Monday September 10

Hands-on volunteering in the village was a major goal for this solidarity trip.  Due to the dry conditions at the farm, we could not work the land as hoped.  However, the newest project at Makupo is the building of the Chilanga Community Clinic to serve the surrounding community.  Under the auspices of the local church, most of the funding has come from the students at a private school in Montreal – Royal West Academy School.  Doug Miller brought plans with him on this trip.  These plans had been drawn up and donated by a progressive Montreal architect and the OPSEU group agreed to start clearing the land set aside for the clinic.

 

After viewing the plans, the OPSEU team loaded up with hoes and rakes and set off across the road with the Makupo Chief and the village youth – ready to engage in some hard labour!  First we were met by the Reverend Kenneth Chikonde-Phiri who showed us the brick making process and then led us to where the clinic is going to be located.  It has a special meaning, he said, as the site is very close to the major slave trade route that ran through this community right through the 1800s.

 

 

Peter Thompson attacks the brush with a machete

 

Darlene Kaboni working with Chief Makupo

 

 

 

Samantha Payne hoes the dry earth

Shannon Nolan clears last year's maize and other debris

 

Amy Mackinnon hoeing the dry and dusty earth

 

Geraldine Kakeeway surveys the field

 

 

Mary Cory tries out a different kind of hoe

 

 

 

On Monday afternoon we bathed after our dusty work and went into the nearby town of Kasungu to visit the Malawi AIDS Counselling and Resource Organization (MACRO).  Katherine Nashile is the Administrator and she gave us a brief history of their organization.

 
MACRO was one of the organizations set up to fight the spread of HIV/ADIS in Malawi and their goal was to “provide quality HIV Prevention and Treatment Services”.  They were created under the umbrella of the National AIDS Commission and funding comes from the UN Global Fund set up at the G8/G20 meetings in Kananaskis, Alberta 8 years ago, specifically to deal with malaria and AIDS.  Canada has recently withdrawn its funding to the Global Fund, a decision that angers as we continue to witness the dire need in Malawi.  This group travels around the region to remote rural areas, providing counseling, testing and referral services, challenging work in areas with low levels of literacy and poor living conditions. After the Global Fund began to provide Anti-Retro Viral drugs for distribution in countries like Malawi in 2005, the rate of HIV/ADIS has been reduced substantially – almost halved according to Ms. Nashile and her staff.

 One of the main successes in the treatment of HIV/AIDS in Malawi has been the struggle to reduce the stigma and discrimination against those with HIV/AIDS.  Before, especially in rural areas people with HIV/AIDS were chased out of their villages if they were known to have the disease and discrimination in employment was widespread.  A massive educational program has lessened this stigma, making it easier for people to come forward for help. Now of course, there are still many challenges such as a sudden shortage of devised used for testing blood samples at MACRO.  Normally people would be lined up to get into the clinic, but instead today it was almost deserted. As we shook hands with MACRO staff, a poster on the wall confirmed their philosophy:  “Trust your counsellor to provide you with testing in complete confidentiality.  Get tested today!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Colourful cloth in the Kasungu Market - a must stop on the way back to Makupo

 

 

Sunday September 9

This morning our OPSEU group chose among various activities offered by Makupo village.  One group trekked up Kasungu mountain with some of the youth from the village while a second group accompanied some of the village women to church and in the afternoon, others cheered on the Makupo soccer team at their game.

Accompanied by Berea, Fraser, Kenny, Themba and other village youths, the OPSEU group climbed up the Kasungu mountain to a height of over 2,000 ft. and down again in a matter of a few hours.

We made it to the top!  Ascending the mountain tested our breathing capacity but the climb down the rocky mountain path was hard on the knees.

Some of our group went to church and were treated to some beautiful harmonies as different community choirs sang at the service.  The favourite was the boys’ choir from the School for the Blind in Chilanga.

Peter Thompson, Chair of the OPSEU Workers of Colour Caucus is a soccer coach in Windsor Ontario in his spare time.  Somehow he was able to bring 100 soccer shirts, an assortment of soccer shoes and even some soccer balls on this trip.  Imagine the joy of the Makupo soccer team as they wore their new shirts and shoes on Sunday afternoon at the local soccer match.  Normally the young men walk for hours to get to their soccer match and then after the match they walk home again. Today, they came in the minibus with OPSEU members who were their star cheerleaders. Of course our Makupo team won - four goals to three!

We continue to experience difficulties in getting the blog up on a regular basis while in Southern Africa,  so here is a brief report of our activities in the past several days:

Saturday evening, September 8
After the wonderful day spent at the ceremony honouring OPSEU’s contribution to the Nguwo well, we returned home to the village.

 

Geraldine Kakeeway and Amy McKinnon at the “OPSEU well” surrounded by Nguwo village children

 On Saturday evening we were treated to a wonderful musical evening.  Jonathan Lynn is accompanying our group and documenting some of our participation in village life in Malawi.  After fundraising among friends and family in Canada, he brought with him a brand new tenor banjo for the youth of the village – bringing the banjo home to its roots in Africa, he said.  Jonathan and Doug Miller, Canadian Coordinator of the Makupo Development Project, flew ahead of the group to prepare for our arrival.   

Tears flowed once again Saturday evening as we sat and listened to a special song dedicated to OPSEU.

 

OPSEU Plans Action

On Saturday night, September 8, we had our first major debriefing among our group. We had given ourselves a little time to process Friday’s experience before discussing it as a group.

What we had observed at the three schools on Friday had been quite upsetting. All of us felt deeply disturbed about the conditions facing these hundreds of children and we needed to talk it out and also to decide on what we could do to assist the schools in very concrete ways.

We have agreed to collectively buy blankets for the Chilanga School for the Blind dormitory for boarders and to contribute some food to the schools, once again for the boarders who quite clearly do not get enough food right now.

Some of our members with extensive experience in international solidarity work summed up the need to translate our feelings of guilt and hurt into taking action in our unions and communities. We have only been in Makupo village for a few days but already we are planning how to take our message back to OPSEU members and regions. More about that later…

Uplifting tribute to OPSEU

Today we want to focus on a very uplifting tribute to OPSEU.

This morning, Saturday, September 8, we started early in the morning and walked 4 kilometres to Nguwo village for a special ceremony. Hundreds of local women, men and children and the elders or headmen (village leaders from all around) greeted us at about 3.5 kilometres into our walk. The women danced and sang ahead of us and escorted the OPSEU delegation to the ceremony.

As we approached a large cleared area of red earth, we saw a beautiful well and pump with a huge sign emblazoned on it: OPSEU Umodzi Solidarity 2012 and we were overcome with emotion. OPSEU members and staff were specially seated around the well and Thedore Saka, a 93-year-old village elder, welcomed us and thanked OPSEU on behalf of the almost 1000 people who have benefitted from the new well.

 

 

 

Women danced for us, a young woman sang for us, young men danced and drummed for us, a young girl recited a thank you poem, there was a special play produced for us focusing on village life before and after the well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

OPSEU Executive Board member, Mary Cory, thanked the gathering on our behalf and after a few hours of wonderful celebrating we left, exhausted but exhilarated and extremely proud to represent our union OPSEU here in Malawi.

 

OPSEU delegation visits 3 schools near Makupo village

On Friday September 7 the OPSEU delegation visited 3 schools near Makupo village and each school was an emotional experience in itself.

Under the colonial system, before Independence in 1964, there were only 6 high schools for 4 million people. Many Missionary schools were set up to fill the void and what has happened since is that the churches are still big funders of education and health in Malawi.  Government schools were set up but in many cases, where there were church schools, they have remained dependent upon these churches.

The Chilanga Community Day Secondary School, the Chilanga Sighted Primary School Chilanga School for the Blind are facing many challenges as they try to provide basic education for their students. Overcrowded classrooms, students in dormitories with little food, classrooms with no desks, the list is endless.

We began our visit with the Chilanga Community Day Secondary School.  There are 1200 students with 14 qualified teachers and 8 students teachers assisting this year.  Although there is an official policy for a ratio of 1 to 60, obviously there are many more students accommodated in each class.  When the Bishops University (Quebec) volunteer group came in 2011 the group asked what was the greatest need at the school.  The response was a science lab and that's what was built and equipment has just come in for the new school year 2012/2013.

As we toured the schools we were struck by the lack of nutritional food for the boarders at the secondary school and the Scool for the Blind.  As well, we were shocked to learn that teh boraders at the School for the Blind had not blankets of their own. 

 

Meeting the Secondary school principal and other staff

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Supplies of maize flour for students boarders - but the diet is sadly lacking in protein and fresh vegetables.

The church school where the dictator Banda went to school.

Chlanga School of the Blind student, Judah types a message for us with amazing speed.

A maize grinding mill which brings in additional income to the School for the Blind.

We had brought with us quite a lot of school books, pens, pencils, crayons, etc. and distributed these to the 3 schools at Chilanga.  However, after a sobering tour of these schools, our group decided to collectively contribute to some small projects before we left the village.  We collected enough money to donate 23 blankets to the School for the Blind boarders, as well as a substantial amount to each of the Chilanga Community Secondary School and the Chilanga School for the Blind to purchase more protein based food and vegetables for their scholl boarders.  The principale has sent a thank you message on video and we will have it up soon!