As a social worker, albeit a reluctant one at the moment, I can’t help wanting to stick my nose into as many people’s business as possible while here. And I was given the perfect opportunity to this when I arranged a private visit to a local children’s orphanage. We were met at the gate of Chilengana Children’s Orphanage by its proprietor, Wellington Msonda. The orphanage is based in Area 26, which was built about 40 years ago (the area number equates to the age of the townships, Area 1 being the oldest). It is situated about 5 miles away from the Sanctuary. Wellington informed me that he worked as a social worker for the local authority for 32 years before retiring. He then set up this facility which is aimed at helping orphaned children from his local township.
I met the children, about 77 in all, ranging from 2-6 years, sitting in a room about the size of a double garage. Many of the children have lost their parents to HIV and AIDS; some lost mothers due to the high mortality rate of mothers giving birth in Malawi. These children are very fortunate in that a related family member has taken on their care. The cost of caring for an extra mouth is high though, and of course there are no welfare handouts or benefits, free water, free school meals, clothing or free education. The Malawi government boast that education is free in Malawi, which is entirely untrue. All children must pay a significant sum each term to the school’s ‘Development Fund’, and if they can’t afford it, the children are not able to attend. The children must also purchase the correct school uniform, notebooks, text books and all other necessary materials. As I think I have said elsewhere in this blog, most Malawi’s live on less than one USA dollar (about 70 pence) per day. So many families cannot afford to care for and educate their own children, even less someone else’s.
Wellington explained tome that he provides support for the orphaned children and their adopting families by giving free pre school care to the youngest children. Knowing how scarce food it, the orphanage also strive to provide porridge for the children at 11am, when they have it. The children are supervised by two full time volunteers throughout the day, enabling relatives to undertake their normal day jobs and bring an income to the home. The aim is to keep as many children as possible with their relatives in a family environment and in their own community.
I was embarrassed on arrival to find the children all sitting very quietly on the cement floor, clean and well dressed, with their legs stuck out straight in front of them in what looked like a most uncomfortable position. 77 small pairs of bright eyes looked at me expectantly, and I must have been quite a sight because I wore a colorful trousers and top rather than a chitenje (local African dress, its a sort of wrap around skirt. I’d worn it for other activities in the community but forgot today). It quickly became obvious that I was expected to address the assembled children in some way. My guide was kind enough to agree to translate to Chichewa for me, and I gave a very brief introduction to the work of the Sanctuary, to which they responded with great zeal by shouting out the names of the foods the different animals liked. I then asked them to sing me a song, which they did immediately, again with enormous smiles. They then sang me a song, which was just gorgeous - such bright little enthusiastic faces and so many shining white teeth, I wish I was quick witted enough to film it for the blog. As soon as they began singing they also began swaying gently, while initiating actions at the same time. The actions helped identify a familiar theme in their song – God on high looking after his little sunbeams. Afterwards I taught them ‘Heads, and shoulders, knees and toes’, (which was the only children’s song I could think of at the time, and it only has 8 words), and to which we added the appropriate actions. The children were most enthusiastic, and jumped quickly to their feet. They did the actions very well, although they kept being overcome with giggles every time I bent down to my toes, perhaps because they were enjoying the sight of an oddly dressed Mzungu behaving in such an undignified manner.
Afterwards Wellington announced to the children that there had been a donation to the school of bars of soap. The children sat very still and quietly and Wellington decided who would be given a bar to take home (there were not enough to have one each). After they were given out the lucky children all held up their bar for a photograph with great satisfaction. I am trying to imagine offering children a bar of soap in an English nursery and what sort of reaction you would get.
Wellington then showed me the local community library which stood just outside his own house. It is about the size of a single garage, built of brick, with a corrugated iron roof., All the walls were lined with books ancient English classroom textbooks in English, maths, science, biology, computing and the arts. A couple of desks sat in the center of the room surrounded by chairs, and on the table several copies of a daily newspaper was also provided. There were 6 males in their teens looking through the papers and books. These young people have completed school but have not been able to find a job. The library offers an opportunity for the young people to read, continue to educate themselves, and look for work. Even this facility in not free, however, as no one is admitted without paying a daily attendance fee.
I couldn’t help thinking to myself that it was as a similar but free facility that William Kamkwamba, who wrote ‘The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind’, taught himself how to read English, how to do some basic maths and science, and eventually how build a windmill to provide electricity for his own home. He made his windmill out of trees cut down locally; metal and other scraps from a car dump; and miscellaneous other materials scavenged from around the area. His story is very impressive. Initially locals laughed at the bizarre structure he was building and ridiculed him. However when they saw that his windmill did indeed perform the amazing miracle of lighting up a bulb, they were most impressed. Unfortunately shortly after the windmill was built there was widespread famine throughout Malawi in 2002, and as is their custom the Malawi’s began looking for someone to blame. William and his ‘magical’ creation were lucky to survive the accusations of witchcraft. William has since gone on to international fame. It’s a book well worth reading.
Around the back of the library hut was a second brick building, which looked fairly complete in that it had four walls and a tin roof. However large weeds were growing out of the empty window and door frames indicating that it is not habitable. Wellington stated that he is hoping to fund a concrete floor; 3 windows and a door, which will make the building available for use as a pre school for the orphaned children. Total cost 500,000 KWACHA, approximately £500.
I have considered donating to an orphan project, it seems a good way to use some of Arie’s money. But there is a huge problem with corruption by officials of any organization, including charities. There is a problem also with lack of accountability. Lastly, it is clear to all involved in charitable work in Malawi that if you give money to a man there can be no guarantees as to how it will be spent. If you give it to a woman, it will be spent on children and the needs of the whole family. There is no female to give any donation to, which is a drawback to my mind.
Also, Malawi is expected to have another famine later this year due to having insufficient rain for the last 4 years running. Crops have died for lack of water, so this also means there will be no food. Interestingly, water is not caught and stored during the rainy season for use later. This typifies the Malawi approach to life: think only of today, and give no thought to tomorrow. I recall a friend once telling me that when he carried out some building work in Kenya he found paying the locals more than the minimum wage to carry out work was counterproductive. If given more money, the worker will simply not turn up to work the next day, as they already have enough money for food for the day. It is difficult sometimes not to feel frustrated by the level of need you regularly meet here which could have been prevented with basic planning.
This is also true of health problems in Malawi. A very extensive program of education and information about AIDS and HIV has ensured that all Malawi’s upwards know about these dangers and how to avoid catching it. Malawi’s HIV prevalence is one of the highest in the world, with 10.3% of the population living with HIV.1 Malawi accounts for 4% of the total number of people living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa.2 An estimated 1,000,000 Malawians were living with HIV in 2013 and 48,000 Malawians died from HIV-related illnesses in the same year. The Malawian HIV epidemic plays a critical role in the country’s low life expectancy of just 54.8 years.
My feeling at the end of the day was that the children needed food in their stomach’s more than a new brick building. I might be wrong - what would a Mzungu know about the realities of life in Africa - but I talked it through with staff at the sanctuary and they seemed to think it was reasonable thinking. We are looking at setting up a small fund with the agreement of the local area tribal chief, matters now being taken in hand by the community liaison officer here at the Sanctuary. If agreement is reached, the expectation is that the correct amount of oats and milk are supplied to the pre school via the wife of the village chief each week. It will then be easy for the sanctuary to continue a relationship with the organisation, teaching children about the importance of caring for their wildlife, and making sure they are eating the food supplied.
Good for you x
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