Welcome to Village Orphan Care - Africa
restoring children's futures through community empowerment
Welcome to Village Orphan Care - Africa
restoring children's futures through community empowerment
restoring children's futures through community empowerment
restoring children's futures through community empowerment
Stopped for three years by covid from travel to Malawi, the challenges of varied test requirements for country entry, jet fuel shortage in Johannesburg and long transit layovers seemed to be minor obstacles. Two and a half weeks were allotted for Malawi, preceded by a safari in Namibia. Then another delay when the wheels came off, actually a troublesome tire change on our bus, but done with helping hands by members of the Herro tribe. After arriving in Swakopmund after midnight, I went for a covid test in the morning. POSITIVE. Swakopmund is a beautiful town with lots of German architecture, good seafood and lovely Atlantic shoreline, but I remained ever anxious to get to Malawi. A negative test after ten days! And finally on to Malawi. The plan for the Malawi tour changes to accommodate enough days for four community-based organizations (CBOs) visits in a week that had us moving hell bent from the southern region to the tip of the country’s northernmost point. Despite the rush, we got fine insights into the progress of the CBOs and shared in their excitement about their work.
In 2021 no grants were made since community monitoring was restricted by covid. This year six grants have been made of around $1,600 each. Each must fund an income-generating activity (IGA) that, combined with past and future projects, provide an income sufficient to sustain their orphan and vulnerable children (OVC) without external support. Their results to date left us smiling. For example, goat pass-on programs had grown by 50%, a fishermen room hostel was built in three months and is fully occupied, sale of goats were supporting students’ school fees and supplies, pigs sales had paid school fees for twelve secondary school girls, reserve funds were built from IGAs that were set aside from daily demands and used to repair structures, building an additional early childhood care center and to restore piggeries decimated by swine flu. CBOs showed adaptability and flexibility to change their IGA when necessary to insure profit for their OVC. It’s inspiring to see.
It is neither a straight or quick path for community-based organizations to seek independence from the constant search for scarce funders. It is both the CBOs’ and VOCA’s goal that they become self-sustaining. Now after six years of providing small grants for IGAs, some CBO partners are approaching that destination. Building a reserve fund is essential. Chitungu CBO in Ntcheu, a town where I lived in 1965, has used their reserves to replace wooden windows in their six rental homes with theft resistant iron frames, build a fourth community childcare center and to repopulate their nine piggeries that were decimated by a swine flu epidemic. Kapiri CBO near Nhkotakota has supported 163 OVC while building a reserve of $655. With income from a just completed Fishermen’s Hostel, they will pay fees for needy secondary school students. These two CBOs have strong prospects of becoming independent in a couple of years. Not far behind are the other four CBOs, three of whom just began receiving grants more recently. Our documents show that since 2016 of benefiting from VOCA grants, over 4,700 children targeted for assistance, the CBOs have reached about 1,964 (42%). We are encouraged that their paths will lead their vulnerable children to prosperous futures through their community’s income generating projects. Thank You All.
This May, I travelled with Mike on a month-long trip first to Namibia and then Malawi. I thought it would be a trip of sitting by either the ocean in Namibia or Lake Malawi, sipping drinks with umbrellas in them. And incidentally we would visit Namibian game reserves and then Malawian communities where Michael and his colleague Feston Pangani had set up programs designed to help with nutrition and education.
We started in Namibia and visited several animal reserves. Zebras (May I never see another one), elephants, giraffes, wildebeests, and a few other critters generally ignored with our presence.
We also visited urban centersin this country whose size approximates Texas and New Mexico combined but with a population slightly smaller than Dallas, a lot of space for so few people. Its history, especially with the German occupation before WWI, was enough to make me cringe but Namibia had energy, was cleaner than the US, and seemed to have a progressive sense of self.
Of course, what’s a trip without a crisis? Michael developed Covid in the town of Swakopmund. We both had had shots and boosters, and we had roomed together through the first week of our travels, not counting the 22 hours of flight. Yet, I tested negative. Go figure. In any case, we decided that I would go alone, meet Feston, and then visit communities.
Feston met me and graciously gave me the nickel tour the first day. We went up Mount Zomba. On the way, we passed probably 100 people, generally women, carrying loads of firewood on their heads. We finally went to a beautiful waterfall surrounded by deforested mountain sides. The forests were being used as firewood in Zomba.
Feston and Mike decided to continue to have community meetings despite his absence. Mike kiddingly told me to represent him. I was amazed at the first locale. A welcoming dance and song greeted us, followed by an introduction in Chichewa by a domineering chairperson, followed by a skit. We then heard reports about the income generating programs set up by this community. They included a soon-to-be-opened video entertainment center, a pig program that had hoped to distribute pigs to families but suffered major loses due to flooding, and a very successful goat program.
Both the goat and pig programs were mirrored in many of the communities we visited. Mike’s program would purchase goats. A community oversight committee would choose at-risk children who could not attend school due to poverty. The orphan’s guardian family, usually a single parent or grandparent, would get a goat. The first goat offspring would be given to another community chosen family. Subsequent goats would be used to improve nutrition and purchase school supplies so these children could get a basic education. Other Communities sponsored other income generating programs, all for the benefit of orphaned children. The standards of VOCA include community transparency, active committees, and accountability.
I met the chair people of various committees. The community meeting itself was serious despite a light heartedness at times. I was struck with how seriously people took the programs to benefit what in Malawi is termed orphans. Parents may exist but the care can be in the hands of committed and heroic guardians: families who took in kids who had no viable support but needed funds to eat and stay in school.
In between meetings, Feston and Mike described issues facing each community. In my remarks, besides trying to crack a few jokes sometimes successfully, I would emphasize what had been discussed. If the issue was lack of transparency, I would talk about the need to be open about mistakes or problems; they could all be solved. If an oversight committee had expanded to include new and young members, I supported that.
We were constantly on the road, hour after hour. I went from Southern Malawi to the upper northern reaches, from lakeside communities to mountain towns, from East to West. Everywhere, I saw the commitment people had toward the goals of well-run programs, nutrition and educational support. There was a dignity to the meetings invariably held in halls without running water or electricity. People proudly wanted Mike to see their goats. The greetings he received were not political handshakes, they were acknowledgement of committed people in appreciation of Feston’s and Mike’s efforts.
We worked, Feston, me and eventually Mike after his Covid holiday. Totally, Feston and I visited six programs, and Mike was with us for four. The interminable car trips included Feston’s dodging the over 6 million potholes, unfettered goats, and what seemed like millions of people walking on highways if not on bikes, and children, especially children. The median age in Malawi is 18, In the US, the median age is 38. What does all that say about family planning, care of the elderly, the residual impact of AIDS, and any number of related factors?
I plan to go back next year. I fell in love with the humanity I experienced in the meetings. I have been amazed at the difference a single goat can make in the life of a child, especially girls. I was pleasantly surprised when one community talked about reserve funds for replacement of equipment. I was honored to be part the serious discussion in another community of how orphans were absorbed into existing families. Mike and Feston found a way to incorporate a community based program with the old structure of chiefs, most of whom meaningfully supported the steps of progress VOCA had helped initiate. In one town, Mike proceeded us to the site and people eagerly acknowledged him and he they. They had all worked together for many years, and the smiles of elders as they greeted a smiling Mike made me realize and have faith that progress could occur.
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