so they series of small changes using local resources, poverty-stricken families can experience major transformation. Growing drought tolerant crops results in food security. Food processing utilizes local foods to improve nutrition. Preparing meals using fuel efficient stoves minimizes the number of trees that have to be cut for firewood. And reforestation replenishes the timber and firewood supply while protecting the environment. In addition, the alternative crops and fuel efficient stoves offer economic opportunities, which combined with our Village Savings and Loans and micro-enterprise projects can significantly increase the amount of cash flow in a community. Effective community development is holistic and grassroots, and empowers people to utilize local resources to bring change. Seeing a village like Nyanya embracing this kind of development is uplifting and inspires hope for the nation. As one of our field staff put it, “the project can really change the community’s mindset of relying on external assistance because they have realized that there is hidden treasure amongst themselves through their shared contributions.” By helping them realize their potential, lives are being transformed. Andre and his colleague, Charles Mukiwa, enjoying some of Malawi’s finest village cuisine. It’s not even nsima! Planting Malaw i | March - April 2009 School Makeover [continued from front] probably is. Drop out rate is high. With over 350 students each in Grades 1 to 3, each subsequent grade has fewer students. Grade 8 has only 40. There’s not a lot of incentive to go to school – poor learning environment, not enough teachers, few learning resources. Plus there’s work to be done, a matter of survival really, and girls often get married off at age 13 or 14. But all that is changing at Misango Primary School. Thanks to several Rotary Clubs in Canada, the school is being transformed. The roof blew off one of the classrooms about 2 years ago and was never replaced. But Rotary has helped replace the roof so the school has two more classrooms. Already, the government has assigned a new teacher to the school. The floors have been patched so that students have a decent place to sit at least. All the walls have been painted to brighten up the classrooms. They have also installed a small library so that students can actually read books and maybe even read at home. School supplies will be distributed this week so that both students and teachers will have resources for teaching and learnschool soccer team in Tim Hortons uniforms ing. We also had a soccer and netball tournament and gave the school sports uniforms, soccer balls, and frisbees. With two consecutive Rotary teams and several weeks of work, the school has undergone a major transformation. Although the school still faces many challenges, the learning environment at the school has been drastically improved. We’re hoping that other changes will follow, especially the construction of latrines for the school, and Rotary has assured us that this is only the beginning of a relationship with Misango Primary School. THANK YOU, Rotarians and friends from the Toronto area! Pastor Leads by Example EI works in partnership with the Evangelical Baptist Church of Malawi. This case study is an example of this partnership: Reverend Sam R. Kaipa is a pastor of a small rural Evangelical Baptist Church in Kapu Village, TA Mulomba. Rev. Kaipa is also the chairman of the Village Development Committee. He has been actively involved in DRR since 2006, implementing interventions such as crop diversification, seed multiplication, and afforestation. Pastor Kaipa joined the DRR project not only to improve the food security of his family, but also because he has a vision for the transformation of his people in the church and in the larger community. He has a vision for physical and eternal transformation. Pastor Kaipa sees DRR as a way of breaking the cycle of poverty in his village. Rather than depending on handouts, he wants to demonstrate through his own actions how development activities can transform lives. Rev. Kaipa is involved in seed [a transformat ion story] Randomly Malawi: Democracy is very young in Malawi and although campaigning officially began in March, political rallies have been taking place since we got here in August. Elections are taking place on May 19, but it could likely be moved by a few days — you just never know. Most people have harvested their maize by now. The hunger season is over. The rains have slowed down and the dry season will soon begin. May and June are the coldest months — sleeping with blankets is nice for a change. Poinsettias grow up to 15ft tall and bloom during the Easter season, not at Christmas time. I guess Jesus was born a baby so he could die as Saviour. Somehow this beautiful red flower has come to point out the entire good news of Jesus for the world. multiplication and propagation of trees, which he plans to propagate commercially. Through the sale of cassava and other small business efforts he has been able to pay for school for his son who is attending secondary school and purchase clothes for his family. As a pastor, he does not want to live on the support of his congregation, but he wants his congregation to imitate his development initiatives. He also envisions Muslims and Christians being united through working in development together. However, this has not been without challenges as some Muslims had to be convinced that the interventions were not targeting any particular faith groups. The DRR project has been strengthened by working with Pastor Kaipa because he knows the people and their needs and being in a position of influence, he is able to promote DRR interventions. Empowering local churches and CBOs significantly enhances the project’s impact and sustainability. Planting Malaw i | March - April 2009 Irrigation Project Benefits Entire Village [a transformation story] Mr. Wild Fayala’s household suffered from poverty and hunger and he joined various DRR activities to change the future of his family. Mr. Fayala lives with his wife and five children in the village of Mbalwe in TA Nyambi, Machinga District, where they practice subsistence farming. Joining the irrigation club in his community has made a drastic difference in the life of his family. Mr. Fayala is now able to realize a surplus crop, which he has been able to sell to buy school uniforms for his children and provide basic household needs. Thanks to wintercropping, his family is now less dependent on rain-fed agriculture and more food secure as a result. Like Mr. Fayala, most members of the irrigation club who were trained in the community demonstration garden are now practicing irrigation in their own plots and realizing surplus crops. Others in the community who have not used irrigation are able to buy crops from the project participants instead of buying expensive produce at the market. In this way, the whole community has benefited from greater food security. In addition, some crops from the community garden were sold to purchase bricks to line the new community well so that the Mbalwe residents have access to safe drinking water. Transformation Despite Disaster Mr. Saizi Mwalinyu, also known as Atcheya, has been actively implementing DRR activities since EI first introduced DRR in his home village, Mwamadi. In 2006 Mwamadi had experienced flooding and the community was assisted with treadle pumps, seed, and fertilizer to start irrigation. Harvesting enough food to feed his four children after experiencing a disaster convinced Atcheya to adopt DRR as his friend. Since then he has been involved in food processing, fuel efficient stove making, conservation farming, micro-enterprise, and adult literacy. Before his wife passed away, they were able to operate a small business that significantly improved their household income. Since his wife’s death and being solely responsible for his children, he has not managed to run the small business but he has continued the various agriculture interventions to look after his children. Through these interventions, Atcheya [a tran sformat ion story ] has experienced major transformation. He has managed to build a house with an iron sheet roof for his family and he has bought a bicycle, a radio, and clothes for his children. With a smile on his face, Atcheya was pleased to testify of the women in his village who are to take care of their families through the same interventions. With a little training, the com- munity has become aware of resources that they have within their village that they can utilize to improve their lives. New pictures of hippos, the school makeover, and more on our blog! Your prayers and support are enormously appreciated! Thank you! Andre & Alexandra VanWoerden [Lara, Talia, Ezera] Private Bag 12 Zomba Malawi 265.8.169.380 (Andre) or 265.8.169.382 (Alex) alexandre.vanwoerden@gmail.com vw-mw.blogspot.com Emmanuel International Canada PO Box 4050 Stouffville ON L4A 8B6 905.640.2111 info@eicanada.org www.eicanada.org 

ZAP Coleraine visit of EI projects

With a visiting team from Coleraine, Ireland, the donor community for ZAP, Alex has been busy with project visits and working dinners. On Thursday the ZAP team visited a sampling of the development projects that Emmanuel International has implemented: shallow wells, fruit trees, mosquito nets, fuel efficient stoves, bicycle ambulances, etc. With Alex being the host for the ZAP team and Andre leading the field trip for EI, we actually got to work together for a day.

More about ZAP at www.colerainezomba.org.uk.

Rotary teams do school makeover

We've had two consecutive teams from Rotary Canada spending a couple weeks here on several work projects. One of their projects was doing a makeover on a rural school, which was my project. Some of the work was done before the team arrived and they did the finishing. The makeover includes: a new roof and floor in one classroom block, patching all classroom floors, painting all classrooms, installing a small library, handing out school supplies to the students, having a soccer tournament, giving the school sports uniforms and balls, and rehabilitating the borehole at the school. It's an amazing difference, definitely improved the learning environment at the school. But again, it's little by little, because the school still faces a whole bunch of challenges (like latrines, teacher housing, desks, etc.).

Check out the team's daily blog to learn more about their experiences here.

hippos and holidays

Just a few pictures of our recent adventures. We haven't really seen much of Malawi because it's just so expensive to travel but we finally decided we had to start exploring the country a little. We went to see some wildlife on the Shire River in Liwonde National Park. Not a great time to see wildlife during the rainy season because there's plenty of water inland so animals don't come to the river to drink (and you can't enter the park by land during the rainy season). But we got to see a bunch of hippos, ugly creatures, really. We also spent a weekend at Lake Malawi, a first for us after 7 months of living here and it's only like 2hrs away. It's beautiful and we enjoyed our time there, so much so we really didn't take pictures except for a little side trip to Mua Mission.