How a Mill Can Send a Child to School

Life is easier in this community,” says Luka Khuliwa, community chairman. “We are learning that every small change makes life easier.” Malawi is a country where families grow their own food using simple hand tools. Driving through the south of the country, you will not see tractors or even oxen-pulled ploughs working the fields. All work is done by hand, and mostly by women. Maize is the food of choice. Without maize at a meal, most individuals feel that they have not eaten. While ADRA agricultural projects in the country encourage the growing of tomatoes, cassava, pigeon peas, soybeans, and sweet potatoes, most everyone grows maize. Hand milling, or pounding the maize by hand, is an energy intensive and time-consuming daily activity. Done by women and girls, this keeps them from other needed activities. It even keeps girls from attending school. “There was a maize mill near our community; however, it was a long, long walk, and to go there meant you did nothing else that day,” states Irene. “Those who were lucky enough to have a bicycle could ride there with their maize in two hours. My family did not go often.”

The Mphonde community is in the Phalombe district of Malawi. In this remote area along the Mozambique border, villagers struggle hard simply to exist. ADRA is working in partnership with the World Food Programme (WFP), distributing commodities and creating food assets here, including the building of large fishponds and poultry production. It was clear that building a maize mill in this community would further alleviate the extreme poverty. A community maize mill would not only free up individuals’ time, but it would also allow them to spend less funds on getting maize ground. It would create a small community industry with jobs, and it would provide a small stream of income for the community.

The community council identified a parcel of land along the dirt road and voted that this would be the property for the maize mill. With ADRA donating the building materials, the community built the mill building out of brick and concrete. ADRA donated the diesel-run machinery and trained three individuals on the operation and maintenance of the mill itself. The mill operator and his assistant are grateful for the income that working at the mill provides.

The mill is open five days a week, and the community has assigned each family a day and time to come to the mill each week. This scheduling means that no one has to wait in long lines, and everyone has a chance to have their maize ground into flour. “We usually see 25 people a day, and they come in groups of five,” says Bonwell, one of the mill operators. “By scheduling people in groups, I do not have to keep starting and stopping the mill. We save on diesel this way.”

The community pays the mill operators 2,000 kwacha (US$14) a month. After three years in operation, the community has 70,000 kwacha in the bank. “We are using the interest in the account to send the orphans in our community to school,” Luka Khuliwa proudly exclaims. “Without this money, they would not be able to receive an education. Thank you, ADRA, for helping us provide for every child!”

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ADRA International

ADRA/NAPHAM training People Living with HIV/AIDS Support Group

Thandizo Lathu CBO is a community based organization in Maonga group village head, T/A Kalonga in Salima district. This group started in 2004 at a Methodist Free Church in the area through dialogue sessions with the community on the impact of HIV and Aids in families and evolved to become a CBO focusing on positive living with HIV/AIDS. The CBO was established in 2008 and registered with the district social welfare office.

Thandizo Lathu CBO operates in 4 villages and has 5 key components namely of People Living with HIV/AIDS support group (PLWHA), Home based Care group, Youth club, Community Based Child Care and Orphan Care.

In November 2009 the CBO wrote a proposal to National Aids Commission of Malawi through the District Social Welfare Office in Salima to train some of its members on Positive Living.

The next hurdle was to find facilitators for the workshop and the district social welfare office identified and approached NAPHAM (National Association for People Living with HIV and Aids in Malawi) and ADRA (Adventist Development and Relief Agency in Malawi) to provide the training since the CBO was in their impact area and also due to the nature of nutrition activities ADRA was doing in the area.

ADRA and NAPHAM went on to facilitate the training in areas of Concepts of positive living, Anti Retroviral Therapy adherence, stress management, food processing and utilization, home gardening, IGA activity concepts (savings and loans) and group dynamics. This was done week beginning 8^th February, 2010.

During this training the facilitators and the CBO noted some issues that affect people living with HIV/AIDS such as distance travelled to the nearest clinic to access ARVs from the village was very long (25km) and this has made many patients to give up treatment early. The other was unavailability of bicycle ambulance for the community to carry patients to hospital. One bicycle ambulance costs around $500.

Other notable issues were lack of reliable IGAs other than piece work in crop fields and lack of access to nutritious foods such as soya meal. The CBO lamented that many of its members fail to attend meetings because they are always out looking for piece work

At the end of the training ADRA through Tsogolo Labwino project pledged to support the group with savings and loans training once they get organized. ADRA has also provided the group with 10 kg of soy seed which they have planted in a communal garden.

Thandizo Lathu CBO has expressed gratitude to ADRA and NAPHAM for the skills imparted to them. ADRA Tsogolo Labwino Project is equally happy with the recognition it is getting from other government institutions on its capacity to provide trainings to the grass root as it changes the world one life at a time.

By Francis Zande (Tsogolo Labwino Project Manager)

Water in Mulanje - Southern Malawi

The people of Mgumera and Mbwana, an area with over 7,000 people, have for a long time been having problems to access water. This problem has lead to use of unsafe water from streams and ponds and to high rates of water born diseases in the area. After assessing the situation, ADRA Malawi with funding from DANIDA through a project called Resilience and Capacity Building has drilled two deep wells costing $20,000.

Although the two deep wells are still not sufficient for resolving the water problem, it contributed greatly to improve the living conditions in the area, according to the Group Village Head, people especially women and girls were spending most of time fetching water which is far away. He thanked ADRA for providing water which is life.

The community dancing in celebrating the water when the pumps were installed during the water point training that was conducted by ADRA and line ministries

Author: Winston Chilonga,Water Coordinator,ADRA,Malawi

Baking

Supported by WFP, ADRA Malawi identified and trained, a total of 150 people, in baking, in the last year in the Phalombe district. A total of 17 bakery shelters with 23 ovens have been constructed in 13 GVH. On their part beneficiaries provided some locally available construction materials such as sand for plastering, flooring, and labor such as collection of bricks and sourced funds to pay for the builders.

The bakeries are managed by a community committee, and the profit realized by the bakeries is supporting in average 24 orphans or vulnerable children, per bakery and within the community.

The ADRA Country Director, Emanuel da Costa comments: "These interventions allow us to avoid short term solutions, empowering communities to respond to the needs they identify in their communities. We are thankful for the partnership we have established with these community elected committees, not only in Phalombe district, but through out the country."

Partially based on Project report from: Hastings Lacha Project manager

Goat Rearing (Pass on strategy)

As, United Nations - World Food Program funded, Sustainable Livelihood Intervention, in the Phalombe District, is coming to an end, it is now time to look at what has been achieved and learned. One of the successfully implemented interventions was the Goat Rearing - Pass on strategy.

ADRA employed a pass-on strategy in order to improve goat production, and increase household income, from goat sales by providing targeted vulnerable households with hybrid goats. A total of 300 households beneficiaries were reached under this activity, upon producing offspring the parent stock would be passed on to next beneficiary after a period of 4 months reaching another 300 households.

To date a total of 22 goats have been passed on to 10 additional villages. As the project is winding up, there are 168 pregnant goats and 114 new kids have been produced by 105 goats (refer to appendix 1: tables showing goat reproduction and beneficiary list)

20 groups comprising of 15 beneficiary households were formed and trained in the initial stages of the project to manage the pass on project. The idea behind the pass-on strategy was that in each circle, several members would be given initial inputs and as they start generating returns, they would pass these on to other circle members so that after a period, the whole group will have benefited. Once all original circle members have benefited they would be encouraged to pass-on to other HIV/AIDS targeted villages to generate new circles. The circle members would discuss the criteria to be used in identifying initial members to benefit from the initial inputs.

At GVH level, a project committee was put in place to manage the project activities with the support from government extension workers, CBOs and VDCs.
The Ministry of Agriculture extension workers and the District Social Welfare Office in collaboration with ADRA Malawi trained the targeted households in leadership, business management and group management skills.

The first group of beneficiaries is keeping the goats together with the off springs (kids) waiting for them to reach a stage when they can survive independently. The second group of beneficiaries is preparing the kraals for the goats to be passed on to them.

Based on final report prepared by: Hastings Lacha - Project Manager.

Chisitu ushered in a lot more than just a new year

The beginning of January, 2010, at Chisitu ushered in a lot more than just a new year; it saw the birth of the site’s first calf which was born on 2nd January. Chisitu is one of the many locations in Mulanje District, Southern part of Malawi, where ADRA Malawi is implementing one of its projects fighting against HIV/AIDS. As part of community empowerment especially for households infected and affected with HIV/AIDS, the project distributed grants in kind for Income Generating Activities (IGA). In Mulanje the community choose milk production which has seen the birth of a calf there of. This perfect start to the year was made sweeter by the fact that the calf is a female and is very healthy. Out of the two cows, the remaining one should be giving birth before the end of the month if all goes well.

A sample of the milk was sent to the selling point five days after the birth of the calf for assessment and it has been found to be of acceptable quality. This means that milking and selling starts on 10th January. As the project draws to an end, January end, the early birth of the calf, just before the end, will give the office a chance to assess production levels and have an idea of expected performance.

It was very encouraging to see how enthusiastic the Committee is and how the whole Community is taking part in the care of the animals when I visited the khola yesterday. The community is really keen to see the project succeed and, hopefully, there may be a second khola put up by this time next year!

Reported by: Stanley Mpasa, District Coordinator.

Bicycle Ambulances - for a different new year

As the festive season is drawing near, there are a lot of gift sharing among relatives and friends. But for some communities that ADRA is working with, the present presented to them beats all the gifts received during the festive season. It is an all time present.

Transporting patients has always been a hustle to most communities, bearing in mind the long distance to a health centre, the scorching sun and rainfall in summer. The act of giving these communities bicycles has assured so many community members that they will have access to health services. The amazing part of this whole endeavor is that in most of the communities where the bicycle ambulances were donated, the community members did not have any means of transport for patients; there are no ambulances in these remote areas. In this regard most communities feel that this gift will not only help in transporting patients but has brought hope and assurance that they will have access to health services.

Expressing his joy one of the community members who received the bicycle ambulance on behalf of the community in Chiradzulu, Oscar Limani, said his community admired other communities who had the bicycle ambulance. However, he said that now that ADRA has given them their own bicycle ambulance, the community will be helped knowing that there are a lot of people who fail to go the hospital because of transport problems. Looking at the bicycle ambulances, Limani reiterate that ambulances are comfortable for patients and durable for the road conditions in the rural areas.

In absentia Traditional Authority Ntcheme appreciated the efforts made by ADRA and its partners. He said communities can only develop if health services are accessible to all in the communities. He said there have been a lot of incidences where people die unnecessarily because they were not able to get to the hospital or clinic in good time or sometimes not even being able to travel due to transportation challenges.

So far the fourteen bicycles will reach out to 140 villages in the Central and Southern parts of Malawi. More of the bicycles ambulances are expected and if all goes according to plan this will a life changing endeavor because most patients will have access to treatment from health centers.

The bicycle ambulances were donated by individuals and corporations through ADRA Denmark. If you want to join the pledge to provide 100 bicycle ambulances to the most vulnerable communities in Malawi, contact the ADRA office in your Country specifying that the donation is for this intended purpose, or give online in the ADRA International Website by following the link: Donate now.

Authored by Chikondi Madikiza-Madumuse, Communications and Advocacy Officer