January, 2024
Dear All Friends of Malawi –
I hope 2024 has started well for everyone in our Friends of Malawi community! This letter is an annual January effort to look back at the past year, and look ahead to the next year, from the perspective of the all volunteer board that organizes Friends of Malawi. As the president of the board (having recently been reelected to a second two year term), this is a fun chance to think about how and why it matters that we all stay connected to Malawi – a place that has been important to us all in many different ways.
The most common way the Friends of Malawi membership has been connected to Malawi is through U.S. Peace Corps, and 2023 marked an important milestone in that connection with the return of volunteers after three years of COVID enforced hiatus. If you look at the Peace Corps Malawi website you’ll see that there are currently 12 volunteers carrying on the legacy of 3,155 of us who served at some point in the past!
I’ve had some brief communication with the Peace Corps Malawi office, and they’ve confirmed that those 12 PCVs include four Response Volunteers (the shorter term program for people with specific professional skills) and eight 2-Year Volunteers. They are also expecting another group of two year PCVs in June to work in heath, environment, and education programs, along with a group of Response Volunteers in September. The Lilongwe Peace Corps office is also in a bit of a transition period, with long-time Country Director Amber Lucero-Dwyer having completed her leadership and moving into a Senior Advisor role for the global director of US Peace Corps. I’m told they are hoping to have a new Malawi Country Director within the next few months.
As things slowly get back to a “new normal” for Peace Corps Malawi, we at Friends of Malawi are hoping that will also allow us to reconnect with PCV projects and related opportunities to support our Friends of Malawi mission. During the recent years of COVID impact, we’ve tried to find new ways of fulfilling our primary goals of enhancing connections with Malawi through communication and small grants built off the generosity of our community.
Through much of 2023 our communications team of Sarah Swenson (RPCV 2008-2011 & 2019-2020), Bright Vandervoet (RPCV 2008-2010), Dave Joch (RPCV 2008-2010), and D’Lynn Jacobs (RPCV 2008-2010) worked to offer email updates with interesting and relevant notes whenever available. Dave and D’Lynn have now rotated off of board service – so we’d welcome inquiries from people interested in potentially joining our volunteer comms team. And the National Peace Corps Association is also in the midst of a website hosting transition – which should ultimately be an opportunity for us to update our friendsofmalawi.org web presence, but for now means we are having to learn and (slowly) change some of the back-end of our on-line systems (we appreciate patience as we work to update things!).
On the small grants side of our work, I’ve been grateful for the continuing generosity of our donors and for the work and wisdom of my board colleagues working on small grants (Maurina Makwakwa and Fides Uche) who’ve helped me designate funds for several worthy projects and partner organizations. In recent years, and particularly in the absence of PCV specific projects in Malawi, we’ve developed very constructive relationships with both CorpsAfrica – Malawi and World Connect – Malawi (aka Mudzi Connect). This has allowed us to aggregate donations from many of you to fund specific projects that fit our general mission by being grassroots oriented, involving community contributions, engaging a volunteer spirit, and contributing to village level health, business, and education related endeavors. Some of the projects we were able to support in 2023 included:
- Completing the construction of a Maternity Wing at Nkhande Health Post (which started in 2019, but needed plastering, flooring, plumbing, and fittings to make it operational). This project was coordinated through World Connect and the Muyang’anira Village Development Committee, and is expected to improve access to maternal health care services for over 2000 expectant women per year and improve health for under-five children.
- Completing the Chiendausiku Under-Five Shelter through World Connect and partnership between the Foundation for Sustainable Community Development (FSCD) and the Chiendausiku Health Center. Services provided will include health education, immunization, growth monitoring, prenatal and postnatal care, disease surveillance, nutrition, water and sanitation, contraceptive distribution, and treatment of minor diseases among under-five children.
- Boosting the beekeeping business of the Kayesera Cooperative, increasing production, improving packaging, and enhancing the branding while training its 20 cooperative women members. This project, in collaboration with World Connect, should serve to diversify economic activity in the community while attending to environmental conservation and improved pollination.
- Construction of a timber deck bridge in Mjuma, Rumphi District through a project organized by CorpsAfrica volunteer Nganawe Chiwona. This bridge solved a problem that had been worsening for 15 years, improving opportunities for community members from Mkombezi village to have access to educational services, healthcare services, and the Mjuma Trading Center, and giving community members from Mjuma access to their farms and other services.
- Construction of an under-five clinic in Majete 1, Chikwawa District through a project organized by CorpsAfrica volunteer Reuel Chisomola. This clinic structure was built for the isolated community of Mbingwani, which was 10 kilometers from the nearest health services and had only a temporary waiting shelter that was difficult to use in the rainy season.
- Ongoing support for the Maziko Preschool Project, facilitated by FOM board secretary Eugene Caruso (RPCV 1990-1992) and led by school director Foster Gopani. The funding provided a dynamic preschool learning experience, allowed the construction of a new brick fence, and was accompanied by a trip organized for the children to make a first time visit to the Lilongwe Airport.
- Funding for the relocation of Ligowe Camp Cyclone Freddy Survivors in Thyolo District and the Dzungu community through the facilitation of World Connect and the work of the Chipembere Community Development Organization (CCDO). This project helped to move 50 victims of Cyclone Freddy from the camp into their homes – allowing 45 females and 5 males to reconstruct homes and obtain restart-up funds for economic independence (with an indirect impact on 356 people connected to the relevant households).
All these small grants also benefited greatly from the good work of our FOM treasurer Catherine Pargeter (RPCV 2006-2008; Volunteer Leader 2008-2009), and we also have added Shawn Reagan (RPCV 2011-2013) as a new board member as of the end of 2023. Our official FOM bylaws note that we should have between seven and eleven board members, and we are currently operating with eight – so please do reach out to me ([email protected]) if you have time, interest, and skills you might be interested to volunteer.
As an organization, we are continuing to work on finding the best ways to connect with our members and with Malawi – hoping that 2024 will bring a kinder environment than recent years of pandemics and cyclones, while also trusting that the generosity of our community has enabled us to adapt to whatever may come.
Zikomo!
Andrew Guest (RPCV 1996-1998)