A volunteer's account: Asman’s Mission Trip to Malawi, Africa

SOME PENDULUM PROJECTS IN LILONGWE AREA*

On a Thursday, bright and early we took a 4 hour bus ride from Blantyre to Lilongwe. We were met in Lilongwe by Mara Banda and members of her family who escorted and interpreted for us most of our time in that area driving a Toyota Corolla.

Mara is a fascinating, strong Malawian woman who is living with AIDS fully. She is director of Paradiso House – Home Based Care and connected with the umbrella organization – The Pendulum Project which is a 501C3 organization originally directed by a woman from Boston. The project is now managed in Malawi by Malawians for Malawians and focuses on support for children in AIDS affected communities. The Community Based Organizations in part supported through The Pendulum Project seem to be managed and staffed by volunteers who are mostly HIV positive and many living with AIDS.

We took a very large suitcase of supplies including soccer balls and pumps, Hawaiian tee shirts, toiletries, clothing and maize and bean seeds. Our goal was to see the projects, bring greetings from Sheree and Levani, bring gifts from Hawaii and learn about their successes and ongoing challenges. We would bring back information to Ananda Foundation and our home churches and try to begin discerning how we might join in the fight to end AIDS, poverty and to lift up children for a better tomorrow.

We had a simple accommodation (Budget motel) which did have CNN in the eve and good hot water shower! The days were filled with visits to several Pendulum project sites in which the Ananda Foundation also had interests.

MCHENGA CBO – (Arnold Keyo key person) – Has a mission “to support, care and protect orphans, vulnerable children and people living in their area with AIDS using best methods we can afford.”

Present Activities: Nursery school, home based care, youth programmes, resource center, income generation and feeding site. The director had a well organized summary of the project. They would/could do more with more money. At this time a major thrust is to PLANT maize so that they supplement the inadequate donations of food as well as provide other monies for fertilizer, more seed, school feels, building shelter etc. Items needing funding:

• Food – ongoing need for sima
• Bicycles for volunteer transport from village to village
• Home based care kits
• School fees for secondary school
• Build a shelter for the childcare programs
• Office, furniture, supply/storage area, cooking area
• Clothing for children and PWA
• Ambulance bikes to transport patients to doctors
• Encouragement(incentives) for volunteers as some need to support family

They put on a wonderful program in part demonstrating how they use culturally sensitive song and dance to teach people about AIDS prevention and treatment. There was a big crowd and many volunteers (men and women) and children performed. We sat out in the shade of a falling down building. They performed on a dusty dirt area. There was much enthusiasm.

We were amazed at the amount of service being provided with limited funds – it seemed that the entire village was somehow involved. We were very happy to bring about 15# of maize seed. They gifted us with an elephant calendar carved by a villager.

TILERANE ORPHAN CARE CENTRE – (Lameck Mandevu key contact). This site has existed since 1995 feeding and caring for 400 children at 2 different sites and providing day care for the little ones. Similar to Mchenga, there are many good adult volunteers but a shortage of funds to purchase some of the simplest items (cooking & feeding utensils for instance). They too depend on donations from a variety of sources but would like to become more self sustaining. They were making beaded AIDS pins and desire to get funding for raw materials to make and sell soap. Some items needed funding:

• Kitchen utensils-pots, plastic cups, plates, child chairs, tables, pails, basins, spoons
• Food items-rice, maize, beans, sugar, cooking oil, powdered milk, salt, flour
• School fees for children – fees, uniform, shoes
• Farm equipment – fertilizer, seeds, pesticides
• Soap making business – costic soda, palm oil, large vats
• Clothes, blankets, soccer and volley balls, nets, computer printer bicycle

They have a relatively new concrete and brick building with an office for staff and a large class room. There was also an outdoor covered patio and cooking area. The children entertained us with songs and Pastor Don entertained them with some gospel magic.

PARADISO HOME – (Mara Banda contact). This project has a building for child care program and feeding site as well as the office and supplies for the home based care. They have a “social area” where they can do counseling, watch videos, visit and relax. Again the very talented and educated living with AIDS volunteers helped us to understand the challenges and needs. They took us on home visits to meet the people so frail that they must bring them food and medicine.

This site is very busy on Saturdays as it becomes a feeding site and day care for even the school age children. They provided the musical welcome with plenty of opportunity to dance and sing and gifted us with a wrap skirt and locally carved bow and arrows. We understand that “next week” the painter was to come and paint the halls ceiling with a design developed by Hawaii’s Peggy Chun. Some specific needs identified that require funding:

• School fees especially for the orphans
• Clothing
• Transportation costs – getting people to doctors and Mara into Lilongwe office
• Paper supplies – stationary, envelopes,
• Computers for grant writing, project tracking and training
• DVD and films with spiritual emphasis
• Development and training in HIV management – ongoing need for volunteers

CHIEF TSABANGO – lives a good distance (it took about 4 hours for our round-trip and brief visit) from Lilongwe but is the high chief of about 395 villages (400,000 population) which he visits regularly on his bicycle. He was very gracious and shared the many challenges that they face in his area that all require funding sources:

• poor transportation (poorly maintained dirt roads and little bus service),
• poor communication (no land lines and cell towers few)
• orphan care – he has land but no people to build/manage projects
• safe water sources – need bore holes at brand new school
• fees so that orphans can attend secondary school
• practical works and encouragement from outsiders like ourselves

There is a new government public school in the area but as this was Saturday, there was no one about. Again we were happy to deliver maize and bean seed to the chief so that he could help his people.

We attended Assembly of God Church with Mara on Sunday. The spirit was really moving as a guest preacher shared about growing up as an orphan with a deformity and the pastors wife led the sing. Eventually a couple of men were moved to dance at the altar. Another neat experience followed by lunch at the pastor’s house…a short walk away. Sharing food and fellowship with the people is such a gift to us white folks from Hawaii. We felt honored to be welcomed into their homes.

We are pleased to see that the Malawi government considers this public health issue a priority and medications are provided for treatment. The adult volunteers have hearts so big for their community and deserve all the resources that we can get to them. The CBO’s with the aid of the Pendulum Project staff continue to network and work towards best practices.

The time we spent in the Lilongwe area was a blessing as we now have a better idea of how enormous is the challenge of living with AIDS and its aftermath in this basically rural society and how the strong spirit of God is at work to bring healing and a promising future.

Our visit was especially enjoyable as we also fell in love with Mara and her family through sharing sima, soda, gospel magic interpretation and hours of prayerful safe driving. Mara’s family became our family and now we have a photo by email of the newest Banda – baby girl Chance born to Mara’s son Roger (our primary driver) and wife Ruth and daughter Tamala.

OTHER HAPPENINGS IN THE BLANTYRE AREA:

FEEDING SITES: Ann Davidson has a huge heart for the orphans and old grannies of Malawi. With some financial assistance from like-minded friends, she has begun some feeding sites in nearby villages. She works with the village chief to identify the orphans and most at risk grannies. The village builds a feeding hut and has a team that cooks the food so that these identified vulnerables get a daily meal of sima with some added sugar for energy. There are so many orphans and never enough orphanages.

Some villages still have a fair number of Grannies or Aunties who can help raise the children but the primary laborers and parents have died and there are few to plant food for the village people. Ann would love to develop more feeding centers as she develops a steady funding process…she definitely doesn’t want to start something and then have to stop it due to insufficient funding. Feeding sites are also a good way to help identify individuals who might benefit from special services not available in the village. One such child is Esmit (see photo and some information in attachment. Because of her being an orphan and disabled, she was identified for the feeding site.

HEALTH CARE: We visited one of the near by hospitals (in Thyolo) twice since the girl child Mphatso was hospitalized twice during our stay. The hospital was quite nice and relatively new and at least partially staffed by interns or externs from the Netherlands under the auspices of Doctors without Borders. The equipment including beds, tables etc. were very old and in need of repair, but the place was clean and light. Dental care is probably non existent BUT there is little snacking on sweets or sodas and the children at the orphanage do brush their teeth. Many who are able go to South Africa for more serious heath concerns.

RETIREMENT: Judy had occasion to visit Newland Homes which is a rather nice retirement community for Europeans. (If you are black, you are Malawian, if you are white you are European and if you are mixed, you are colored.) As if Ann didn’t have enough to do, she and other lady friends take turns running a Wednesday beauty salon…wash, curl, dry, comb out and shoulder massage. The location was also where some of the retirees have their library so I was able to borrow some rather old but informative Malawi focused books.

TEA PLANTATIONS: About a 40 minute drive south towards Mt. Mulanje, we had occasion to visit a tea plantation. Actually Don led a woman’s bible study group (Ann is member) in the out of doors with a baboon running in the woods and Mt. Mulanje and acres of tea fields in the background. One of the ladies 3rd generation Malawi European lives on the plantation where he husband is the manager (many years) for a British company. It was interesting to fellowship with these white women who lived and raised families in Malawi but spoke little or no Chichewa. Most had a Dutch Reform church background and spoke Africanns as their first language.

* Fieldnotes written by Don & Judy, two volunteers for Ananda Foundation who traveled to Malawi in October 2007