Written by Limbani Kamanga, CorpsAfrica Volunteer in Malawi
Reposted from Tobiyasi in Chiradzulu

My immersion in Likoswe village continues to unfold in a relative positive manner. With time, I have began to feel senses of belonging and acceptance, which - I have been told - are crucial ingredients for a successful service. In recent weeks, for instance, I have noted that the number of residents that have embraced the courage to greet me affectionately has increased tremendously compared to the past two months! This is adorable and encouraging. Interestingly, people here call me "Mr. Limbani," so keep that in mind in case you come looking for me.

Development work: In relation to my community and my identity as a CorpsAfrica Volunteer, a few remarkable developments have occurred since my last post. Allow me to give you a detailed account of things that have transpired in the past few weeks that relate to what this blog stands for.

First, from 12 - 15 April, all 12 current CorpsAfrica Malawi Volunteers and the entire incredible CorpsAfrica staff assembled in Blantyre for CorpsAfrica Malawi's In-Service training (IST). Apart from being the first time all Volunteers met and shared individual experiences from our respective sites, IST was crucial in the sense that additional tools and knowledge, which, henceforth, have enhanced our capacity to serve in the best way possible, were imparted. Thus, looking back, I consider that IST was very necessary and fruitful. For an in depth account of what happened at IST, you can read my fellow Volunteer's blogpost here

Second, back to the tranquil Likoswe village, a game-changing project commenced while I was attending IST and has been in progress since then. Matter of fact, the project is approaching its completion now. With funds from Village X, my partner organization, residents of Likoswe village are on the verge of concluding the construction of a nursery school, which will be the first community-owned nursery school in the entire TA Likoswe area! Without a doubt, pre-primary school education is vital when it comes to early childhood development and the eventual molding of future responsible citizens. Constructed under direct supervision of a female-led Village X committee, the project stands as a testimony of successes that are achieved when women are allowed to participate equally in community development endeavors.

By Boubacar Biro Diallo and Ndeye Awa Gueye, CorpsAfrica Volunteers in Senegal​

This month, we went to visit the farming fields of Pape Diagne, and old photographer who has traveled to several African countries like the Ivory Coast, for years. He decided to return to his native village "NDieulbert" to live with his community and participate in its development. He farms during each season and this is his main source of income.

"My name is Pape Diagne, I am a farmer and I live in the village of Ndieulbert. I have been farming since 1996. I started by digging a well and searching for materials for work with my own means. After four years I encountered enormous difficulty and I abandoned the work because production was low. It was in 2003 that I started farming with the support of UNDP (United Nations Development Program) which was passing through the area and saw the diversity of trees that I planted. The head of the program said, "Whoever did these plantations, if he has the support he will work." Thus UNDP funded the municipality to provide me with a wire fence and free water access and since then I grow produce during all seasons. I can say that out of the 12 months of the year, I live on agriculture and farming on 11 of them. For over 10 years now, I have not set a foot in Dakar. I work every day in my field and live well through my work without asking anyone. "

How do you see agriculture in this area?
Agriculture works in the village because the soil is very rich but it is the lack of means that is the issue. Farming requires a fence, good plowing of the field, and water retention for a good results. That is why he who does not have enough resources or support will not be able to gain much. 

Where do you market your products?
We sell our product in the weekly markets of Baba Garage and Touba Toul.
​
Are you able to make a profit?
I do not produce much but I thank God because I always earn some profits. My field covers 2 hectares but as you saw I was only able to enclose a few meters (with my own means).  So I do have land but it is the lack of resources that prevents me to use all of the space. If I had a good fence, I would have planted all kinds of produce in the field and I would have gained a lot more money to employ other young people to work. 

​Is this field owned by you or does it belong to an economic interest grouping (GIE)?
This field belongs to me personally. When the municipality has issued it to me, I created a GIE with some friends called "GIE Jappo ligguèy" which means (GIE Solidarity labor) in 1996. At the time I had noticed that all NGOs only supported associations, they did not think to encourage entrepreneurs. That is why I had formed GIE, thinking that I would be with people who share the same vision as me to work together. But due to the fact that they realized that there was not a good yield yet in the fields, they did not see the value of working here, but that didn’t prevent me from continuing the work alone. 

What are your real needs?
My main need is a fence. As I mentioned, it is UNDP that helped me enclose my land with a fence but they went through the municipality. Municipal authorities have not done such a great job but I cannot help it because UNDP did not deal directly with me, they didn’t even meet with me once to discuss with me. I take this opportunity to point out to NGOs and development partners their need to discuss with and involve the main beneficiaries before financing, and if they fund a project to follow up to see if the job was well done but also if the recipient continued to work regularly.
​
Do you have any information to give us?
I would like to thank you Mr. Diallo for the work that you do. Since you came to this village you have been listening to the people and you often come watch how I work here and the difficulties that I encounter. Today, despite the heat, you still came back. I can only pray for you and your organization, CorpsAfrica. I am very happy with your work and thank you infinitely. May God assist you and protect you. "Amen !!! ".
​

Interview done by:
Boubacar Biro Diallo & Ndeye Awa Gueye

Le Maraîchage à Ndieulbert, l’histoire de Papa Diagne.
​
Ce mois, nous sommes allés visiter le champ maraîcher de M. Pape Diagne ancien photographe, qui a fait plusieurs pays d’Afrique comme la Côte d’Ivoire pendant des années. Il a décidé de retourner dans son village natal « NDieulbert » pour vivre avec sa communauté et participé à son développement. Il pratique l’agriculture à toute saison et c’est son principale source de revenu. 
                                                   
« Je m’appelle Pape Diagne, je suis agriculteur  et j’habite le village de Ndieulbert. Je fais le maraîchage depuis 1996. J’ai commencé par creuser un puits et chercher quelques matériels pour le travail avec mes propres moyens. Après quatre ans de culture je rencontrais d’énorme difficulté et j’ai abandonné car  la production était faible. C’est en 2003 que j’ai recommencé le maraîchage par le soutien du PNUD  (Programme des Nations Unies pour le Développement) qui était de passage dans la zone et a vu les diversités d’arbres que j’ai plantés et le chef de programme a dit « Celui qui a fait ces plantations s’il a du soutien il va travailler ». C’est ainsi que le PNUD a financé la municipalité pour me faire une clôture en grillage et un branchement gratuit d’eau et depuis lors je cultive toute les saisons. Je peux dire sur les 12mois de l’année les 11mois je vis de l’agriculture et de maraîchage. Plus de 10ans je n’ai pas mis les pieds à Dakar, Je travaille chaque jour dans mon champ et je vis bien par mon travail sans demander rien à personne. »
Comment voyez- vous l’agriculture dans cette zone ?
                      
« L’agriculture marche bien dans ce village car le sol est très riche mais c’est le manque de moyen qui fait défaut. La culture maraîchère nécessite une clôture, de bien labourer son champ, d’avoir des bassins de rétentions ou des goute à goutes pour avoir un bon rendement. C’est pourquoi celui qui n’as pas assez de moyens ou soutien ne pourras pas en gagner grande chose. »

Où est-ce que vous commercialisez vos produits ?
Nous commercialisons nos produit dans les marchés hebdomadaires de Baba Garage et à Touba Toul.

Parvenez-vous à faire des bénéfices ?
Moi je ne produis pas beaucoup mais je remercie le bon Dieu car je gagne toujours quelques bénéfices. Mon champ fait 2 hectares mais comme vous l’avez vu j’ai juste clôturé par mes propres moyens quelque mètre. Donc, j’ai de l’espace mais c’est l’absence de moyen qui m’empêche de pouvoir exploiter toute l’espace. Si j’avais une bonne clôture j’allais faire toutes sortes de culture dans ce champ et j’aurais gagné beaucoup plus d’argent pour employer d’autres jeunes dans le travail.
Ce champ vous appartient personnellement ou appartient à un groupement d’intérêt économique (GIE) ?
                                            
« Ce champ m’appartient personnellement. Quand la municipalité me l’a délivré, j’ai créé avec quelques amis un GIE qui s’appelle « GIE Jappo ligguèy » qui signifie (GIE Solidarité travail) c’était en 1996. A cet époque j’avais vu que toutes les ONG n’appuyer que les Groupements, elles ne pensaient pas à encourager les initiateurs de projet personnel. C’est pourquoi j’avais formé le GIE en me disant que j’aurais des personnes qui partagent la même vision que moi pour travailler ensemble. Mais le fait qu’ils ont vu qu’il n’y a  pas encore eu un véritable rendement dans le champ, ils ne voient pas l’intérêt de travailler ici mais cela ne m’a pas empêché de continuer le travail seul».

Quelles sont vos réels besoins ?
« Mon principal besoin d’abord c’est ma clôture. Comme je l’ai dit c’est le PNUD qui m’a aidé à clôturer avec les grillages mais ils sont passés par la municipalité. Les autorités municipales n’ont pas bien fait le travail mais je n’y peux rien parce que le PNUD n’a pas traité directement avec moi, ils ne m’ont même pas rencontré une seule fois pour discuter avec moi. Je lance par cette occasion aux ONG et Partenaires de développement de discuter et d’impliquer les principaux bénéficiaires avant de financer et s’ils financent un projet de faire le suivi pour voir si le travail est bien fait mais aussi si le bénéficiaire continue de travailler régulièrement».

Avez d’autres informations à nous donner ?
« C’est de vous remercier M. DIALLO pour le travail que vous faites. Depuis que vous êtes venus dans ce village vous êtes à l’écoute de la population et vous venez souvent regarder comment je travaille ici et quelles sont les difficultés que rencontre. Aujourd’hui, malgré la chaleur vous êtes encore revenus. Je ne peux que prier pour toi et votre structure CorpsAfrica. Je suis très content par votre travail et vous remercie infiniment. Que le bon Dieu vous assiste et vous protège. « Amen !!! ».
                                             
 Entretien réalisé par :
 Boubacar Biro DIALLO& Ndèye Awa GUEYE

Written by Vanessa Chimutu, CorpsAfrica Volunteer in Malawi
Reposted from veezinsight

My whole life, I have been thankful for the blessings God had given me, from having the most supportive parents who encourage me to pursue my dreams, going to good schools on Malawian standard is truly a privilege, to be honest being here has made me realize this a lot more.

Sometimes I feel like I am in a different world, I flash back to my childhood memories of kindergarten where I used to play musical chairs with my friends , getting excited for tea break and nap-time with out realizing that everything we did was part of a well thought out plan set by my teacher. Now why am I talking about all this, well its because at this stage, I have so much empathy for everything happening around me, it makes me tear up sometimes when I think about it.
​
Here is a village, who want their children to also get the best upstart education as possible, yes , they also want the same kindergarten educational experience most of us had for their children. I was very curious to see the school for myself because within all the talks I have had with the chiefs and some community members, they all pointed out about their Early Childhood Development program (ECD) which is known as a “Nkomba Phala” in Chichewa the local language. Once I made my way to the school, I was surprised to see the condition of the school, unfinished windows, no doors, no cemented floors, but nevertheless I was assured I would find people by the sound of music that I was hearing, the excitement in the children’s faces gave me enough motivation as I joined them as we sat and sang their nursery songs. I really learned a lot through the interactions I had with the children, teacher and a committee member who looks after the schools welfare. The school was built in 2013 and the community contributed for its whole construction to date, the only support they got was for the roofing which was provided by save the children. The school has an intake of about 85-100 children from the ages of 3-5 who are officially registered and these come from four of the surrounding villages named Thamagiwa, Galu, Selemani and Lambulira.

Early childhood development is an important component in human development, the science of early brain development can inform investments in early childhood. These basic concepts, established over decades of neuroscience and behavioral research, help illustrate why child development—particularly from birth to five years—is a foundation for a prosperous and sustainable society. This can be seen through research that different institutions have undertaken interest in the science, for example the center on the developing child Harvard University. (http://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/inbrief-science-of-ecd/) You can read more about it through the link, this really shows that children who have an early start on education are able to really go further with education and become productive citizens of the nation.

I told him that we could spend the entire day teaching each other until he mastered some basic maths skills. You see, kids like Madalitso inspire me, they motivate me to do what I do.
​
When school opened a week ago, I became so energized and looked forward to being with my kids again. I looked forward to teaching these kids, and helping them to read, write and anything else within my reach. Allow me to therefore share with you some of the things my kids and I did during the past week
Wednesday 20th April. Before I started my lessons for this day I went with my kids for some physical exercises and they teamed up into two teams in a tag of war sport where the boys luckily won.
https://cn245.infusionsoft.com/app/linkClick/780/e2051ffcfd2f1d60/5994/cb4143e77dd050ba
After the sporting activity we went back to class and learned about accidents at home and how the kids can prevent such. To get more from the pupils I decided to group them into groups. The pupils then presented to their friends what each group discussed and this was again deliberately chosen as a way of enhancing their communication and public speaking skills.

I must confess that I was impressed by these kids during presentations and the way they debated in their groups, surely these kids will be great public speakers 😃😃.
​
The most disheartening thing for me, however, is that whenever I come to teach these kids, and I give them classwork to do, I keep getting different excuses from most kids. "Sir, I don't have an exercise book to write on" and another one will tell me she doesn't have a writing pen. You would almost think that they're lazy and that they don't want to write but then this problem is real. This is the reason why I decided to take some amount of money from my upkeep and purchase exercise books and ball point pens for all my pupils in my class to at least deal with this problem and Oh boy!
​

You should have seen the joy and happiness on the kids' faces. They never expected that someone would give them such a gift. I am glad to see that even the class attendance has greatly improved over the week because there were some kids who kept being absent from school because they didn't have writing materials. Like I mentioned earlier on, I am a doer to the core and that's why I am already working on a sanitation and cleanliness project with my kids. We intend to turn wasted and used papers into waste bins/dust bins plus other handicraft materials which we will later find a market in other schools with an aim of using the money to buy books and soap for the kids so that they wash their school uniforms and bath before coming to school. I believe that my pupils and I are capable of creating long lasting solutions to these challenges.

Having shared some of the stories from my classroom, I believe that you are greatly motivated and encouraged to begin to take part in helping in shaping the next generation. You may actually consider sharing the little that you have with some needy kids in your community and like I have shown you in this blog post, the best way to invest in the next generation is when we invest our resources in educating the children in our community. When you and me take ownership of our children's education, we're investing in the next generation, when you decide to volunteer in your community and give out your heart to the people right in your community, know that you're inspiring someone and this is how we transform our nation systematically. I implore you to join me in my noble cause as I continue to transform children's lives in my community as well as the entire community at large. If you want to come to Chitete and inspire the kids or give your ideas on how we can do our cleanliness and sanitation project, or need to get in touch, please contact me via e-mail: epotolani16@gmail.com and let's together transform Malawi as we invest in our next generation.

​Tionana, see you later!

Written by Abdou Cisse - CorpsAfrica Volunteer in Senegal

In the Diola culture, women have always held an essential role in the community thanks to their status and the activities they lead daily. In the Diola culture and in particularly that of Awatt, it is the woman who takes care of the educational responsibilities of children. She also has the duty to welcome and make the visitor comfortable, because as they say, the visitor is king with the Diola. I now understand why my mom goes a long way to make sure I’m at ease. The Diola woman is involved in all agricultural activities that ensure the well being of the family. From the cultivation of rice to vegetable growing, and palm wine harvesting and mangosteens. Rice cultivation is carried out in winter while gardening occupies most of the women's time during the dry season.

"The day belongs to those who get up early," this quote is well understood by Way Sira, my mom in Diembéreng. During the best hours of sleep, four or five o’clock in the morning latest, one finds this brave woman in the gardens. The first time I knew this, I said to myself, but why does she not wait for daybreak to start, that way she can rest more? I had the answer to my question the first time I went to this vast perimeter that is the agricultural garden where several produces are grown (onion, cabbage, tomato, eggplant, lettuce, peppers, beans, potato, turnip, etc.)

​Indeed, it is not a cultural behavior but rather a strategy to adapt to the problem of water access that has threatened the survival of this activity. The garden is equipped with wells and basins to facilitate watering, but the pumps that allowed fill the basins no longer work and in addition to that, the wells dry up quickly.
​The lack of means that they cannot renew the pumps nor repair the wells. The best solution that presents itself is to come very early and hope to have enough water to irrigate their plots of land.

​From the early morning hours until about ten o'clock, my mom is in the garden watering and doing other work. Then she returns home to start preparing lunch. Around 16:00 o'clock she goes into the forest to bring palm wine harvested from her husband's farms during a distance of about five kilometers. A jug of twenty liters on her head and another five to ten liter in hand, she paces the way back. Arrived home at around seven o'clock, the first customers, hooked on the flavor of freshly harvested wine, come to drink. In a relaxed atmosphere, she goes back and forth between her small bar built under the lemon tree in the backyard of the house to satisfy her customers and the kitchen where she prepares dinner with firewood gathered by the children. Her day ends at around eleven o’clock to midnight, after making sure that the two youngest boys of the house are asleep. The routine starts again the next day.

All women of the village are Way Sira. Their courage and their hard labor earn respect from men and gives them a privileged status in society. The most remarkable in all this is that all of these activities are done in joy. They work while singing. It only takes one of them to start singing a song for the rest to joyfully join her. The words that compose these songs encourage them and give them the strength to continue.
Nothing but positive emotions to see the joy takes over the drudgery of activities!!!

Version originale en français 

Le quotidien de Way Sira (maman Sira).
​
Dans la culture Diola, la femme a toujours occupé une place essentielle grâce à son statut et aux activités qu’elle mène quotidiennement. Dans la culture Diola et particulièrement celle Awatt, c’est la femme qui se charge de la fonction éducative des enfants. Elle a aussi un devoir d’accueil et de mise à l’aise de l’étranger, comme ils le disent, l’étranger est roi chez le Diola. Je comprends alors pourquoi ma maman se donne tant de mal pour me mettre à l’aise. La femme Diola est impliquée dans toutes les activités agricoles qui assurent le bien être de la famille. De la culture du riz à la culture maraichère en passant par la récolte de vin de palme ou d’anacarde. La riziculture est pratiquée en période hivernale tandis que le maraichage occupe l’essentiel du temps des femmes en période sèche.
« la journée appartient à ceux qui se lève tôt », cette citation est bien comprise par Way Sira, ma maman à Diembéring. Les meilleures heures de sommeil, quatre heures ou cinq heures au plus tard, trouve cette brave femme dans les jardins maraichers. La première fois que je l’ai su, je me dis mais pourquoi n’attend-elle pas le lever du jour pour s’y rendre, ainsi elle pourra mieux se reposer. J’ai eu la réponse à ma question la première fois que je me suis déplacé dans ce vaste périmètre maraicher où plusieurs spéculations sont cultivées (oignon, chou, tomate, aubergine, salade, poivron, haricot, pomme de terre, navet, etc.).
En effet il ne s’agit pas d’un comportement culturel mais plutôt une stratégie adoptée pour s’adapter au problème d’accès à l’eau qui menace la pérennité de cette activité. Le jardin est équipé de puits et de bassin pour faciliter l’arrosage, mais les motopompes qui permettaient d’alimenter les bassins ne fonctionnent plus et en plus de cela, les puits tarissent vite.
Le manque de moyen fait qu’elles ne peuvent pas renouveler les motopompes ni réfectionner les puits. La meilleure solution qui se présente à elle c’est de venir très tôt pour espérer avoir assez d’eau pour arroser ses parcelles aménagées. 
De ces heures matinale jusqu’aux environs de dix heures, elle est dans le jardin à arroser et faire quelques travaux. Ensuite elle retourne  à la maison pour commencer à préparer le repas de midi. Vers 16 heures elle se rend dans la forêt pour ramener le vin de palme récolté par un exploitant des exploitations de son mari sur une distance d’environ cinq kilomètres. Un bidon de vingt litres à la tête et un autre de cinq à dix litre à la main, elle arpente le chemin du retour. Arrivée à la maison vers dix-neuf heures, les premiers clients, accros de la saveur du vin fraichement récolté, viennent se désaltérer. Dans une ambiance relax, elle fait des vas et vient entre son petit bar aménagé sous le citronnier de la cour arrière de la maison pour satisfaire ses clients et la cuisine pour préparer le repas du soir avec du bois mort ramassé par les enfants.  Sa journée prend fin entre vingt-trois heures et zéro heure, après s’être assuré que les deux plus jeunes garçons de la maison sont couchés. La routine reprend le lendemain.
Toutes les femmes du village sont des Way Sira. Leur courage et leur force de travail imposent le respect des hommes et leur confère un statut privilégié dans la société. Le plus remarquable dans tout ceci, c’est que toutes ces activités se font dans la joie. Elles travaillent en chantant. Il suffit qu’une d’entre elles entame une chanson que toutes les autres l’accompagnent. Les mots qui composent ces chants, les encouragent et leur donnent la force de continuer.
Que de l’émotion de voir la joie prendre le dessus sur la pénibilité du des activités !!!  

Written by Tusayiwe Sikwese, CorpsAfrica Volunteer in Malawi

Last month we had In Service Training and I also attended a US college fair. But before leaving for the two events, I had planned to have a meeting with girls that attend Chisugulu Community Day Secondary School. I am very passionate about girls and their future and they are the ones I want to help the most during my service as a CorpsAfrica Volunteer. However, I had been putting it off because of the Village X project. When I came back, my host told me a story which I will share with you in this post. Now, with this story I'm about to share, I know that these things happen in Secondary Schools, College's and University's but I just didn't think that something similar would happen at such a small Community school.

There is a girl in Form 3(let's name her Leah) who had been pestering the Headmistress for a transfer letter. When the Headmistress asked her why she wanted to be transferred to another school, she didn't have a valid reason. Leah was then told that she needed to bring her parents in order for her to get a transfer letter. The parents came and told the Headmistress that they too , didn't understand why their daughter wanted to be transferred. With this, the Headmistress continued to ask Leah what was going on with her. Leah eventually cracked and told her story.

After she had written her Form 2 end of year exams, Leah had been approached by one of her teachers who asked her to be in sexual relationship with him. Leah refused and thought that was the end of it. Little did she know that she would have to endure psychological abuse from that point on. It is this kind of abuse that results in some girls dropping out of school.

I had a chat with her the following day, upon the Headmistress' request. I noticed that she was a quiet girl. She was afraid. I had to convince her that she could confide in me. I suggested that we go for a walk. We talked about other things and she opened up to me. Leah, explained to me that the teacher would make rude remarks about her, give bad examples using her name, among other things, when teaching her class. I asked her what she had done about it before telling the Headmistress, she said nothing because she was afraid that the teacher was going to lose his job and that the other teachers were going to despise her. The other reason, I believe, is because there is only one female teacher (that being the Headmistress) and so she was probably scared to approach her. Instead, Leah thought it best to run away from her problem.

During our chat, I realized that she didn't see her worth. The fact she thought it best not to report him just to save him his job, showed that she feels worthless. Something that is in most girls here in my community.

I was also recently told another story about a very very young girl who was fed lies by one of the leaders within the community into marrying him as his second wife. The girl, a child herself, bore him two children but the leader recently left the girl stating that he has now changed his ways and will no longer practice polygamy. This is a big problem in my community. A lot of women have complained that older men prey on young girls and leave them as soon as they bear them children. Although there is a policy that girls and young women can go back to school after giving birth, almost all the girls and young women that go through this, are too embarrassed to do so and end up marrying other men.

These are just some of the many stories I have heard of early school dropouts, early and forced marriages as well as early pregnancies. At this point, I seriously started thinking of creating a girls club but I didn't know how. I then got inspired by several girl/women empowerment sites after searching online: http://empowermentforgirls.com/2013/07/29/raise-your-self-esteem-with-these-10-empowering-activities but the one that stood out for me was United Nations http://www.unfoundation.org/what-we-do/campaigns-and-initiatives/girl-up/

So I gathered the courage to ask girls in all the forms to meet me at the school on Saturday, two weekends ago, at 3 pm.
About 50 girls came and registered to create a club which they named "My Future Club". It was overwhelming and they were very excited as this was a very new thing to them. Rules were made, games were played and they had some Orange Squash, popcorn and sweets to snack on afterwards. It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon. I had lots and lots of company. :-)

​Here's a list of some issues they said they would like to talk about as the club settles, things that they are affected by in their communities :
~Rape
~Poverty
~Child abuse
~Orphans
~Early Marriages
~Drug and Substance Abuse
~School dropouts
~Teenage pregnancies
~Prostitution
~Forced marriages
~Child Labour
~ Lack of basic needs

Written by Assiatu Pongolani, CorpsAfrica Volunteer in Malawi
​
A month now has gone by since I got here to Kadewere village. It has been a month that I have been doing much transitioning and integrating myself into this community. So far, meeting and interacting with different people, attending and calling for both community meetings and Village Development Committee meetings to just have insights on development issues that are taking place in this community, teaching nursery school in the morning and Grass Root Soccer (GRS) to the youth in the afternoon at Friends Of Mulanje Orphans (FOMO) in Kadewere Centre are most of the activities that I have done in the past month. That was the most and interesting part of it in the sense that getting to know a community and its peoples behaviors has an impact on its own and you get to collect community information.

When school started on the 11th April 2016, I started off the first few days shadowing two nursery school teachers and then ended up of myself being one of them. Most of the kids who go to this school are orphans but others go as private kids and they pay a little fee amounting k250 and they also eat porridge at break time. So, as most kids are within the community, when we meet and when they see me they are like, "Madam, muzatiphunzitsa mawa??" (Madam, are you gonna teach us tomorrow??) And am like, "Yes, I will," and they laugh! That sense of humor in kids makes me so happy and think how clever and cute they are. Also some kids has been telling their parents and few of them in my presence while pointing at me saying, “Kunabwera madam achiduntu Ku FOMO awo” (we have a fat madam at FOMO), and I know that sounds disgusting but to me its OK because it means kids are able to identify me for whatever reasons they want to tell their parents, I hope in a positive way. So, when I am walking around this community I am known by two names Madam Achiduntu (fat woman) from the orphan center, and Aunt from those around my host family.

​Teaching Grass Root Soccer is one of the activities that I have been doing with young people in the afternoon hours at FOMO. The first group is about to graduate. I can see and feel when teaching that the youth are having fun and the energizer songs that I have been teaching them I've seen them use everywhere in the community. GRS so far has been one of my project that I just introduced because I couldn’t wait any longer to implement and such that it is cost-less. I am now about to finish the first phase of it. HIV Limbo is one of the activity in GRS that is more fun as one limbo under the string but making sure that you should not attach the string and if you do it means you catch HIV Virus and the height gets lower from abstinence stage to older sexual relationships.

​I also called for a Village Development Committee (VDC) meeting and on the agenda was just to hear on how the VDC works, its history but also how they prioritize or deal with development issues in this village. VDC is the center of every development work in the community and organizations that work in the community are well known by the VDC committee and they are able to give insights of projects that can be done or done before by other organizations in the community in general they have all that data. These kind of meetings are more helpful as they will help me to fully involve the community during my future project implementation.

​Also a lot of activities has been taking place at Kadewere center. I have been cooking nsima that the kids eat when they come, before doing any activity. There are three women that are assigned to cook at the center but as a volunteer I also enjoy helping them. Also at the center there is a garden and we planted sweet potatoes because we are still receiving the rains and those potatoes are going be used by the kids themselves.

As I said that I am in an integration stage of exploring, observing, and understanding everything in this community, my whole hope is to help this community in every means I have for better community development. Until we meet again when I write next month! Keep reading and following my blog for more updates. Tiwonana!!!!!

Written by Mama Diop - CorpsAfrica Volunteer in Senegal

​“I’m possible” said the development itself.
Yes we can! We can do it if we just believe it.
But, all my life, I keep on hearing people pronouncing the word “development” but they cannot understand it.
I could see people organizing so many debates about development but they don’t even know.
A lot of money was wasted in more expensive hotels but the solution is not found til now.
I could see governments contracting a debt which collectively can’t be paid but problems are still here.
What is development?  Where is development sleeping?
Answers to these questions can be found in my village and more particularly in people’s everyday life.
I invite all of you, come and see please. But, if you cannot be here let me tell you a little bit.
Ndingler is the name of the village. It is one among the thirty-eight villages of the municipality called Ndiaganiao.

Despite its lack of potentials and resources, the population of this village does not stand around doing nothing. They remind me Robinson Crusoe who is building its Brave New World.
In fact, I was very surprised by their organization, their ways of developing ideas, and their resilience capacity in the face of challenges.
In addition, I could see the solidarity and the love which constitutes the bedrock of their life.
For instance, in this village everyone loves everyone, people help each other and bad and good events are shared by everybody.  
In addition, with this population, I am now aware of the fact that villagers are very creative. One example of their creativity can be seen through these following pictures.

​As this picture can show us, villagers decided to contribute about 200 fcfa each (men, women, young and old) to well-stock this shop. In this very shop, the entire village can buy or lend. Moreover, big profits they get from this shop are used to satisfy the village’s needs.
For example, according to the chief of the village, this year the shop generates 6 million fcfa of profits.
In 2011, they found another system that helps them a lot.

​In fact, with only 150kg at the beginning, the village gets today many tons of millet.
What are their techniques? 
With profits from the shop, they open a store with 150 kg of millet. There, each villager can come and lend 50 kg per month for family feed. And, at the end of the month, the lender gives back 60 kg, meaning 10kg more as a contribution for the whole village’s needs.
Now, with their determination and their capacities of finding right solutions instead of waiting others, they keep on attracting partners who are giving them a helping hand in several domains.

Isn’t this village worthwhile helping?

Written by Lusekelo Simwela, CorpsAfrica Volunteer in Malawi

My site is called Makanani, it consists of 6 villages which are under Group Village headman, A Mr. Jumpha. Makanani is big, it is found 2 km from the Malawian border on a 5 km stretch of road that goes all the way to the Mozambican border in a “no man’s land”. This means for the remaining 3 kms, around 2 to 4 kms each side is Makanani. It is also hilly which makes getting to the different villages difficult. This makes community meetings at a central location for the whole area hard as most people will have to travel long distances to make it to the meeting.

I found out that even though the areas are far from the road, when you travel from one village to the next, it is relatively near. So I said why not spend one day and night in one village and then move to the next and repeat. I told my fellow volunteers and staff. Adam, our start up director dubbed it the Kelo Tour. This is part one.

The day started with a bike ride to Makanani 2, it is located near the road. Here I met Simon Denivala a member of the VDC (village development committee) . We walked for an hour to Makanani 3. Well walking is a misnomer, is it truly walking if 70 percent of the road is uphill? Hiking is more like it. So we hiked to Makanani 3. As we approached, the small foot paths we used grew into a relatively big road. (For cars perhaps?). There were tangerine trees on either side of the road which got me excited (quick question is there such a thing as tangerine poisoning? Asking for a friend). In no time we were at the chief's house. She came out and greeted us. She was warm and welcoming. Gave us chairs to sit on, one of which was interesting. Check it out below.

Written by Walid Chougna - CorpsAfrica Volunteer in Senegal

​I started working with Nebeday Center located in Toubakouta, which partakes in many activities with people in the village, but its main roles are to plan Nebeday trees and protect the forest. The first day after arriving, one thing that interested me was an outdoor movie showing in the center.

This movie showing was an opportunity for me to propose a cultural activity in the associated villages while helping to maintain contact between the association and villages.

​The other activity that interested me was the one of coal. The method to make coal is not simple but rather complicated.
The steps to make the coal:
Collect straw and fill the barrels, after that light the fire and close. Then, mix the dust with the binder.
The advantage of coal is that it replaces charcoal, respects local traditions and can be used to cook all dishes. It is also more economical renewable biomass. Other advantages include exploiting flammable straw, reduction of bushfires, less trees cut to be used for coal, fewer trees burned by fires, less emitted greenhouse gases and improvement of biodiversity.

​Among the center's activities, I really enjoyed the of planting the tree Nebeday - it's really interesting. Everyone in Senegal knows the Nebeday I think I was the only one who didn’t know of this tree. There are even Senegalese dishes that are prepared with leaves of Nebeday like couscous. Thiis tree sallow its farmers to benefit from many services: the shade of the tree, the leaves cooked in the traditional dish "tiara boom", the dried leaves with exceptional caloric value to combat malnutrition ... In addition, these fast-growing trees can store carbon. And also allow to conduct a more comprehensive response to carbon capture in the context of climate change.

The leaves contain 2 times more protein than yogurt, 3 times more potassium than bananas, 4 times more calcium than milk, 7 times more vitamin C than oranges and 4 times more vitamin A than carrots, 8 essential amino acids needed for good nutrition.
It is a healing plant effective in the treatment of hypertension and diabetes.

Version originale en francais 

Le Bio charbon et le nebeday
​
J’ai commencé à travailler avec le centre Nebeday qui se trouve à Toubakouta. Le centre organize des activités avec les gens de village mais les essentiels du centre c’est de planter les arbres nebeday et aussi de protéger la forêt. Le premier jour quand je suis venu au centre, la chose qui m’a intéressé c’etait une tournée de cinéma au centre.

Cette tournée fut l'occasion de proposer une activité culturelle et ludique dans les villages associés tout en contribuant à maintenir le contact entre l'association et les villages.

L’autre activité qui m’a intéressé était le bio-charbon. La méthode pour faire le bio-charbon n’est pas facile mais plutôt compliqué.
Les étapes pour faire le bio-charbon: 
Collecter la paille et de remplir les tonneaux, après on allume le feu et on le ferme. Après on mélange le poussier avec le liant.
L’avantage du bio-charbon est qu’il remplace le charbon de bois et aussi respecte les traditions locales et permet la cuisson de tous les plats.  Il est aussi plus économique et une biomasse renouvelable.  Des autres avantages : valorisation de la paille inflammable, diminution des feux de brousse, moins d’arbres coupés pour le charbon et moins d’arbres brûlés par les feux, moins de gaz à effet de serre émis et l’amélioration de la biodiversité.

Et aussi parmi les activités de centre j’ai beaucoup aimé l’activité de plantage de l’arbre nebeday - c’est vraiment intéressant. Tout le monde au Sénégal connait le nebeday, je pense que j’été le seule qui ne connaissais pas cet arbre. Il y a même des plats Sénégalais qui se prépare avec les feuilles de nebeday comme le couscous. Cet arbre permet à ses planteurs de bénéficier de nombreux services : de l’ombre, des feuilles cuites pour le plat traditionnel « tiare boum », des feuilles séchées au pouvoir calorifique exceptionnel permettant de lutter contre la malnutrition… De plus, ces arbres à croissance rapide permettent de stocker du carbone. Et permet aussi de mener une action plus globale de capture du carbone dans le cadre du changement climatique.
Les feuilles contiennent 2 fois plus de protéines que le yaourt, 3 fois plus de potassium que la banane, 4 fois plus de calcium que le lait, 7 fois plus de vitamine C que les oranges et 4 fois plus de vitamine A que les carottes, les 8 acides aminés essentiels nécessaires pour une bonne nutrition. 
C’est une plante médicament efficace dans le traitement de l’hypertension et du diabète.

Written by Deborah Kamanga, CorpsAfrica Volunteer in Malawi
Reposted from ultimate kryptonite

About 3 weeks ago I got a “thrilling” email from Andrew (a CorpsAfrica program coordinator for Malawi). I had been looking forward to the piece of information contained in the email for days. The much awaited email was about the In-Service Training(IST) for the group one of CorpsAfrica Malawi Volunteers. I couldn’t wait for the 12th of April, 2016 to arrive as I was looking forward to seeing my CorpsAfrica family again. Assiatu, Soukaina and I embarked on the journey to the venue for the IST together and we got to Grace Bandawe conference center (the venue) around 4 in the evening. I was so excited to finally meet everyone again and I was so eager to hear about all their experiences and how they were coping at their various sites. I must admit that a part of me was a bit scared of hearing about how everyone was making “giant steps” and highly immersed in their communities, as opposed to how I was somewhat still in the process of getting familiarized in my community. I had a feeling I was going to be the only with very little to talk about. That night we had some chats about our communities and everyone had a lot to talk about.

The formal training started at about 8:30 in the morning of the following day and the number one item on the agenda was”Introduce us to your community” and each person took turns at giving a brief description of their community and their experience. The first person to present was Tusa and most of her experience sounded familiar to me and I was there thinking,"Oh, at least there is someone who can relate to what I was going to say.” The next person was Assiatu and her experience was even more familiar and I thought, "probably because we are site mates so we are prone to have similar experiences." However, I was really surprised to find out that almost everyone who presented had experiences that I could easily relate to and they were facing similar challenges to the ones I was facing. Big sigh!! I was so relieved to hear from them all. You know that Liverpool feeling of, "You will never walk alone?"...lol.  (a lyric from Liverpool Football Club’s theme song).  Another element of surprise at the IST was the session where everyone was told to write on post-it notes on how integrated into their communities they felt on a scale of one to five, and over half of the people were within the same range- the same as my level of integration. These opening sessions gave me some sort of motivation. The following day was mostly about the M&E tools and project management which were equally enlightening as well as exciting. The part I loved the most was the project brain-storming exercise because I was looking forward to hear from everyone and possibly gain some insight on what projects they could possibly implement and I did just that.

The days went by way too fast and it was time to get back to home-sweet-home, with a refreshed mind and though I was sad to say goodbye to everyone, I was happy to have met them all and I felt even more motivated, plus I was heading back to the awesome view at my site.
​
Being back home, I have been going to the local primary school hoping to introduce myself to the headteacher but unfortunately haven’t gotten the chance to meet him. So I decided to continue going to the Friends of Mulanje Orphans (FOMO) community nursery school. On the first day, the kids saw me coming back and they all rushed to hug me and that feeling just gave me goose bumps. That moment I realized that there are many ways to see the world but few offer the incredible feeling of knowing that your input could make a positive difference in the lives of vulnerable children and their communities. So now every time I look at one of the M&E tools that we use, the guiding questions tool in particular, I make note of this question, "Who do you want to help the most?”  These children and even more of them who don’t attend the nursery school, come as an easy answer. Not that I haven’t tried of thinking about other responses to the question, but these children come to my mind in a heart beat.

Written by Isabel Mandiwa, CorpsAfrica Volunteer in Malawi
Reposted from amizzy100

I have always had an interest, a longing, to help others, make a difference, and see the difference in someone's life. While giving a sandwich or change to that homeless kid outside a supermarket is still something, I just felt it wasn’t enough.

One day I decided to do something about it and so I looked up volunteer jobs on the internet. Fortunately, I came across CorpsAfrica, an organisation that recruits locals to serve in their own country for 12 months in the most remote areas in order to participate in development.

Hi, my name is Isabel Mandiwa and I am a CorpsAfrica Volunteer!!!!!!!!!!!!!
​
I am in a village called Kadyalunda in Balaka, in the southern part of Malawi.  It is 4 kms away from the main road and 15 kms from Balaka town.  I live in a two bedroom house, with a store room and sitting room included. My kitchen and bathroom are outside just behind my house.  The village does not have electricity or running water yet. Fortunately, we have a borehole for water just a few minutes away from my house at the school I am teaching.  My community has one 1 block for students in standard 1&2 classes and I volunteer as a teacher in English, math, plus music (yes I know a few songs).

​My neighbors who are also my host family have six kids, three of which are with relatives continuing their studies in town and the other three are here. They are Christopher, 24, Abigail, 15, and Loshan,13.  Abigail (a student in standard 8) and Loshan (in standard 7) live with me and share the spare room. I am currently tutoring them in English, Mathematics, and Primary Science.  

​I am happy to be part of this community that welcomed me really well from the day I arrived here on 27th February, 2016.  I would be lying if I said everything is perfect here; there’s so much to be done to improve it economically, socially, and intellectually. The good part is they want change too and they are willing and ready to make the change and that’s a good place to start.