Written by CorpsAfrica/Malawi Volunteer Mr. Chiukepo Mwenechanya
 
It all started as a rumour and others joked about it. Well, reality has caught up with Malawi. Those were some of my thoughts as I played over and over a video clip circulating on social media from the presidential press briefing on the three Coronavirus cases in Lilongwe, Malawi. Until the 2nd of April 2020, Malawi had no confirmed cases of Coronavirus. Even though others argued that maybe we didn't have the capacity to detect cases but it still stood, no cases. As of 2 April 2020, Coronavirus has affected over 896,450 people with 45,526 deaths worldwide in just four months (WHO, Situation Report #73). These numbers are expected to rise exponentially if we do not take part in sharing and adhering to coronavirus preventive measures. 

Coronavirus is not news across the globe, at least I thought but I was surprised to learn at my first Coronavirus awareness meeting in my community that other people did not know of its existence. Out of 39 attendees, only four were familiar with the name...I mean just the name Coronavirus. I paused for a second trying to take in that hard fact. I knew that there was a lot said about the virus in the media and I thought again, maybe they got the question wrong. I hoped at least everyone did listen to the radio and own a smartphone with WhatsApp, but I was wrong. Not even half of the attendees listen to radio and over three quarters of the people had no phones. At that point, I bet some of the attendees noticed the worries and fear in me.

I had questions to which the answers did drain the life out of me. Is Malawi ready to handle the virus? Are Malawians ready to follow Coronavirus preventive measures? Will my community be able to protect itself from the outbreak? My fear worsened when I recalled the many illegal migration patterns between my community and South Africa where they already had confirmed Coronavirus cases. Some senses hit me at the end and I asked myself another set of questions. Whose responsibility is it to sensitize our communities about Coronavirus? We call ourselves agents of change while our communities are still in the dark about the deadly virus, which experts have assured us that it can be contained with a little nudge of information. This made me think about those rural communities where there are no CorpsAfrica Volunteers and with communication blackouts. Who are we waiting for to save our communities from the virus? Does it require someone to be a professional health worker to share this important information on Coronavirus? We are part of these communities and it is our responsibility to help and equip our communities with necessary knowledge on how to prevent Coronavirus. Yes, we can serve our communities and save lives.

I do believe I have played my part and I will continue working with my community to make sure that everyone has the right information and is a part of the preventive mechanism. After several Coronavirus awareness meetings with my community, I am happy with how my community has responded to the outbreak. It is now a subject of talk in the streets, homes and market places. Some community members visit my place to seek information. These days I no longer organize Coronavirus awareness meetings, rather I am called to community meetings organised by community leaders in various villages to share information on Coronavirus. Interesting as it sounds, but some community members have even started to think that maybe I have worked as a health worker before. People are expressing fear and discomfort giving handshakes, they are making estimations about their distance apart when talking and encouraging each other to wash hands with soap. I do believe that sharing this vital information is key in preventing the spread of Coronavirus. I do not think it will cost us anything to share with our friends, loved ones and community members on how to prevent the coronavirus. Trust me we can save many lives in our communities.

https://www.corpsafrica.org/coronavirus-awareness.html (link to the results of the first ever CorpsAfrica Coronavirus Awareness Campaign done by its Volunteers)

Written by CorpsAfrica/Malawi Volunteer Ms. Dorothy Mapira

Many are the times that we feel like we can do it on our own. We rarely give a listening ear to those that we see as inferior to us. We think they cannot contribute positively to what we are doing; perhaps we feel we are better off without them. This mindset is what has killed most of our work, it has dragged us down to a place where we wish we should not have done what we did. Of course, just a few would think through their failures and find ways of bailing themselves out. Sometimes letting go of our ego to achieve a common goal will be more worth it. 

Like the saying goes, ‘if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.’ Maybe sometimes the reason we are so strict and reserved to work alone is the fact that we want to do things faster. The question might be, how far can we go if we want to do things faster. I am not saying we can't always do things on our own, but there are some things that require added effort. One of those things is development work. You really need to join hands to achieve this and more still if you are working in a community.

A word that matters most in working with the community is the word engagement. Sally Hassey has defined community engagement as based on the democratic idea that everyone who is affected by an issue that affects his or her community should have a say in the decision-making around it. This has a long impact on whatever project implemented in the community because it ensures sustainability.

You cannot certainly work in the community without engaging the people, if you want your work to be acceptable and received by all, engage them. Let them see the importance of whatever work is to happen in the community and they will surely own it. Most of the time we have missed the importance of involving the community in our projects, we think we can always impose things on them as if they cannot think on their own. Most importantly, we have to know that we are not permanent residents in the communities and we might not fully know what they really need in their community. Perhaps we might object to say that we did a survey before doing what we did, but what if the survey was a top-down approach that did not even center on the people themselves.
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Development requires efforts, and better still requires mindset change. If only we could value the people in the village and work with them in identifying the most important development projects with them, we could have seen a better Malawi by now.

Written by CorpsAfrica/Malawi Volunteer Ms. Angella Chizimba

According to WHO/UNICEF (2012), period poverty refers to a lack of access to sanitary products due to financial constraints. Period poverty accordingly is a global issue affecting women and girls who do not have access to safe, hygienic sanitary products. According to unesco.org, in some cases women and girls have limited access, leading to prolonged use of the same pad, or improvising by using socks or T-shirts. Prolonged use of the same pad may cause infections. Period poverty affects women and girls across the world. Access to safe and hygienic sanitary products is essential for anyone who menstruates and it helps one to manage menstruation without shame. As a CorpsAfrica Volunteer, I have joined the world to end period poverty by training women and girls in NkhataBay to make their own hand sewn sanitary products. 

Periods are rarely something we look forward to every month. Painful, tiring and inconvenient, they are challenging to cope with. However, for most women and girls around the world, it is not the side effects but the bleeding itself that is the problem, something many of us take for granted. Period poverty is an obstacle for far too many women and girls who cannot afford basic sanitary pads to tide them over for the month. 

What do we do then? First of all, I am just a volunteer. I cannot distribute sanitary products to women and girls in my community. Teaching women and girls to make their own sanitary products is the option I have in order to help end period poverty. As a group, we can afford to purchase cheap absorbing materials and sew them by hand at no cost. 

In addition to having health benefits, making cloth sanitary products, helps in protecting the environment. The amount of disposable pads that go into the land everyday harms the environment. These disposable pads take long time to decompose. In fighting period poverty, we also want to protect the environment.

Cloth pads are more eco-friendly and they have a high absorbent layer that can hold about 40ml of liquid. With the global effort to go to menstrual cups, these cloth pads work well with menstrual cups, just in case one might be afraid of a leak. Most importantly, they are very cost effective and very easy to make.

"Now I can easily run around and play netball at school without worrying about leaving a stain" (This was a girl's feedback after using the more absorbent cloth pads.)         
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What I am trying to teach women and girls is that making cloth pads can be cheaper than struggling to buy Disposable pads on a monthly basis or using some old rugs. If we have to end period poverty, women and girls have to stand on their own by simply learning the skill. If they get the skill, they can make pads on their own and that knowledge will be passed on to their children.
No child should skip school during menstruation. No woman or girl should use the same pad for more than six hours. No woman or girl should experience Period Poverty.

Written By Corpsafrica/Malawi Volunteer Eliza Chanika
 
Coronavirus has hit the world with approximately millions of people infected, thousands dead and hundreds of new cases daily. People are living in fear with schools, markets and churches closed. Mobility is restricted unless you are in the category of those permitted, like health workers, fire fighters or the police. People are desperate, scared and afraid of the virus. Just few days ago, the President of Malawi issued a 21-day lockdown to try to control the spread and maybe it will not hit Malawi hard. Markets now are busy places with everyone running up and down trying to get enough food for his family in preparation for the lockdown coming in few days.

The virus has indeed disturbed our daily routines and soon it will shake our economy. My community is among the affected. Every now and then I see people running up and down, discussing the virus, sharing their fears, worries and concerns. One day, as I was seated under the mango tree, one of the students I was teaching at the local community day secondary school passed by. We had a conversation and it was like this:

"Will schools open again? Will we be able to play football again and engage in our club ?" 
"Yes soon, as long as we control the spread maybe the cure will be known soon."

He is not the first nor the last to ask questions about the virus and I believe his questions were from deep down.
"How can we keep our community safe? What can we do to reduce the spread?" A young  lady spoke up,commenting on the conversation we were having. "We can do something as a community, we can change things." She proposed that we meet. 

That was the beginning of the Girl's Club. We established the club to help our community to raise awareness on the information of the virus. We decided to take an initiative and do a door-to-door awareness campaign. Asking people to keep social distance and avoid crowded places, to always wash their hands with soap or ashes and always stay safe. Encouraging good sanitation and hygiene wherever they go. Now my community has adopted the new culture to fight against the  virus. The prevention guidelines are now songs in my community, day in and day out.
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In addition to that, as a club we also tackle issues that affect our daily lives as girls. How to achieve academic excellence, career guidance, entrepreneurship, sexual reproduction including HIV and AIDS, proper morals in relation to our culture,  and we also do special games to keep our bodies in good physical shape.

We are in our community and as a girls club we will continue to stand against the virus. I must say indeed one hand can pull ten but two hands can pull twenty. My community is being pulled out by the decisions made by a few and we will continue to fight against the virus till the end.

Written by CorpsAfrica/Malawi Volunteer MARGARET MAGOMBO
 
Going through the villages now it’s no longer green in the fields, its brown, and it's harvest season. This is a period where the farmer is expected to smile after investing everything. 80 percent of Malawians live in rural areas and sorely depend on subsistence farming, which is largely dominated by food crops. Unfortunately, the food doesn’t  even last the whole year as expected due to several factors that include poor farming practices and inputs, post-harvest losses due to poor storage and handling of produce, and the worst part, selling of the very few harvest at exploitative prices. So I spared some time to interact with the farmers. I joined Naliyela a very hardworking lady, at her farm and helped with harvesting whilst sparking conversations.

Naliyela (not her real name) together with her daughters and her grandchildren work tirelessly to gather their harvest. Naliyela is 61 years old and has nine children and 39 grandchildren. She depends on agriculture for survival like the rest of 80 percent of Malawians. This year she planted maize, groundnuts and rice. As I offered to help her, the family was happy and curious of my generosity. One of Naliyela's daughters recognized me and welcomed me with a warm greeting. "Takulandilani alangizi," which means you are most welcome our advisor. She then introduced me to the rest of the family members before I could introduce myself. Finally, I was part of the family. Although this year Malawi has registered high yields, that’s not the case with Naliyera and her community. The area received a lot of rain, which flooded the farms and it affected the crops and yield not sparing Naliyera who solely depends on farming.

Through our conversation, it was clear that Naliyera's family was determined to achieve food security. She disclosed how harvest seasons makes her nervous and on edge as yields tend to foretell coming misery. She further added her fear of keeping safe the little yields harvested. The case of Naliyera's family is identical to many others in the area. Food security seems to be a battle that seems tough to be won. Despite natural conditions that affect food production, it was very clear in our conversations that members in the area are doing their best in order to achieve food security.

They do have a greater role to play to have food throughout the year. Crop diversification, irrigation farming and economical management of food resources are within their reach.What they need is support in expertise and simple farming technologies. From my observation, most families have enough food to last them to the next harvest season, only that poor management and economic constraints make it difficult for the harvest to last a year. Look at this scenario, Naliyera has four grandchildren whom she must pay school fees for. With agriculture being her only means of income, each year she is forced to sell her farm produce to raise money for the school fees. Because of the exploitative nature of the produce market, especially towards local farmers, she gets low prices for her produce and has to sell a lot of it to raise enough money. Naliyera is amongst the 1 million plus Malawians who end up staving or in need of food rations despite the outcome of the previous harvest. This is a terrible vicious circle that needs to be tamed if the country is to achieve social economic development. Through our conversation, I managed to bring some insight and brainstormed some ideas on how she can maintain enough food for her family whilst supporting her grandchildren’s education. 
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Some of the solutions stressed included agricultural diversification, animal husbandry especially goat farming, joining village servings groups and running a small-scale businesses amongst others, which would set as an alternative source of income to finance the education of her grandchildren whose futures depends on education if we are to entirely cut off this poverty circle in this country.

Written by CorpsAfrica/Malawi Volunteer Ms. Bertha Mukhuna

"The trouble with the world is not that people know too little; it's that they know so many things that just aren't so."       -- Mark Twain

This quote has been on my mind from the day that I conducted a Coronavirus Sensitization Meeting in my community on March 6th. I couldn't help but notice how misinformation and lack of information has had a very bad effect on people, especially in my community. The sensitization meeting had a session where I asked the people whether they have a good understanding of the facts, risks and guidance on COVID-19; where they were getting information; and how they were preparing themselves to prevent the virus. The people were then given an opportunity to ask questions about the pandemic. I was shocked by the myths and misconceptions about the virus that were outlined during the discussion. Some of them are even noticeable on social media platforms.

I would like to share with you some of the myths and misconceptions about COVID-19.  

1.    You can get coronavirus from traditional pets. FALSE. There have been rumors of coronavirus outbreak being linked to specific animals but there is no evidence to suggest that traditional pets like cats and dogs can be infected and spread COVID-19.

2.    COVID-19 only affects older people and black people are immune to the virus. FALSE. There have been cases of people from all races and all ages that have tested positive for the virus. Everyone should take steps to protect themselves from the virus by following good hand and respiratory hygiene.

3.    COVID-19 is a man-made virus, an act of terrorism. FALSE. I remember a certain lady during the meeting commented that "zopanga anthu a sayansi zimenezo angofuna atiphe"  (the virus has been created by scientists, they want to kill us). However, there is no evidence to support this notion.

Knowing how to spot misinformation is a very essential skill that everyone should have, especially in this time of crisis. Here are a few hints to help: 

• Always consider the source where you are getting information from, be it from people, internet or radio. 
• Check with at least two legitimate and trustworthy sources.Make sure they they have the same imfomatiom and remember to check the dates when the information was published. 
• For people who do not have access to the internet or the media, always consult your medical personnel about COVID-19 for up-to-date and correct information. 
  
  

Remember, misinformation is like a virus. Until next time, be safe. 

Written by CorpsAfrica/Malawi Volunteer Ms. Margaret Chavula (March 2020)

"If you have to put someone on a pedestal, put teachers. They are society's heroes."
                                                                                                                       -- Guy Kawasaki

To compliment my service as a CorpsAfrica Volunteer in my site, I volunteered to teach at a nearby primary school after I had noticed that the school had a shortage of teachers. The Head teacher gladly welcomed the offer because it was going to ease the burden that teachers had of switching classes to accommodate the class that did not have a teacher. I was assigned to teach in standard 2 since that was the class that did not have a teacher. I was excited that I will be exploring a new experience, as a teacher. I kept telling myself that teaching shouldn't be as hard, especially teaching little kids. I was in for a surprise.

My first day at the school was very easy, I was told to observe and learn from other teachers as they taught. From what I had seen, I was convinced teaching was very simple and believed I would manage the class perfectly. On the second day at the school, I was left to teach. My first day as a teacher was not as exciting or easy as I had imagined, this day can be recorded as one of the longest days I have experienced. I got tired during the first period, explaining things to kids who seemed not to understand what I was saying to them, was tough work. Controlling the noise and ensuring everyone was paying attention was tiring. Marking a class of over a hundred pupils was overwhelming. I couldn't wait for the pupils to knock off. As the days went by, with similar experiences, I remembered how I underrated the work of primary school teachers and teachers in general. I never understood what they went through to get one to grasp the concepts in class, or to attend to each and everyone's work and challenges. But with the little experience I have had as a teacher, I regret ever thinking teaching is simple. Teachers are special, they have shaped all the professions building our societies. But, not everyone can be a teacher.

With time, I convinced myself to stop concentrating on the challenges I faced as an inexperienced teacher, but rather find ways that would simplify my work and make it enjoyable. I began to involve the pupils more during the lessons, this made the pupils believe that their opinions and thoughts were just as important. They enjoy participating in classroom activities. I also discussed with the pupils to come up with rules and regulations that everyone was to follow to ensure that there's order in class and that the class is kept tidy, which they gladly did. I now look forward to the next class, the lessons are quieter and more interesting.

I know I am making an impact in these kids' lives, most of them can now read and write. They now have a changed attitude towards school,  because they enjoy our lessons. However,  one thing that will always be true is that "teachers are society's heroes."

By CorpsAfrica/Rwanda Volunteer Mr. Justin NKUNZIMANA 

“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honourable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” Those words from Ralph Waldo Emerson kept revolving into my head since the COVID-19 pandemic first case registered in my country. It is a very serious issue the whole world is suffering from nowadays. To avoid it from coming into our rural area, community members have started adhering to guidelines that would help them such as avoiding handshaking, but some of them didn’t clearly understand the need to follow the guidelines by MOH and WHO. They thought it was rude to pass by your friend and not shake his or her hand. But as time goes, and after many meetings facilitated by the local leader and myself, the community has come to understand the seriousness of COVID-19 pandemic. From the many awareness meeting I conducted, the community is now adhering to frequent hands washings.

Now the most difficult hurdle was making them see reasons as to why they should find ways to wash their hands as often as possible even while many of them spend time in the main centers where they had no access to water. Many had agreed to wash their hands but only when they reach their homes late in the evenings. I had to think fast, I saw the danger my community was in. I had to take action. I and my colleagues, reported this to the country office and a day after, we were grateful because CorpsAfrica furnished each one of us with washing stations called Tippy-taps, locally known as Kandagira-Ukarabe.  The community was so happy because they didn’t think that we would provide them a day after we promised them. In many community members’ words: “CorpsAfrica people are very caring and thoughtful. They are like a mother taking care of her family.”…

The other thing that shocked them was that CorpsAfrica Volunteers were still in sites while Peace Corps volunteers have left and went back to their families since the outbreak. They have realized that our staying with them is helping them and has a big impact in their lives. They say we are their friends even in the hard times. This hardship has created an unbreakable bond between us and our communities. And this would not have been possible without CorpsAfrica CEO’s clear vision, without CorpsAfrica/Rwanda's leadership, and without the funds from OCP. We are very grateful for making it possible for us to serve and to give our contribution to our society.

Let me be specific and detailed about the day, I delivered the washing machine in the community. It was on Thursday around 2 PM and the community members were waiting to receive washing stations, Tippy-taps, as they were promised. When they finally were installed, I do not know how to explain the emotions I saw on their face. They all lined up to wash hands properly but they were so many on queues. Being a poor community, they were not capable of buying one. 
The community was so impressed with such heartfelt activity and they pledged to wash hands frequently and to help spread that message to the neighbor who didn’t manage to be present.
 
Today, in our community, everything changed. Everybody knows about coronavirus, the symptoms, what to do in case one has the symptoms, what to do to prevent it or to protect others. But sometimes the community shows worries about the pandemic. Despite the fear, they make sure to only get info about the virus from me or the local leaders to avoid rumors or wrong info. I like that about my community.