Poverty in Malawi Post #2

World Relief Mzimba is working with 30 nursery schools (CBCC’s – community based childcare centers), so there a wide variety and diverse range of communities and schools we are working with. The differences between them are obvious. While some are eager to pair with World Relief and work to better their nursery schools, others are less eager for various reasons. While some communities accept the conditions that WR has, and are eager to receive the resources and training, embracing us with open arms and thanking us for helping them, others are less welcoming and less open to working with WR to meet the conditions. The conditions for receiving WR training and support are that the community should 1) build a separate building for the nursery school 2) dig toilets for the kids 3) make a kitchen or storeroom to feed the kids one meal a day 4) have a garden to help sustain the school and the community. Because Malawi (I think I may be repeating myself) is an agriculture society, making the bricks and the building, fulfilling the requirements are not that difficult, as shown by many groups who are already on their way, constructing the building and very happy to take part in the programs that WR is providing. Others, however, are less convinced that they need WR or should take part in the child development program. Reasons for this are that some people are receiving donations from other organizations, so they feel as if the donations are enough to maybe sustain their programs, they don’t need their own self-sufficient programs, if money and education are coming for free, why do the work themselves? Also, many expect WR to do more work, provide building materials or pay the workers to teach the kids, it’s misunderstood that WR provides the development ideas and basic resources (chalkboards, caregiver training) in order to encourage the community to provide a sustainable system for themselves. But after hearing from those groups, we hear from a group who gives thanks for those who are lazy, because then it gives them the chance to work with organizations like WR and get the offered resources. Lol, I think Owen was a little amused that the one group was specifically giving thanks for the laziness of others.

Laziness – this is one of the main points of this writing. In my work here in Malawi, I have seen communities who are hard-working, eager to make progress and work out of poverty, and others who are lazy, who don’t necessary seek progress and don’t necessary see the need to go beyond the status quo. Yes, this point maybe a little controversial – that people can be poor because they are lazy.
If I heard this argument coming from someone else, I would refute it immediately, saying, “wait a minute, what about all the circumstances, problems, etc. etc.” However, please hear me out. A colleague whom I work with brought this up, that some think that Malawians are poor because they are lazy, and another colleague, confirmed it, that in some cases this is true. And I think he is right, based on what we see at WR, some people are just fine with where they are in life, whether or not they are living with nothing or not. Now, this can be good, Malawians are always very kind and warm and generous, despite if they are living in the most desperate of circumstances. This kind of contentment or grace is not what I am talking against. But in any case of community development or when trying to help people to live a life out of poverty so their children may have clothes with no holes and families may have food on the table three meals a day, the satisfaction with a low status quo can be discouraging. Laziness in working out of poverty is evident in WR’s agribusiness program, where some communities can take a crop or livestock program and see the potential profit and benefits, others are easily discouraged. They complain about not seeing results fast enough, give up after one successful crop, or fail to get ready or take care of the animals they are given. So WR has to work really hard to motivate the communities and say, “no, this will work, just give it time and invest in the programs.” Like one community was going to receive a delivery of piglets to jumpstart their farming program. The piglets were arriving on Saturday, on Wednesday we visited, and no construction had started on the pig pen. Where were they planning to keep the pigs until the pigpen was constructed? In someone’s house. : ) And the concept of agribusiness here is new, so it’s not easy understandably, it’s not just changing a person’s method of gaining income, but a person’s way of thinking and their lifestyle, so needless to say, the job can be a little trying at times. For child development, it comes down to whether the committees have gotten the school buildings built in time for training in July or not. Some committees have their building done, some have their bricks all ready, others....they’re thinking about it...they may start thinking harder about it...hmmm. Also, right now is the time for harvesting, so some teachers/caregivers will go out in the gardens to harvest instead of showing up for school, also if there is a funeral, the caregivers might not show. This gets hard when harvest last for a whole season and when funerals are frequent, which is very sad to say. But if the caregivers don’t show up, then the kids don’t learn, and then the kids don’t show up for class either. Lesson planning, or a schedule, is something we’re talking about with the caregivers, but this week alone, we visited one center, 45 minutes away, 3 times before we found the kids and the caregivers at the center. A couple of days we have visited 3 different centers and at each we have not found the caregivers or the kids, the kids sometimes show up and there’s no teachers, sooo back home they go! No school, sometimes for days at a time...woohoo!

Again, not saying that Malawians don’t work hard in all circumstances and that they aren’t absolutely wonderful people, they are so nice and I would not want to be anywhere else, it’s really wonderful here, just some food for thought I guess. The question might be then, why help people that might not want the help? And that may not be the case, and others may have a clearer picture on this issue than me...but community development is important, and especially child development, when it comes to helping kids have the chance to have a good education and perform better in school, I think it matters to persist and try hard to help caregivers and communities to meet the needs of the kids.

There is a confirmed difference between kids who attend nursery school before primary school and with those who don’t. The skills that they are learning in school are not only their ABC’s or 123’s, but how to interact with others and interact within a classroom atmosphere. Teachers say that the biggest difference between kids who attend nursery school and those who don’t before entering primary school, is not only their academic performance, but their ability to interact with others and communicate well in the classroom, basic skills necessary to do well in any schooling. The primary school principals and teachers we have talked to have said exactly these things, that nursery school is important and that there is a world of difference between those that attend the schools and those that don’t.
Yeah, so...that’s it for now. Comments?