70 Malawians receive training in Moringa cultivation and processing

The Moringa training organised by the UMCOR was aimed at providing adequate knowledge to the Malawi United Methodist Church (MUMC)  about the Moringa plant and its nutrition and  economic benefits. The 5 day training each was held in Blantyre and Mchinji with 33 and 37 participants respectively.

Participants of the Moringa Training in Blantyre

 

The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection (REZ) supports Moringa Forests initiative programs in Malawi in partnership with the Malawi United Methodist Church (MUMC). Currently, the program has three sites, Nacholi, Nsanje and Madisi. REZ and MUMC desire to continue establishing seedlings of Moringa tree to later transplant and incorporate into forestry systems of farming. This will also help in the prevention of malnutrition. The communities shall continue to have fully functioning nurseries to provide seedlings for Moringa forestry systems, promoted by trainings by UMCOR. Thus, a Moringa forestry system supported by a fully functioning Moringa tree nursery has become the preferred means of addressing the problems associated with malnutrition with the Malawi church.

Mozart Adevu and his wife Janet took the participants through the harvesting of the Moringa leaves, preparation of powder with the leaves as well as its nutrients and medicinal benefits.

Mozart and Janet Adevu

 

Mozart demonstrating stem planting

 

Participants learning how to treat the leaves

 

Drying Moringa leaves hygienically

 

Participants with their harvested Moringa leaves

 

A participant doing a return demonstration of Moringa stem planting

 

Mercy translating a question from a participant to Mozart

 

A woman pounding Moringa leaves into powder

The participants treating Moringa leaves in groups

Cooking lessons: participant making Moringa omelet

 

Moringa omolete

Participants processing Moringa powder

 

Janet demonstrating how to clean the Moringa leaves

 

Moringa Tree

 

Mr Stony Subili, the leader of the participants  expressed gratitude to UMCOR and all the organizers for their support in the training and assured them that they would in turn teach other individuals in the various communities that they were coming from to help them become self-employed.

One of the Byson Chimatiro, said, “When I was coming here, I had musculoskeletal pains, but since I started taking the Moringa powder for the past 4 days, they are all gone. Thanks to Moringa”

“Thank you UMCOR, REZ and MUMC for the wonderful training. We will never be the same” last words from participants.

 

By Mercy Chikhosi Nyirongo

 

 

 

 

Poverty Eradication in Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVCs) – Counting down

Madisi in Dowa district  is one of the many communities that has been seriously affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Malawi. The epidemic has significantly increased the number of vulnerable children. The estimated number of orphans in Madisi is 10,000.  It is against this background that the Malawi United Methodist Church (MUMC), The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection (REZ) and ZOE ministry aim at improving the lives of children made vulnerable by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, poverty, and other socio-economic factors.

The program which started in January, 2013 has identified 377 OVCs households approximately 1,800 children with their  ages ranging from 1 – 21 years. They are grouped in 16 working groups. According to the ZOE model, it gives hope to orphans and breaking the cycle of poverty in Africa within 3 years and Malawi is privileged to be one of the chosen countries. ZOE transforms lives of OVCs in their own living environment by providing them with skills, trainings and resources to make them independent and being able to take care of their own needs. It is not about relief but development.

Members of Tinyade Working group

The children dancing during ZOE community awareness meeting

 

The children showing their acting skills

 

Edgar Chinkhata, 20 yrs, during his carpentry training

 

 

Estere Amosi, 20 yrs old, during her tailoring training

Members of Lonjezo working group clearing land for their group project

 

The program is also advocating for right of OVCs and stigma reduction.

 

STAY TUNED!!!!!!!!!!!

 

By Mercy Chikhosi Nyirongo

 

 

 

 

A look at Meals of Hope in 2012

Magret Nkhoma, a client in the nutrition program with meals of hope

Meals of Hope is a nutritious meal (http://meals-of-hope.org/about-meals-of-hope/) that was packed at The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in response to hunger and malnutrition challenges facing The Malawi United Methodist Church. The program is run in 10 districts with 22 feeding sites. It also recruits under five children and adults living with HIV/AIDS in two nutrition clinics. The feeding sites are community based run whereby communities provide labour and firewood for the preparation of the meals.

“When I joined the program, I was weighing 34kgs but a month into the program, I am now weighing 4okgs. I have been on ARVs for 3 years now, but to get food was main problem. I lost a husband and there is no one to support me. Thanks to the church for saving my live. I could have been dead now” testifies Magret Nkhoma an adult client in Nancholi.

Women waiting for their children to be screened at Madisi Nutrition clininc

Plates of meals of hope ready to be served

The MUMC partnered with Talimba to serve the children better in Blantyre

Meals of Hope in Mchinji

Mercy washing hands of children in Amin Village, Balaka

Mercy with the care givers in Balaka

Baby  Chisomo at Nancholi nutrition clinic

Baby Chisomo is 2 years old and has protein Energy Malnutrition and looks edematous. She can not manage to eat the rice, therefore, her mother is advised to grind the meal into powder and make porridge for her baby. “The porridge out of this rice is very delicious, my baby likes it very much and I have no problems in preparing it. It is really improving the health of my baby. Before I joined the program, she was weak and inactive but now she interacts with her friends” said Chisomo’s mother.

Meals of hope at Chimwemwe street kids center in Blantyre

Children singing after receiving meals of hope

A group of people living positively in Nancholi

ARVs are free in Malawi and most of people living with HIV/AIDS have access to them. The problem is food and Meals of Hope is covering that gap to save these lives.

Volunteers at Nancholi nutrition clinic

The vehicle behind most of the Meals distribution

Mercy and the volunteers she mentors in Nancholi

Meals of Hope in Balaka

Children having their meal at a community based feeding program

Serving the meals at a community based feeding site in Nsanje

Children waiting to be served with meals of hope

Children having their meal at a feeding site in Blantyre

Villagers taking meals of hope on foot due to impassable roads

Mercy explaining how the meals are prepared to the care givers in Bwanje

The Meals of Hope program continues to save lives in 2013. Thanks to REZ and MUMC for giving our children a meal a day.

By Mercy Chikhosi Nyirongo

The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection supports school construction in Balaka, Malawi

Primary school education is free in Malawi because most parents live below the poverty line and could not afford school fees. This has increases the number of children going to school but poor infrastructure has comprised the quality of education. Primary school takes 8 years in Malawi from standard 1 to 8.  Malawi was ranked the worst in high drop out rate from primary school level in the region.

Mchinji primary school in group village headman Makuta, Traditional Authority Msamala in Balaka district is not an exceptional. Makuta community saw the construction of a school block as a need in order to upgrade the junior primary school to standard 8. Therefore, The United Methodist church of the Resurrection (Rez) in partnership with The Malawi United Methodist Church (MUMC) are supporting the community to construct a school block with two classrooms through Community Health Evangelism (CHE). The program focuses on community participation thereby increasing community ownership.

Current classrooms (Std. 3 – 5)

The above classrooms were built by the community members themselves. “This school has standard 1 – 5 only. Our children, especially girls do not continue school after standard 5. They can hardly walk about 10kms to the next primary school to continue to std. 8, hence the need to upgrade this school” said group village headman Makuta.

The process of constructing the classrooms involved all stakeholders from the beginning.

Community discussion meeting for the construction of the classrooms

Brick ovens

The community molded and baked bricks for the classrooms. The community has 17 villages and each village was given a task to complete according to number of its households. The government education office in the district supported the project with standard plan of a classroom  so that the construction meets government standards.

under a tree classroom

Pupils learning under a tree

The foreman of the project explaining about the progress of project to Mercy

Two classrooms under construction

Window blocks

Pupils of Mchinji Primary School

The construction of the two classrooms has brought joy to the entire Makuta community that women could not help it but dance as it is the culture in the “Warm Heart of Africa”.

Women of Makuta

The project is expected to finish by early February, 2013.

By Mercy Chikhosi Nyirongo

Positive change in a challenging environment – Mwachedwa Village

Nsanje is a district in the southern most part of Malawi. The shire river runs most of the district’s eastern boundary. It is one  the poorest district in Malawi and its major income comes from small holder maize farming. The crops depend entirely on rain fed agriculture.

It is against this back ground that the people of Mwachedwa village, Traditional Authority Mbenje in the district have embarked on irrigation farming to make positive change in their lives by utilizing the waters (available resource) from the Shire river.

Irrigation at Zwaki

According to local chief Mwachedwa, the community has only two treadle pumps against almost 500 households. “These pumps were given to us by the government. We use them in groups but they are not enough, we are many. But still we manage to plant maize two times a year. If we had enough pumps, we can manage to plant at least three to four times a year thereby fighting hunger” said chief Mwachedwa.

Mercy being taught how to use a treadle pump

Water channels diverted from the Shire river for irrigation

“We are fed up of begging. We are fed up of having our children malnourished, we have the land, the water, the energy, why should we not feed our children and ourselves? Next time you come, we promise you, you are going to see a difference” narrated Gogo Nachilongo

Mercy listening to the community leaders as they narrate their story

When it is their turn to use the treadle pump, the families abandon their homes and make the fields their home. This is to make sure that they maximize the chance because the two pumps rotate among the members and takes time to come back to the same group.

One of the sleeping shelters

“This place has a lot of mosquitoes, therefore we make sure we bring our sleeping nets with us. Especially, with our young ones, we want them to sleep under a mosquito net always” said one of the mothers

Babies in the field

A man irrigating using the pump

In as much as most of the fields are green, other parts are dry and the maize was dying because the pump is taking long to reach this group and the owners use buckets for irrigation.

The other part of the fields

Zero tolerance to hunger, zero tolerance to malnutrition!

 

By Mercy Chikhosi Nyirongo

MUMC and REZ conduct school health screening at Katengeza Primary School in Dowa

School health screens are often the best way to detect problems that interfere with pupils’ education. The Malawi United Methodist Church (MUMC) in partnership The United Methodist church of the Resurrection (REZ) conducted a three day school screening at Katengeza primary school from 22nd – 24th October, 2012 in Madisi, Dowa district. Katengeza has a population of 625 children from standard 1 – 8. The program managed to screen the junior primary school (standard 1 – 5) which comprised of 417 pupils.

The school screening is one of the programs under community Health Evangelism (CHE). CHE aims at neighborhood transformation whose purpose is to bring together JESUS’ Great Commission found in Matthew 28:19 – 20. It also focuses on maternal care, childcare, home care and prevention of diseases.

Katengeza Primary School in Dowa district

The pupils were screened for vision, BMI, physical assessment and hemoglobin test.

Mercy registering the children during the screening

 

Cindy checking the pupils’ vision

Macdonald Luhanga checking height of the pupils

 

REZ team Checking weight of the babies

Dr Scott conducting a physical assessment

From a beggar to a successful farm owner

Christopher kilimi, 19 years old is an orphan with 6 siblings. He comes from MAUA, Meru, Kenya. He lost both patents and Christopher is the head of the family. He is in his first year with ZOE ministry – an organization that  empowers and gives hope to orphans in Africa.

Christopher Kilimi (right) with Chris, an orphan he adopted, at his farm

“Before i joined ZOE, i used to be a beggar but now i can no longer beg. I own this farm. I have employed two workers. I am able to sent my other siblings to school,” narrated Christopher.

Christopher showing his farm

Christopher is a member of Blessing ZOE group. ZOE’s emphasis is on food security, health and hygiene, children’s rights economic empowerment, making disciples of Christ, HIV/AIDS awareness among other things.

Part of Christopher’s farm

Onions at Christopher’s farm

Christopher’s farm is all green and uses modern methods of farm. It has a variety of crops at different levels

Christopher’s farm has different crops at different levels

Cattle belonging to Christopher

Christopher’s calves

When asked about his dream Christopher had this to say, ” i want to have a big house for my family, a car like that one (pointing at a ZOE 4×4 Toyota Hilux) and marry”.

Christopher’ s dream

Christopher showing his dream while members of his group look on

Blessing ZOE group with the Malawi team

The orphans have individual and group projects and they assist each other when need be. This day, they were assisting Christopher to apply organic manure in his farm

Members of Blessings group assisting to work in Christopher’s farm

ZOE staff at Christopher’s farm house

Christopher’s prepared flesh green maize from his farm for the team to eat.

Green Maize from Christopher’s farm

Just in less than a year with ZOE, Christopher is no longer a beggar but has enough for himself and his siblings. Thanks to ZOE

ZOE, indeed empowering orphans in Africa and giving them hope.

By Mercy Chikhosi Nyiromgo