Becoming a big sister for the first time

By Becca Morrison

A number of weeks have passed since we jumped on a flight from Heathrow to Lilongwe, and how so many things have changed. Now separated from the Salima team, we find ourselves slowly integrating into the Malawian culture. Something that’s so close but so far apart from the western ways we are used to. For me, trying to fit into my host home has been a personal struggle, one that others don’t exactly understand.

My host family consists of a single working woman named Hazel and her adopted 4-month-old daughter Zoyolo. The baby was abandoned by her mother at 3 days old in the hospital, Hazel could never have a child of her own so took Zoyolo in as her own. Since she works in Lilongwe Monday to Friday, she has 3 house maids that are relatives who cook, clean and help out.

My host sister on her 4 month birthday

My daily life consists of having my breakfast prepared for me every morning, when I return from work there is a cup of tea waiting and then dinner is served with one place mat for me. The first struggle is how comfortable this way of living is compared to our friends in Salima as well as half of Malawians, living under the poverty line.

How can I live like this when the children I’m going to visit share beds with their siblings and barely eat enough to sustain them till morning?

Overtime I’ve come to realise is this just the way that development works but if we all learn to live with it, then nothing changes. My host mother is very clued into the development system as she currently works for an NGO planting trees in Malawi to help agriculture. She’s trying to make a difference to a very misunderstood country, as Malawi is often portrayed as one of the poorest countries. Despite this, they have a never-ending amount of motivation and hope as well as passion to change their country.

Miso Isabel, our neighbour, helping with the washing

The culture shock takes time to really settle in but once you look at the differences between Malawi and the UK, it’s really quite strange. Whilst they are way more welcoming than many people in the UK, the addition of white skin in their community is difficult to comprehend. We know this from the song the kids sing at the house next door as we walk past, “azungu-bye” which literally translates to “white people bye”. However, it’s become a nice welcome home every lunch time, you can’t be mad at children for being intrigued by the colour of my skin.

The walk home every day after work

Five weeks in and it’s getting easier to live this way after I expressed my concerns to my host mother. She replied very quickly by saying that by me living here, I am making a difference to each of them. Each of the maids is being paid extra to cater for me every day, which means they can save more money to buy a house of their own. I am also teaching Vitu some more English, so he can excel at school and get a good job in the future. Lastly, as Hazel reminds me constantly, I have given Zoyolo the sister she needs and not to mention the sister I have always wanted. I came to Malawi to experience culture and to make a difference but I’ll be leaving with a second family.



Follow @cyece.dedza on Instagram for more updates!

Team S.H.E

Our cohort - Team S.H.E (Sexual Health Empowerment) - arrived in February, and are working with CYECE in Dedza. Our project concerns sexual & reproductive health rights, as well as empowering girls and women.

We started the project with two team leaders, Asher and Comfort, however Comfort left to pursue a job in Zomba. Our new team leader is a previous volunteer, Jack, from Lilongwe.

Jack and Asher on Dedza mountain

Asher is a postgraduate student from Yorkshire; he has decided to suspend his studies in Peace and Global Development to have this experience working in the development field. In accompaniment to his studies, Asher has done a lot of youth work and community work in the UK and abroad. This has included sports coaching, educational projects and campaigns for social justice. His hobbies include reading, writing and photography. His ideal career after graduating will be working in a job which involved documenting, written journalism and helping others, preferably for an INGO. For Asher, his placement as a Team Leader is an opportunity to help marginalised communities, contextualise his studies and practice the art of documenting through film photography, writing and listening to others.

Becca is a UKV on a gap year after finishing A-levels in Religious Studies and Business Studies. She is a loud character sometimes, who loves trying new things and travelling. This project is exciting to her as she is passionate about gender rights and women’s empowerment. One thing she wish she had brought is a hairbrush, as it’s notoriously hard to find one in the Malawian market shops compared to the excess of Crocs.

Sam is another of the UKV's, also taking a gap year before going to study mathematics at university. He wanted to do something more meaningful than a generic South East Asian backpacking trip. Sam is nervous regarding his lack of background knowledge regarding the work, however he is more so excited by the opportunity to learn. He is also very interested in linguistics and is excelling at the local language; Chichewa. His communication with the host family is regularly accompanied by them laughing at his mispronunciations and accent, however they are enjoying his tenacity to learn!

Emily is a UKV from Leeds and has previously studied History. Her first graduate job was in finance. Since, she has sought a career change which led her towards apply for an ICS placement. 

Emily is happy with life in Dedza, and accounts this to the warm welcome of her host family. She has bonded with them over learning about how to cook; the Malawian way, which prescribes a portion size larger than which we are familiarised with in the UK! She is aiming to build her confidence, and develop her leadership approach which she can use in a better suited career for herself after the placement.

Honor is a UKV from Saltburn, in North East England. Like many other volunteers in the team, she has chosen to undertake this placement during a year out. In September, she will begin studying Politics at London School of Economics. With previous experience in UK Politics, community-based volunteering and campaigning, Honor hopes that she will be able to learn more about global affairs, and a human-rights based approach to development. Her initial thoughts of Malawi and the first few weeks here have been varied; there are fewer cultural differences than expected, however, many aspects of life, such as the food, have still come as a shock to her.

Sungani is an ICV and has a degree in Journalism from the Malawi Institute. She has worked for Love FM Radio station as a reporter and presenter from January 2017, until she applied for ICS. She is excited to build a strong inter-cultural team, and expects that together we can contribute to tackling the challenges that the communities are facing. Sungani is excited to develop the knowledge about the communities and cultures involved in the project.

Selina, Loyce, Becca and Asher 

Loyce is an ICV from Blantyre. She studied medical laboratory sciences at University and is a mother to 2 young children. She accredits her love for working with children from being a mother. By the end of the volunteer ICS programme, she is hoping to have more knowledge on SRHR and the capacity to demonstrate to others how to be a positive active citizen.

Maximo is one of our ICV’s, born in Blantyre but raised in Lilongwe. He has a degree in Accountancy from a university in Lilongwe. Maximo is fluent in English due to his father studying in the UK, which comes in useful in translating for the UKV’s. From the first day, he realised that as young citizens we are one in the same; we listen to the same music, like similar food and all sleep pretty late. One thing is clear though and that is the fact we all want to help in the development of Malawi. Hopefully through the program we can work towards achieving the common goal.

Selina is a UKV with a degree in Social Work. Before starting the project, she was working in a retail outlet and also doing some volunteering with children. Africa is a place in which she has wanted to see since she was a little child, and she has now realised that it is different to the way it is shown on the media. She enjoys the cooler weather in Dedza and still managed to get an amazing tan! Selina has had a few phobias to overcome in the past week such as the state of the toilets and the amount of cockroaches. One main thing Selina would like to gain from this experience is to be able to familiarise herself with people from different walks of life. 

Edward is an ICV, and has just finished an advanced diploma in ICT and is a freelancing computer technician. He joined the ICS Volunteer project as a chance to reach out to communities who don’t know about the importance of SRHR and at the same time building a portfolio for the job market. As a tech personnel working in the tech industry he believes awareness on health related issues together with technology education will secure Malawian youth against sexual transmitted diseases and joblessness.

Scarlette is a UKV and has just finished studying psychology, geography and English last year. She decided to apply for ICS to further her knowledge and understand the challenges faced by people in other countries, on a first person basis. After this, she hopes to pursue a career in human rights after attending university to do a human rights law degree. At the moment, she is struggling to fit into the Malawian way of life as the food is very different to her vegetarian diet. She wishes she brought more sun cream as well as British tea bags! However she is keeping an open mind on how the next 3 months can go.

Follow @cyece.dedza on Instagram for more updates!

Asher, Sam, Maxi and Scarlette facilitating an anti-bullying session

International Women's Day 2018: what does it mean to be a woman in Malawi?

By Honor Wilkinson-Bell

As a woman from the UK, International Women’s Day for me involves celebrating the efforts that have been made towards achieving equality, and raising awareness of the prevailing challenges for women in the UK today. In Malawi, however, there is less to be celebrated. Whilst women have achieved some level of equality with the introduction of various government policies designed to encourage representation and participation, there are still several problems, which leave many women unable to achieve their full potential.

Girls are particularly at risk of being isolated in many communities. Traditional attitudes, and a lack of education surrounding sexual health, have led to a high level of school drop outs, leaving many girls without access to education. According to MISC 2006, around 67% of women in Malawi are literate, compared with 77% of men. There is also a lack of role models within Malawian society, for example in Parliament, just 32 members, out of 193, are female. School environments can fail to be conducive for many girls, and a lack of accessibility to health facilities and support can leave girls vulnerable to teenage pregancy, STIs and child marriage.

I wanted to find out more about their personal experiences of these challenges, and if these estimations of life as a woman in Malawi are true. First of all, I asked my counterpart, Loyce, who fought to stay in education after she had her first child, aged 19. We also spent the day at a Girls Only Club in Golomoti, and had the opportunity to speak to one woman, Bertha*, 18, who had a 1 year old child, about the challenges they face and how they see the future.

Their opinions differ on the matter of opportunities for women in Malawi. Whilst Loyce feels there are many opportunities as a woman, many of the women at the Girls Only Club stated the employment openings for them were informal, and mainly involved manual labour. This is a worrying prospect, as it is an unsustainable form of income and many work in harmful environments, such as on tobacco farms. What’s more, many professional workplaces mostly employ men, and fail to represent women. According to Loyce, what prevents women being represented is that the jobs tend to be inaccessible to women. This is an issue which can be changed, provided girls are encouraged to stay in education and commit to their futures.

On education, there is a general consensus that it is extremely important to all girls that they receive adequate teaching, and are encouraged to stay in school. Women at the Girls Only Club explained that the barriers preventing many from accessing education include; poverty, which disproportionately affects women; the exhaustion faced by many children as they are forced to work out of school hours; the school environment failing to be conducive. Some of the girls at the club complained that their school failed to provide sufficient sanitation facilities for girls. Loyce eloquently stressed the importance of participation in schools as “Education is more like my life. With education I can do what I want, and won’t have to rely on a man”.

Despite the fact that community by-laws have been introduced to combat the exploitation of girls and women in Malawi, in some cases, these have not been followed. Women at the Girls Only Club suggested that these laws failed to protect many girls, and cultural practices (such as Girls Camps, where young girls are sent to learn about sexual health, but are actually sexually exploited by older men) still exist. There has, according to one member of the Girls Only Club, been some effort made by community leaders to ensure girls return to school after pregnancies, but the voices of women, particularly younger women and survivors, need to be heard more, in order to effect local legislative change.

For all the challenges here in Malawi, women and girls remain refreshingly positive about the future. Equipped with existing role models of their own, these young women want to take equality a step further. Loyce looks up to her late Mother, who was the first Radiographer in Malawi. She says it is up to everyone in society, especially women, to challenge cultural norms and act as role models for future generations. Women at the Girls Only Club want to achieve higher literacy rates and improve education for girls, as well as see more women working in offices, particularly as CEOs. For Bertha, her role model is a woman from her village, Linda*, who also went through a pregnancy during her teenage years, and is now a school teacher. Through the support of CYECE, Bertha has been encouraged to continue education and will return to school when her child is 3. Raising her child, with the support of her parents, is important in the here and now, but she hopes to become a nurse, and then go on to be a role model for other girls her age.

*Names have been changed.

Planting Seeds and Seed Planting

The Centre for Youth Empowerment and Civic Education (CYECE) is a charity organisation established in 1997. Its aim is to address socio-economic development issues affecting children and young people in Malawi. CYECE, in collaboration with the International Service, is implementing a project called ‘Promotion of sexual and reproductive health and rights and education for girls’ in Dedza, Salima and Mangochi.

The CYECE Office in Dedza, previously a Red Cross building and Church

Along with our CYECE Community Facilitator, Max, we have conducted activities in various schools on cross cutting issues such as Sexual, Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) (e.g. teenage pregnancy), Nutrition, HIV/AIDS and early marriages. Our target groups are girls and young women and before activities began we conducted baseline surveys with schools and community groups to identify issues that affect them the most. We could also identify their existing knowledge and experiences. We conducted ‘pre-testing’ before interviewing hundreds of people and this gave us the opportunity to test the questionnaire, evaluate the questions and re-design them. After some training and pre-testing, we were ready to go to the field to meet communities and really start to understand their lives, the challenges they face and identify what role we could play. We were given tasks from our Team Leaders, for example to research things or identify opportunities. 

Chrispin delivering a SRHR session to girls and young women in Bembeke

As part of the ‘Active Citizenship’ concept, Gus contacted the Forestry Commission and organised for us to get involved in a tree planting project in Kasumbu organised by the German Development Corporation. The community take ownership of the project and have a target of preparing 100,000 seeds (80% will survive and grow). They are given the tubes, seeds and training. The focus of the project is land resource conservation and is based on successful models which have taken place in Ethiopia. We were able to help with filling tubes as well as entertaining the children with games, singing and dancing! We can work further with the same organisation to deliver family planning sessions in the coming months as the increasing population demands more from land resources.

Chrispin and Pelani preparing tubes before trees are planted in the rainy season

Group synergy has been really good because we have been able to plan and conduct activities as a team, sharing roles according to each other’s skills and interests. However, it was more of a challenge for the UK Volunteers to fully participate on all the activities because it was done in local language, called ‘Chichewa’. Luckily enough, the in-country volunteers were on hand to translate discussions which then allowed all volunteers to actively participate, ask questions and give feedback. The UK volunteers also spent time keeping crowds of children entertained with games, singing, drawing and dancing!

The team!

We quickly identified that young people are generally shy in responding to questions on SRHR and it was frequently suggested that there is a lack of confidence in general amongst girls. This came across more especially in interviews, particularly if the interviewer was the opposite sex. Once we realised this was the case we could re-organise the interviews so respondents were more comfortable with the environment. It also encouraged us to consider interventions that could help girls to increase their confidence.

On our most recent trip, we carried out activities in the Mtakataka school zones. As a team, we often arrived late, however this is very common here and referred to as ‘Malawian time’. If you organise to meet someone at 8.30am, be prepared to wait until around 9.30am at least! It also takes at least an hour for food to be prepared in restaurants in Dedza. They don’t typically have lots of customers so food is prepared from scratch and nothing is ‘pre-cooked’. A local restaurant regularly frequented by volunteers is called ‘Winners’; from the outside it doesn’t look very appealing! However for K1000 (around £1) the team have chicken or beef, chips, rice and salad. The locals see their food much quicker, although they tend to have Nsmia with vegetables.  

Local restaurant, 'Winners' where chicken is cooked on the barbeque (braai) outside

The most popular dish for some volunteers - chicken, rice, chips and salad, costs K1000 (£1.08).

The ICS programme is non-skills based which means that volunteers are recruited based on their attitude and personality. Having said that, we have all been able to share our ideas so that processes, activities and the general working environment can be improved. We get together as a team and share our thoughts after each activity and in our Monday morning meetings. When this happens, it really feels like we are making a difference and we know that the experience will be better for our friends that will join Ernest and Jason in October!

Written by Chrispin Solola, Team Dusty Dedza