Working in Malawi
One of the benefits of working alongside Malawians and doing the surveys is that we have begun to see a little of what life is like for the local people. The wages are very low. Most families have households of six or more people and the income is very unlikely to cover the cost of the most basic needs. On top of this they pay income tax on any income over the equivalent of 12 pounds a month. Of course, most Malawians have no jobs, so survival is a precarious business. Food in the shops is not much cheaper than we pay in the UK and in some cases more expensive. Most families live on a sort of polenta made from ground maize which they have with some kind of sauce, very rarely with meat or fish. One of the reasons we can't find much in the way of vegetables (and quite a lot of other foodstuffs) is that very few people can afford them, so it does not pay the shops to transport them, what is available is what is grown locally. The biggest problems come at this time of year, during the rainy season, their food supplies have run out and there are no crops to pick until the rains stop in April. Also, because the land is so over farmed most people cannot achieve even a reasonable yield from their crops without fertiliser, to many another unaffordable luxury. Of course, the price of food has escalated over the last year or so. Tobacco is the only cash crop in this area, and many people try to grow this as well as food to try to tide themselves over the hard times.
One thing that amazes us is how smart many people are. Given the complete absence of any facilties, wearing light clothes and whites must mean an enormous amount of scrubbing for the women.
Education is a high priority for most parents, and many children attend at the primary stage However, the cost of the compulsory uniform is a major burden. Where youngsters do achieve an education at a more senior level it is often at the cost of serious hardship to the whole family.
Another salutary experience comes from our interviews where so many women care for children who are orphans because their parents have died, mostly from AIDS. These women have nothing, often no income and only the food they grow, yet have taken in 2, 3, or 4, young children. We have come across so many staggering stories of severe hardship, yet many of the women remain resilient and positive. It is hard to convey the impact of seeing and hearing all this first hand.
Although, when planning this trip, we intended to try to experience a bit of the life of African people, (the 'real Africa' we called it) the reality is that the gap between the lives of local people and that which most white westerners, i.e. us, can tolerate is too wide. Especially now we are settled somewhere and working it is as though there are two completely different existencies.
As in any society, there is a range of problems. We hear stories of people being robbed (we would call it being mugged), although we don't hear of the victims being hurt. Also, the other day we came across a large crowd outside a Police station and we were told that 8 people had been arrested for teaching children witchcraft, which appears to be strongly believed in Malawi. We were also warned not to stop if you knock over an animal as someone will probably try to extort a large sum of money from you or you may be attacked, especially if you knock someone over. The Police advised you to take the person to hospital first and not stop to seek assistance. However, day to day we do not feel threatened as everything seems friendly and relaxed. As is usual it is hard to assess what is actual risk and what are people's fears from what they hear. We intend to be careful non-the-less and walking about at night is completely out.
Also things seldom happen as you expect them to. Africa time is an elastic affair for some people in business and at work. Of course, this is rather nice and refreshing as life is much slower and people don't become stressed, frustrated and anxious. There is much to recommend this. It's funny how quickly we seem to have accept the change of pace, although we do occassionally feel a wee bit frustrated.
Working, instead of travelling, has extended our experience of being in Africa tremendously. The richness of being here is brought home to us every day.
Thursday, 26 February 2009
Monday, 9 February 2009
Our first week at MLF
Micro Loan Foundation (MLF)
We thought a brief desciption of MLF would be helpful at this stage.The foundation lends small sums of money to women to start small businesses. The aim of the scheme is to help lift the poorest women and their families out of poverty and, at certain times of the year, prevent starvation. It is very well organised. The loans are made to groups of up 20 women who have collective responsibilty for repaying them. The businesses are usually linked to farming produce but also include things like dealing second hand clothing or shoes, brewing beer. The women are provided with training and support to run their businesses and manage the money. They pay back the money over four months with interest, and in addition also usually save some money towards future ventures. Many women are on their 8th, 9th, or 10th cycle of loans as they successfully progress. MLF also has a smaller, but also successful, micro ventures programme funded by lottery money whereby groups of women run larger projects such as irrigation schemes, poultry farming, honey production, knitting or sewing businesses. In these circumstances the women are provided with equipment or machinery as well as the loans.
Jane's work, with Ken as assistant and driver (he's too modest he's doing a lot more than that!), is to start the work of demonstrating how MLF benefits the children of the women who obtain the loans. This work can be used to raise more money to extend the MLF work. MLF already have nearly 700 groups of women across the country currently using loans, so over 10,000 women are benefiting from its work.
MLF employs only Malawian people to manage and run the programmes, and it is professionally and efficiently managed with good infrastructure which copes amazingly with the frequent absence of electricity and water.
Living and working in Kasungu.
Our first day with MLF was a great successs. The offices were well equipped, smart, and in a modern compound. The staff at the HQ office were great. They were prepared for us and gave us an excellent induction, ending up in the afternoon with a visit to one of the groups of women who were paying back their loan to the scheme. We were taken for an hour's drive into the countryside to meet with the group. What an experience! The women, about twenty of them, were waiting for us and sang and danced to us in greeting. We were taken into a small hut for the meeting, and they cheered and clapped as Jane's introduction was interpreted by the loans officer from the scheme who took us there. The meeting was really impressive. The women jointly put together the money to repay that instalment of their loan. The women showed a high level of support to each other in the meeting. At the end of the meeeting, one of the elders gave a little speech saying how pleased and honoured they were that we visited them and they sang for us again. As we left one of the women felt Ken's hair, to the great amusement of the rest, and they sang and danced again as we drove away. Wow!
We have moved into a guesthouse with self contained acccommodation, a large bedroom, and the services include a cook and a daily laundry service all for half the cost of the town's only hotel.
Insert pictures
Although finding produce in Kasungu is not easy, the cook, a young man called Able, manages to produce excellent meals from the indgredients we buy. There are frequent power cuts and water shortages and on a daily basis, which is at present a problem all over Malawi. Fortunately the office has it's own generator, so it doesn't affect our work. The evenings are often a bit strange with no light to read, no TV or radio and nowhere much to go out to. All houses have compounds with high walls, large steel gates and a nightwatchman/guard, so we feel pretty secure. We have been allocated a car to use which will make it possible to vist the branches around the country and the groups of women we will need to talk to and interview. We can also use the car to travel about in Malawi which will be a great benefit.
We thought a brief desciption of MLF would be helpful at this stage.The foundation lends small sums of money to women to start small businesses. The aim of the scheme is to help lift the poorest women and their families out of poverty and, at certain times of the year, prevent starvation. It is very well organised. The loans are made to groups of up 20 women who have collective responsibilty for repaying them. The businesses are usually linked to farming produce but also include things like dealing second hand clothing or shoes, brewing beer. The women are provided with training and support to run their businesses and manage the money. They pay back the money over four months with interest, and in addition also usually save some money towards future ventures. Many women are on their 8th, 9th, or 10th cycle of loans as they successfully progress. MLF also has a smaller, but also successful, micro ventures programme funded by lottery money whereby groups of women run larger projects such as irrigation schemes, poultry farming, honey production, knitting or sewing businesses. In these circumstances the women are provided with equipment or machinery as well as the loans.
Jane's work, with Ken as assistant and driver (he's too modest he's doing a lot more than that!), is to start the work of demonstrating how MLF benefits the children of the women who obtain the loans. This work can be used to raise more money to extend the MLF work. MLF already have nearly 700 groups of women across the country currently using loans, so over 10,000 women are benefiting from its work.
MLF employs only Malawian people to manage and run the programmes, and it is professionally and efficiently managed with good infrastructure which copes amazingly with the frequent absence of electricity and water.
Living and working in Kasungu.
Our first day with MLF was a great successs. The offices were well equipped, smart, and in a modern compound. The staff at the HQ office were great. They were prepared for us and gave us an excellent induction, ending up in the afternoon with a visit to one of the groups of women who were paying back their loan to the scheme. We were taken for an hour's drive into the countryside to meet with the group. What an experience! The women, about twenty of them, were waiting for us and sang and danced to us in greeting. We were taken into a small hut for the meeting, and they cheered and clapped as Jane's introduction was interpreted by the loans officer from the scheme who took us there. The meeting was really impressive. The women jointly put together the money to repay that instalment of their loan. The women showed a high level of support to each other in the meeting. At the end of the meeeting, one of the elders gave a little speech saying how pleased and honoured they were that we visited them and they sang for us again. As we left one of the women felt Ken's hair, to the great amusement of the rest, and they sang and danced again as we drove away. Wow!
We have moved into a guesthouse with self contained acccommodation, a large bedroom, and the services include a cook and a daily laundry service all for half the cost of the town's only hotel.
Insert pictures
Although finding produce in Kasungu is not easy, the cook, a young man called Able, manages to produce excellent meals from the indgredients we buy. There are frequent power cuts and water shortages and on a daily basis, which is at present a problem all over Malawi. Fortunately the office has it's own generator, so it doesn't affect our work. The evenings are often a bit strange with no light to read, no TV or radio and nowhere much to go out to. All houses have compounds with high walls, large steel gates and a nightwatchman/guard, so we feel pretty secure. We have been allocated a car to use which will make it possible to vist the branches around the country and the groups of women we will need to talk to and interview. We can also use the car to travel about in Malawi which will be a great benefit.
Friday, 6 February 2009
Malawi at last
Having experienced the friendliness of the people here, the next most noticeable thing was the weather. It is the rainy season between November and March. This means that it rains most days. It could be for a few minutes or several hours, from light drizzle to torrents of it. There is plenty of notice as rain is always preceeded by the local people carrying umbrellas. Otherwise the weather is warm and very pleasant, about between 25 and 30 degrees and therefore the rain does't seem a problem at all.Our hotel in Lilongwe, the capital, is fine. Although a 'budget' hotel, it is comfortable.
We met a really nice Italian woman who is working in Lilongwe on a health project and we went out to eat with her most evenings. She had a car so we were able to explore local restaurants.Lilongwe is an unusual city. It is split between the old town and the capital city which are separated by 5 kms. Capital city was set up by Hastings Banda when he decided that Lilongwe was to be the capital, so capital city only contains the government buildings, banks and insurance companies, smart restaurants and smart housing. These are spread out giving the impression of a leafy suburb and not a city at all. Old town, the original Lilongwe, is spreadout so is also rather uncity like. Our stay was extended a few days as Ken had another stomach bug, so we had more time to explore.At the end of the week we pottered off to Malawi's second city, Blantyre, which is the commercial centre of the country, just to have a look. The coach/bus was very luxurious, and although cheap, we travelled in style. The guesthouse/hotel had splendid views across the city, with hills and mountains in the background, but we couldn't walk from the hotel due to potential robbery in that area so we felt a bit marooned.
The city was fine, although one day looking around was enough. Then back to Lilongwe for another local bus journey to Kasungu where we will spend the next four/five weeks for the first part of our work with the microloan foundationOur first impressions of Kasungu were positive as we arrived in time to amble along the main street (there is only one really) and for the first time in Africa, no-one asked us if we wanted a taxi, a guide, to buy something, or begged for money.It seems that Kasungu has no tourists.
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