Magali in Malawi: 08/28/07

Tuesday, 28 August 2007

Training at Mponela

Ministry of Hope asked me if I could coach some nursery teachers. They have several educational programs running around Lilongwe but no money to train their staff. I have been given very little details about my assignment so it has not been easy to design a training plan… Well, adaptability and improvisation are must-have qualities in Africa. And luckily I know my subject well.

We leave at 10.30am. Mponela is 55km away from Lilongwe. On our way, we collect some teachers in a village. The track is in a very bad state. It takes forever. It’s so hot…I’m melting in the car… We arrive in Mponela at 1.30pm. We’re late. Some of the students have been waiting for us since 8.00am! The responsible of the centre shows me around and takes me to my “training class”. In a huge hall, a bamboo mat on the floor and one plastic chair… for me… I introduce myself and ask them to do the same. I can barely hear their voices… I try to make them comfortable but then realise that their conduct has nothing to do with shyness. They show me respect… We start the session with a prayer. They say it in English for me. They mostly thank God for sending me… They expect so much from me. I feel moved all of a sudden.

I emphasise on 3 key words: Play, Routine and Teamwork. Having fun as a vital need to the development of a child… Constancy as a way to make him feel safe… Team up for the teachers to perform better…
We have to go but they really want me to have lunch with them. They only get one meal a day. They give me the biggest portion… to thank me… But I should be the one thanking them really. I am really happy. That day will stay with me for a very long time…

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June 07. As some of you may know, as part of my job, I was in Malawi 2 months ago. The purpose of the trip was to check the improvements of the Raising Malawi project which is a grassroots initiative offering lasting solutions to the orphans of Malawi. It was a short but a very memorable and enlightening experience. I came back with great memories and the desire to help.

I approached the organisers and have been given the opportunity to go back there and help some of the orphans in a very practical way by joining the Crisis Nurseries Volunteer Program for a period of 2 months. During this time, I intend to use my experience as a Nursery Manager in the UK to try and make a difference.

As a volunteer I will work every day at the Lilongwe Nursery and I hope that I will be actively involved in many aspects of the program:

• Guidance and counselling
• Assisting carers to care for and entertain the babies (play with them and organize learning activities, change and feed them etc.)
• Working alongside other social workers in provision of basic needs
• Promotion of education
• AIDS education.
• Possibly work like simple renovation, painting

Thanks to contributions from friends, friends of friends and Family, I have raised enough money to cover part of my costs but I plan to make a donation to the nursery when I leave.

If you would like to participate to the project and help me through a contribution, please contact me.

The crisis nursery began in the living room of Frank and Nancy Dimmock, a PC(USA) missionary couple in Malawi. The Nursery began as a response to the growing number of babies who have been orphaned and abandoned as a result of the AIDS epidemic. Today it is the only service in the central and northern regions where these vulnerable children are cared for until they can be returned to their families or placed with foster/adoptive parents. The infants are cared for during their crisis period while arrangements are made to place them with relatives or adoptive families.

The crisis nursery took in its 100th baby in September of 2005. Of the first 100 babies admitted to the Crisis Nursery, 28 have been returned to relatives, 40 have been placed with new foster/adoptive families, 20 were still in the nursery and 12 had passed away.

When Nancy began asking people who worked in orphan care about the fate of babies who were orphaned and abandoned, the answer was always “They usually perish. ”While visiting a village in Malawi the Dimmocks were told of an orphaned infant girl. She was emaciated, and very listless. Her mother had passed away seven months before. They learned that she was two and half years old, despite the fact she looked like a 6-month old baby. Through the government social welfare office, they took her in as foster parents and nursed her back to health. Eventually they adopted Alifa. “We learned about caring for a very fragile child, and we got to know the people and the process through adopting Alifa,” Nancy said.

Formal foster care and adoption are still relatively strange ideas in Malawi, and yet, as word of the opportunity to foster a child through the Crisis Nursery has spread, more foster and adoptive parents have stepped forward to take children. The longest a child has stayed at the Crisis Nursery is 14 months.

In July 2004 with the help of volunteers from Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, the Nursery moved out of the Dimmocks’ living room into spacious, new accommodations paid for by congregations and individuals around the country. The generous donations made it possible to build a 3-bedroom house, which can house up to 25 babies at a time. The center now has a staff of fifteen, which includes a social worker/director. Medical Benevolence Foundation seeks to continue to provide program support for the crisis nursery ministry. The funds are utilized to pay for food, housing, medical care, and caretakers for the babies who are being nursed back to health before being sent to a foster/adoptive home.