MAY 2005

Global Office Visit to Mozambique and Malawi

Dr. Tadesse, Vice President, and Jennifer Thomson, Senior Program Officer for Africa, visited THP-Mozambique and THP-Malawi between April 28^th and May 8^th, as part of a tour of THP’s programs in southern Africa. The following is their report of their visit.

Here are some highlights of our visits to THP-Mozambique and THP-Malawi in late April and early May. In each country, under the capable leadership of the THP Country Director in Malawi and the African Woman Food Farmer Initiative (AWFFI) Coordinator in Mozambique, our partners are demonstrating that they can end their own hunger and poverty if given the opportunity through community mobilization, training, access to credit and other resources provided in partnership with The Hunger Project.

Mozambique

In Mozambique, we visited the women partners in the seven areas where the AWFFI program is active. Currently, AWFFI is the only program of THP-Mozambique, although we hope to expand in 2006 to introduce the full THP Epicenter strategy in each area. However, in all of the areas, the AWFFI program has mobilized the women to improve their income-generating activities through access to AWFFI credit, and has also ensured that all of the women attend literacy classes; health training, especially for HIV/AIDS prevention, as well as basic business management and book keeping skills. In our discussions about the impact of the AWFFI program on the women’s lives, one woman told us “Don’t you see how beautiful I am now? I am healthy. My family and I now have good clothes to wear. My children are now eating well and are able to go school.”

In our meetings everywhere, the AWFFI partners demonstrated what they have learned about HIV/AIDS prevention by performing entertaining skits that demonstrated the behavior changes men and women must make to protect themselves and others from the disease. In the photo below, two AWFFI women at the Machava Epicenter play the roles of a man and wife who decide to use condoms to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS.

AWFFI women’s skit about HIV/AIDS prevention

At the Maniça area, the women demonstrated what they had learned in the literacy classes, including writing their names and words in the local language, as well as doing basic math problems. In the photo below, an AWFFI woman tackles some addition.

Literacy demonstration at the Maniça Epicenter

The AWFFI program is progressing well in each area and all groups are on their second or third cycle of credit. The women in the Chokwe area hope to be the first THP-Mozambique Epicenter to form their own rural bank for official government recognition in 2006, and they plan to start the special rural bank training this year in preparation.

Malawi

After our visits in Mozambique, we proceeded to Malawi where we were able to visit the two Epicenters in Jali and Nchalo, the two Sub-Epicenters in Mpingo and Nsondole, as well as a new area where mobilization is just beginning this year to form a new Ligowe Epicenter.

One of the major highlights of this trip included seeing the people’s satisfaction in their success in filling all of the food banks full of maize in each Epicenter and Sub-Epicenter. This achievement has special significance considering that only two years ago, in 2003, the country suffered a severe food shortage that caused widespread hunger in the country. In the THP-Malawi Epicenters, it was the food banks that protected the population from the worst effects of that period of hunger. In the picture below, the Jali Epicenter Food Bank Committee poses with pride in front of the maize that was grown in the communal gardens and stored in the Jali Epicenter Food Bank.

Jali Epicenter Food Bank Committee in the food bank.

In each Epicenter, the success of the food bank is due to the vision, commitment and hard work of the men and women in the villages. For example, in the Nkwazi Village of the Nchalo Epicenter, the community has implemented canal irrigation (pictured below) to improve production of maize, beans and rice.

Irrigation scheme managed by a village in the Nchalo Epicenter

During our visit to the Nchalo Epicenter, we also had the pleasure to award literacy certificates to the 58 learners (50 women and 8 men) who had recently passed the literacy test after attending the literacy classes facilitated by THP-Malawi. In the picture below, one woman, with her young baby on her back, happily received her graduation certificate from Dr. Tadesse.

A literacy graduate receives her certificate from Dr. Tadesse at the Nchalo Epicenter.

In a village in the Jali Epicenter, we had the privilege to meet one of the Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) trained by THP-Malawi. We met her at her home, where she has rooms where she assists the women in the birthing process, and we were welcomed enthusiastically by about 100 women with their babies that the TBA had helped to deliver. The TBA told us that since she received her training, no baby she helped deliver had died, except for who was born premature at 7 months. You could feel the gratitude of the women for the TBA who had surely saved many of them and their babies from illness and death.

Healthy mothers and their babies delivered by a Jali Epicenter TBA

The AWFFI women in each Epicenter have continued to expand their activities in leaps and bounds. The woman pictured below, from the Mpingo Sub-Epicenter, started pig farming after hearing that the AWFFI women in the Jali and Nchalo Epicenters were very successful. And in fact, she was able to use her AWFFI loan to get pigs from the AWFFI pig farmers in Nchalo!

A new AWFFI pig farmer in the Mpingo Sub-Epicenter

In each visit to the Epicenters, Dr. Tadesse conducts a Vision Commitment and Action (VCA) Workshop for the community. At the VCA conducted at the Mpingo Epicenter (pictured below), over 800 people participated enthusiastically, demonstrating their commitment to work together and in partnership with THP to end hunger in their families and villages.

Participants in the VCA workshop at the Mpingo Epicenter

The communities in the two Sub-Epicenters of Mpingo and Nsondole expressed their strong desire to become full Epicenters in the near future. In fact, the Nsondole Sub-Epicenter is already constructing the extra facilities needed to become a full Epicenter, as shown in the picture below, and have added 10 villages to the 20 villages that were already working together in partnership with The Hunger Project. They should be functioning as a full Epicenter in a few months.

Constructing the full Epicenter at the Nsondole Sub-Epicenter

We ended our visits in Malawi with a VCA in a new area where the people are mobilizing to form the new Ligowe Epicenter. In the photos below, the newly elected men and women of the Ligowe Epicenter Committee pledge their commitment to work with their community members from 27 villages to end of hunger and poverty in 5 years by working together in partnership with The Hunger Project.

Men and women of the new Ligowe Epicenter Committee

Community members participating in the VCA at the new Ligowe Epicenter

Having seen the progress and achievements attained in the other Epicenters and Sub-Epicenters, we left the Ligowe Epicenter and Malawi with no doubt in our minds that - with commitment, good leadership, and concerted action - the communities of Ligowe would be able to succeed in their vision of ending hunger in their villages in partnership with THP-Malawi.