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Published: November 15th 2016
Today was a huge day - we travelled very early this morning to a phase 5 epicentre - a village supported by THP who have set up sustainable practices over a 13 year period and are now running themselves (self reliance).
Highlight of the day? having a lovely woman called Abigail teach me how to do a tribal dance that the women at the epicentre had created about empowering the women of their villages. The theme - educate a girl child and make the world a better place. After a lot of giggling (on her part mostly - I never claimed to be remotely coordinated!) I got the rhythm of it and, despite the language barrier, she managed to convey to me that I was doing ok! we then tried to step it up a little with additional steps - at which point we both couldn't stop laughing! The joy of the Malawi women is contagious - but its their determination that is truly humbling.
But that was the end of the day - let me start at the beginning.
7am in the morning and 16 very white women, 2 security guards (one a woman), a doctor, a cameraman and four local hunger project employees get on a bus....
2.5 hours later, after driving through what can only be described as an extremely poor country (single room houses with thatched roofs, no electricity or running water), we pull up at Champiti, a few kms from the epicentre. We were going to visit Sarah - a woman who had taken up the micro-finance loans sponsored by the hunger project and started building her businesses - and yes, that's plural!
The bus is greeted by a group of singing women, and as we get off the bus, there are hugs all around. (Yes, those who know me well are laughing as that would be completely out of my comfort zone, but the Malawi women are just so friendly that it seemed absolutely normal.) they sing and dance up to Sarah's house and then sarah tells us about how she has changed her and her familys lives in the last six years. She runs a small grocery shop from her house (apparently her home made donuts were amazing - cursing my gluten free status!) and she also has a traditional clothes business (beautifully coloured sarongs). Her success has meant that she has been able to put a tin roof on her house and is looking at expanding her house to accommodate her grocery business. About 40 women and children are around the house when we're there and they all seem so proud of her success. She shows us her old house, which was demolished and a pile of rubble, and is now part of her back yard - it couldn't be any bigger than our kitchen at home. her new house is about 2.5 times bigger. She doesn't have electricity - but im sure she will have in the next few years, once Malawis electrical issues settle a bit and her business continues to expand. On top of all of this, she's a mum of two kids, both at school. (Her son insisted on not going to school today though as he wanted to see the white women!)
From there, we head to the house of the first local director of the Champiti hunger project work. He's 72 - the average life expectancy in Malawi is 39. He is now on the Board of Trustees for Champiti, and is one of the most respected men in the area. He helped convince the village to adopt the learnings with the hunger project and he led out the process locally for years. A big part of what the hunger project do is getting the village to create its own vision of success and define where they want to be. Theyidentify local 'animators' to help bring change to life - but the people themselves need to do the work to get there. There are no handouts - it's about education and the motivation to do better and change. He helped lead that journey for Champiti. His home has a tap outside with running water - that's a big deal here and a very visible sign of change. He had 11 children, 7 of whom are still alive (while changing now in Champiti, malnutrition had meant that there was a high risk of children not living beyond the age of 5). He spoke to us in English - which he'd learnt over his association with the hunger project. He talked about his pride that they no longer needed the hunger project (although they were always welcome to visit!) His next dream? He'd like to own a motor scooter to help him get around.
After that, we proceeded to the epicentre itself - think of this as a community centre. They have a large building with a loan office, medical station (still not effectively resourced unfortunately and extremely basic facilities), food storage - Champiti now produces enough food to store and use year round. This very poor village was even able to contribute some maize to other villages after the recent El Niño devastation. The school was also located not far from the centre. The centre was attended by the local chiefs who were there to meet us and we were greeted with a traditional tribal dance of welcome - this time by the men of the village. There, we spent 2 hours speaking (via an interpreter) with them, asking questions about what they do and their challenges. The women in the group were the most vocal. Malawi is a patriarchal society, but in Champiti, through a lot of education, the role of women is changing. Women are now doing traditionally male jobs. There is support for victims of domestic violence. Women of the village are talking to villagers about the dangers of child marriage - and they have gone out and taken back girls from those situations. We were spoken to by the committee who supports hiv/aids sufferers who declared themselves in the room. Those sufferers are actively championing education about avoiding the disease. We sat through their sex education training - a lesson in putting on a condom which is taught to boys and we also listened to a lesson from a young single woman about the female condom (a number of Us Were educated in that session!) we heard from the villagers about sanitation and nutrition education and the focus they have on these things during pregnancy. All in all, it was amazing to hear. What was also interesting is that many different religions were represented in the room - Malawi is very religious - but no one really cared about their religious differences. They all work together collaboratively!
So, back to abigail and my lack of dancing ability, and the joy and determination of the women. These women were affectionate, joyful and spent more time laughing than any other women I've met. Abigail was no doubt going home to a one room house, no electricity or running water and minimal 'stuff'. But she seemed so happy. We took a photo together which I showed her - and she was absolutely thrilled! We showed a few of her friends. Such a small thing, but still, so much joy in it.
Tuesday is going to be more challenging - Champiti is a working example of what can be done. They've eradicated malnutrition and have some impressive social systems in place. The next visit is a phase 1 site - malnutrition and poverty will both be the norm. So, I will give you my next update when we're back tonight.
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Karl Turner
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Jane - thanks for the update - great to hear you're learning so much about the project, empowerment and about yourself :) - see those needles were worth it :)