Raising Malawi in the News

There was an article in the news a couple of days ago about Madonna's charity, Raising Malawi. Well, it's not only Madonna's charity, it's a charity close to my heart, too. The article mentioned RM providing cars, drivers, golf club memberships, and more than $3 million in donations unaccounted for. I went to Malawi a year ago and stayed 3 weeks at an orphanage in Mchinji District that receives more than 50% of its charitable donations from Raising Malawi (RM). My RM contact, Philippe van den Bossche, helped place me at the orphanage for my volunteer service, and guided me through the (quite extensive) process of actually getting there, i.e. required immunizations, what food and clothing to bring, what to expect once in-country, and most important, made sure I had the right consciousness for the job. I pulled out all my notes from the trip and the first thing I wrote about an interview with Philippe was "it's all about the kids". THAT's where Philippe was coming from, concern for the kids. RM didn't provide any money for outfitting me, for plane fare, for my month taken off from work, for food or transportation in Malawi, or provide a stipend. About the car and driver. An RM employee, Lois, DID meet me at the airport, for which I was very grateful on account of I was by myself and she made me feel welcome. Lois had a compact car along with a driver. The car was standard with no frills (or shocks either as far as I could tell). I don't think many people could drive in Malawi outside of the capital and the country's 3 major roads without a driver. It was raining when I arrived and the driver had to maneuver around gi-normous pot holes, sink holes, very uneven surfaces on dirt (mud) roads as well as avoid other vehicles, bicycles, live stock, chickens, women carrying obscene loads on their heads and plenty of little kids who chased the car with their hands held out for "sweets". It takes a special person to drive there and most everyone has a driver and I bet they come cheap. I was driven from the airport to my room for the night - for which I paid, not RM. On route, we stopped at the Success For Kids Malawi headquarters but that's another story. The next day I was driven to the orphanage, about 2 hours from the capital near the Zambian border. I paid the driver for his services and I also paid for the gasoline. The orphanage guest house is free to volunteers - the utilities are low, there was electricity off and on and we had running water for several days but not that often for the 3 weeks I was there. The volunteers bought their own food at the farmer's market and at the end of the stay, made a donation to the orphanage to cover housing. Nothing to the volunteers from RM. What I DID see while there that RM is responsible for was a brick wall around the whole mission - there are over 400 kids and about 20 adults and the wall kept the kids rounded up and safe; a new boy's dormitory with solar panels that was clean and big and provided the boys with a very nice place to live, by Malawi standards anyway - as an Army brat, it reminded me of post barracks. I saw every child was attending school and I saw every child had the basic necessities of 3 meals per day, clothing, a bed, a mosquito net, soap and for the kids with AIDS, medication. About the Golf Membership - that's got to be a joke. About the donations accountability - I reckon Madonna is also concerned about this. You know SHE didn't take it...Although living in a 3rd world country is relatively inexpensive compared to say, living in Miami, it takes a lot of money to get anything accomplished. When I lived in Antigua, I saw two potential businesses call it quits because of the unexpected amount of money required for start-up costs - mostly in bribes and "greasing the palm" which may be common for any 3rd world country project - kind of like an expediting fee. I don't know what happened to the RM money in question but I know how much money I spent (donating by my sister, friends and family) just to GET to Malawi - before even getting to the kids...I guess it would be the same for a business, too. The press article will bring to light any management and accounting issues that may be hindering Raising Malawi and I trust the charity will be even stronger afterward. I saw first hand how RM has helped the kids at just one place. Madonna and Raising Malawi support HUNDREDS of schools, day-care programs, and educational programs across the country. You can help, too, by donating at www.raisingmalawi.org.

My Sister, Mym

This post isn't about Malawi but about my sister, Mym, who, along with many others, helped me get to Malawi.

She is the little girl on the right with the big grin and oh, so happy! (This picture always makes me smile - I'm smiling right now just looking at her). The Gator is one of her toys...isn't that cool? She keeps it at the beach house in OBX which, by the way, is rented out during the summer months if you are interested...

My sister is 3 years younger than me but many years wiser. I was thinking today of all of the times she has been there for me throughout our lives. Through my marriages and successive divorces; at my side during post-partem blues and we lived a thousand miles apart, too, I'm not talking about her running next door with a casserole. Whenever she found out I could use some extra money, she sent it. When I had to ask her for money, she sent it - and never as a loan, always as a gift to me. She was there for me after an ugly custody battle (I lost) and helped me to reunite with my child 5 years later. She supported me through an embarrassing legal issue with words that I'll never forget, "we can't all be like June Cleaver...". She and her friend offered to take in my son during one of his rough teen times - who does that? The list goes on.

And when I asked her for support to go to Malawi, she sent a big fat check and lots of encouragement. I have a new goal, to join the Peace Corps, and you know what she sent to support that goal? She sent an affidavit that she will be responsible for my unpaid debt (there won't be any but still...) for the 27 months of unpaid service as a volunteer in the Peace Corps along with an offer to use her place upon my return until I get resituated in the U.S of A.

When I received the affidavit today, I realized just how much I appreciate her. As her older sister, she always believed that I was smart, that I was pretty, that I was cool....she still does, or at least she still pretends to. And you know what? I have something she doesn't have, I have her for my sister. I want to be just like her when I grow up. I love you, Mimi!

Lauren & Nyoka Village

So for the past couple of months, I haven't been thinking as much about my time in Malawi and isn't it easy to retreat back into our comfort zones? In January and February of this year, I had the merit to volunteer at Home of Hope Orphanage in Mchinji District, Malawi, Africa. While I was there, I met a very remarkable young lady, Lauren, who is a Peace Corps volunteer. Lauren is from one of those rectangular states in the Western part of the U.S. that only have one area code...(just kidding you, Lauren) anyway, Lauren is from Montana where her parents have an organic farm! I'm not sure just how organic her family's farm is but the top picture is Lauren's pit latrine in Malawi and I can pretty much bet anyone that she has an indoor flush toilet in Montana! Isn't is cute though? Like a fairy tale with the thatched roof and sunflowers...Anyway, Lauren is helping the villagers of Nyoka with sustainable farming.

The 2nd picture is something she has written over her doorway, 'I have the courage to be myself, I speak and act in authentic ways, I trust I am capable". Can you imagine yourself as a recent college graduate (i.e., YOUNG), volunteering far away from your family and loved ones in an AIDS afflicted country in Africa, and going to the bathroom in a hole in the ground?

The 3rd picture is of Lauren and her friend in the village of Nyoka, where Lauren lives. She has a 2-room 'house' which is pretty special in Malawi. She is most proud of the shelves she built for her 'kitchen'. Lauren has an outdoor kitchen, she built her own oven and bakes the most delicious mango bread! She has a pit latrine...woo hoo!, and has another building that may be something similar to a shower but I can't imagine what THAT would be....(and even more, if I have the nerve or the encouragement, I'll write a story about the bugs here!)

Lauren has committed 27 months of her young life to volunteer service. I can't imagine making that sort of committment at her age...frankly, I couldn't hardly decide which can of soup I was going to open for supper at her age...At the age of 56, (okay, it's 57 now...) I spent a month in Africa. The disparity is what I admire most! Lauren, at her young age, has been such an inspiration to me! And you KNOW that she will make a difference in her village of Nyoka and isn't that what we're all about? Making a difference?

It's kinda like, "If Lauren can do it, I can do it"...and folks, so can you! You don't have to be in Malawi to make a difference in Malawi. I felt like I was slacking off about my committment to the AIDS orphans and then I thought of Lauren! I'm back at home with my flush toilet and grocery stores and doctors and clean water and family members in the same continent! We can still help! Malawi is rebuilding but needs the help of Lauren, me and YOU. If you can help to make a difference, donate at www.raisingmalawi.org.

The Great Toy Raid

The top pic is the guest house, the middle is the nursery, and the picture above is two of the nursery kids...."Where are our toys!" The pics were taken by a fellow volunteer, Kate Merritt, who is from Canada.




In January 2010, I had the merit to volunteer at the Home of Hope Orphanage in Mchinji District, Malawi, Africa. It is a wonderful place with lots of kids but not that many toys. The orphanage nursery has several shelves of donated toys...some of them are inappropriate on account of they require batteries, some were broken and unsafe, some were down right creepy! (see Toy Story pic of the doll....that will give you nightmares!) and they were all dirty - when I picked them up, moths flew out and spiders scurried off. Anyway, there are lots of kids and not that many adults to watch over them and to take care of their toys so I took it upon myself to take the toys from the nursery up to the guest house, to clean them in the guest house bath tub, and return them to the nursery. (I'm laughing thinking of this story.)



So what happens is that I go to the nursery, pick up a couple bags of toys, take them to the guest house tub and when there is water, fill the tub and soak the toys in a little bleach for a few hours. Then rinse, rewash with a little detergent, rinse again and now what? I have a tub full of soft and stuffed toys and no dryer! The toys come out of the tub and I'm thinking the front porch of the guest house will be a good place to dry them. I string a line across the porch and hang some of the toys on the line. Toys are placed all along the ledge of porch. Toys are set up on the edge of the stairs and on the porch floor - all in the sun to dry. Toys are everywhere! They are bright and clean and of course, totally irresistible to kids who don't have any toys.



The process sounds fairly easy but it's not. It's hard. Water isn't easy to come by, bleach had to be borrowed from the clinic of Dolly, the nurse, and bending over the tub washing, rinsing and scrubbing was something I certainly wasn't used to doing. The toys had to be washed and rinsed three times until they were clean but at the end of the day, they were looking pretty good. By night fall, they hadn't totally dried so I decided to leave them out on the porch until bedtime. (You've GOT to know what's coming...).



It was near 9:00 (bedtime) and I was sitting at the table with fellow volunteers Phil, Gaby and Mark when Gaby said, "Did you hear something?" She turned on the porch light and looked out the window and spotted two or three boys running off the porch. They had taken all of the soft toys that were hanging on the bungee cord clothes line, all of the toys drying on a towel on the floor, and most of the toys that were drying on the walls of the porch! My first thought was selfish, poor me, all that work to clean the nursery toys and see what happened? I'm ashamed of that first thought but feel I should be honest with myself and my readers. My second thought was for the nursery kids....they lost about a quarter of their toys but really folks, they weren't that great to begin with. My third thought was that I had to tell Lucy, the orphanage director, about the boys and what they did....they aren't supposed to be on the guest house porch without permission and for sure they aren't supposed to steal! And the last and most important thought, Well what did you expect, Kathy? All of these colorful toys are hanging on a line and on the wall of the guest house and they are just BEGGING to be stolen!



I told Lucy the next day....I thank God I was unable to identify the boys!....she wished that they had been caught and taken to her for discipline. She is very loving and tolerant but I think the boys may have been slapped up side the head for their actions that night! One of the soft blocks were returned to the guest house the next day - a worker found it in the yard. I can imagine a little boy running through the corn in the dark, holding toys in his shirt and losing one and I chuckle thinking of his dilemma!



The nursery babies will never miss those lost toys...they are too young. At first, I felt bad the boys stole the toys - it's not good to steal, right? But when Mark said laughingly, "Kathy, I think there has been a raid!", I realized the situation was too tempting to the little boys and really, what was I thinking? It is not good to steal but for sure it is not good to set up a situation to tempt them to that extent! I hope the little boys have lots of fun playing with those toys! I wish that there were enough toys for the nursery and for the little boys, too, but there are not. If you can help make their lives a little more fun, please contact http://www.raisingmalawi.org/ to make a tax deductible donation and designate the Home of Hope Orphanage as the recipient.

AIDS

This is the story that is hardest to tell...it is the story about the kids and AIDS. I had the merit to volunteer at the Home of Hope orphanage in Mchinje District, Malawi, at the beginning of 2010. The kids are all smiley and silly but many of them are sick. Can you tell which of these kids have AIDS? Well, I can tell you it is more than one. The children in the orphanage do not know who has AIDS on account of it's a big stigma. It is a terrible, life-threatening, debilitating affliction and if I had it, I wouldn't want anyone to know either.

The average life expectancy in Malawi is 39 years old disease-free and 44 years total. From 39 to 44, you may live but you will live with disease and let's just call it like it is...you will "live" with AIDS. One of the volunteers I worked with, Gaby, is a medical doctor. She said if a baby is born to a mother with AIDS, the baby has a 20% chance of having AIDS. If the baby is breast-fed by the mother with AIDS, the chances of contracting the disease increases. Let's say you are a mother with AIDS in a village and you are told that you are increasing the chance that your baby will contract AIDS and die if you breast-feed your baby. What can you do? Your baby is hungry and your baby is crying. You feed your baby is what the mother will do! Gaby isn't optimistic about the life-span of the sick little ones.

There MUST be an alternative to seeing your baby starve or seeing your baby contract AIDS! There must be.......................

Please, if you can make a difference, make a donation to www.raisingmalawi.org and designate the Home of Hope as the recipient.

Where in the World is Malawi?

At the beginning of 2010, with the help of my family and friends, I went to Africa to volunteer at the Home of Hope Orphanage in Mchinji District, Malawi. I first heard of Malawi in 02/2006 while watching a Raising Malawi video about AIDS orphans. So where is Malawi anyway? As the child of a career military officer, I traveled often but frankly, had never heard of Malawi. It was easy to find out about Malawi. It is known as the "Warm Heart of Africa" and is the home of Lake Malawi, formerly known as Lake Nyasaland, which I first heard of after reading about the explorer, John Livingstone. Malawi is a sliver of a country surrounded by Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia. Look closer and you'll see Mchinji, a district in the western portion of central Malawi, about 7 km from the Zambian border.

To get to Home of Hope from Miami, I flew to Washington D.C. (2.5 hours) and then to Johannesburg, S.A. (18 hours with a 1 hour stop in Senegal). There aren't that many flights into Malawi and there was a forced lay-over in Jo-burg of 13 hours. The next day, I flew into Malawi's capitol city of Lilongwe (2.5 hours), and got a car ride to Mchinji District with a couple of volunteers who happened to be in town at a meeting. The Mchinji District Children's Home, known as Home of Hope, is about 50 km but takes a couple of hours because of the condition of the dirt roads during my visit which was during the rainy season.

The trip was a big effort, emotionally and financially, with lots of challenges to overcome. But boy, was it worth it! The children and people of Malawi helped me so much - with appreciation, counting my blessings, thanking God, being grateful for all of my friends, family and loved ones, for showing me that living without material goods is easy, that water is precious, life is short, to be thankful for my good health, to love your children and to love the parent-less children of others. Several people I met on the journey, both coming and going, made commitments to volunteer their time and talents to the kids at the orphanage, including a dentist going home to Senegal from Boston and an executive of a U.S. engineering firm that is constructing dams in Africa. You too can make a difference. The school at the orphanage has no maps...not of the world, Africa nor Malawi. Your donation can help the kids place themselves in the world, in their continent and in their country. Make an effort and receive blessings by making a tax deductible donation to http://www.raisingmalawi.org/ and designate the Home of Hope Orphanage as the recipient.

Toy Story

At the beginning of the year, I had the merit to live for three weeks with the kids of the Home of Hope Orphanage in Mchinji District, Malawi, Africa. After arriving, I visited the nursery and decided to bring the nursery toys back to the guest house and give them a good washing. The toys are pretty old and well-used but the "bebbies" seemed to like them just fine. I guess I was the toy snob and maybe you are too. Take a look at the "Chuckie Doll"...only one limb, a vacant, scary, scratched-out eye and dirty! My first thought was that I would be horrified if this doll is what my son played with when he was a little boy. Well, that's the issue isn't it...these "bebbies" are orphans. Their mothers may not have liked them playing with this doll either...not only is it gross and scary, but it's really really white! And the other toys were comparable. So the toys were washed and most were returned to the nursery (there was a toy raid one night by a few 7 year-olds but that is another story). My thoughts were mostly, "How can these nursery children get some new toys..."

A couple days later, I saw two little boys playing with what looked liked the metal bars from the back of a school chair. One boy was standing on the two parellel bars of the chair which were laying on the ground and the other boy was dragging him down the road by pulling on the two upper bars. They were going back and forth, making furrows in the red dirt, laughing, falling off the bars, trading places and having a good ol' time. The metal is ragged and rusty and dangerous but my thoughts were mostly, "That looks like fun! I would have liked to have been dragged around on scrap metal with my friends...".

One day, the tall grass was cut with scythes by some workers and left to dry. Some of the little ones raked the dried grass into mounds with their hands, burrowed inside the mound and lay still until some unsuspecting person, preferably me, walked by. When I was "least expecting it", the little ones jumped up from the grass with "fierce" expressions and some pretty good roars. Well of course I was scared silly and had to chase and tickle them for revenge! It was so much fun and those were my thoughts, "This is so much fun! I wish I had taken the time to play like this with my son...".

The little ones play with whatever is available - they use their imaginations and they think outside the box and they have a good time with their "toys". On the other hand, the "bebbies" could use a little help. In addition to the "Chuckie" dolls, they have broken and dirty Fisher-Price toys, dirty stuffed toys and toys donated that require batteries (folks - there are NO batteries here!). If you would like to help provide clean, educational and safe toys to the nursery children, please donate to http://www.raisingmalawi.com/ and designate the Home of Hope Orphange as the recipient.