Potential Projects

So now that my three months are up, people are already asking me what I plan on working on while I’m here. So I will just give you a quick list of potential plans (some have been brought up by my community and hospital, some are just ideas I have), so you can be rest-assured that I am busy.

Teaching Life Skills – I will be teaching Life Skills to Form 1 (freshmen) and Form 3 (juniors) at the secondary school. School begins September 5^th, so I have already started working on lesson plans. I am thinking of tweaking the curriculum – not losing any important stuff, but getting rid of irrelevant activities.

Women to Women – there is a women’s group in my village that was working with the last volunteer and they have approached me about getting together and selling tortilla chips (I will push for guacamole, as soon as avocado season comes back). They are a group of really smart, strong young women and we have met a few times, but I think I may need to give them some more inspirado to start showing up for meetings more frequently.

Luso la Manja – this is a women’s group in a village about 45 minutes from me. This project has been on-going for many years and mostly the Tongas have been helping these women with their sales and development. They make shoulder bags, messenger bags, computer cases, aprons, change purses, dolls, etc. out of chitenges and sell them. They are a fairly successful group and pretty organized, however they do not have a shop. They sell their souvenirs from a spare room in their house. So my fellow Tongas and I are hoping to help build them a shop to attract tourists and sales. I have very limited business background (I used to help my mom sell things at our yard sales during the summer), so this is a big learning process. However, this group of women are exceptionally awesome and I’m willing to help out with whatever is needed.

Hospital Garden – I am already in the works in growing a garden at the hospital with the Nutrition Rehabilitation Unit. The garden will serve as both nutritious food for the hospital to serve to its patients, as well as an educational tool in teaching villagers to incorporate more vegetables in their diet. We have some land ready to plant and we are getting a fence built to keep the goats out. I’m hoping to get some free seeds from an on-going environmental project nearby.

Two Under-5 Clinics – since Dwambazi Rural Hospital treats many patients – some walk as far 20 kilometers to get treatment – I am in the process of writing a grant proposal for the development of two clinics in the outer regions of Dwambazi. Luckily the last volunteer had built one before she left, so I still have the grant and outlined plans from her building.

Pit-Litrines – There is a village nearby that has a high number of diarrhea-related deaths. The plan is to repair poorly built pit litrines and to build new ones for families without. This will reduce the number of cases of diarrhea significantly. A grant proposal is already in the works.

Drama Club – Malawians love acting. They love drama. They love entertainment. My plan is to help promote health and HIV/AIDS awareness through a drama club. One is already formed, but they need a bit more structure. I hope to have them start writing their own scripts and acting in front of school events and at under-5 clinics.

Youth Clubs – Let’s give the kids something constructive to do. This is obviously just an idea – not sure where I am going with this.

Moringa Tree Project – This is a huge goal for me – I still need to do a lot of research and talk to my community, but I am in love with the Moringa tree and I have already started some seedlings. The moringa tree is a miracle tree Moringa is particularly appealing because of its vitality and ability to grow to 12 feet in its first year. Almost every part of the tree can be used in some way: the leaves for nutrition, the roots for medicine, the wood for firewood, the seeds for cooking oil, and live trees for agro-forestry. Moringa has also been used for animal feed, dyeing, fuel and water purification.

So that is that. I’m taking one project at a time, but I have high hopes and I seem to have a lot of support from my community. We’ll see what happens these next two years.