Wanyala

VILLAGE MZATI: Dinnar Phiri

“I am so interested in VSLA, I will be the first person to register!”

Even in villages like Wanyala, where poverty is pervasive, there are some who are relatively better off and some who seem to struggle more than others. Dinnar Phiri, a 45-year-old mother of seven, is just making ends meet. Every cent she and her husband earn goes to meeting her family’s most basic needs – things like food and soap. She is putting one daughter through secondary school, and her brother is paying fees for another daughter to attend.

“We’ve got a lot of responsibilities. We manage, but with problems,” says Dinnar. Her tone hasn’t a trace of self-pity; rather, there’s a sense of urgency that conveys both how long she has waited for an opportunity like the CARE project, and how important it is to her family’s well-being. “If I can start meeting with a VSLA (village savings and loan association), that might assist me. But we haven’t started yet. If we can start that, it will assist me to do something about keeping my children in school.”

Dinnar already has a plan to make and sell banana fritters if she can get a small VSLA loan. That little business could make a big difference for the family because it would mean income year round, rather than the “feast or famine” cycle of their major cash crop, tobacco. And Dinnar has already pledged that any additional income would go to education first: “We want to open our children’s future. If we die, but our children have been educated, I can be at peace with that.”

“People here are very cooperative. We stay together as one family. From when we were very young our parents taught us how to work in a group.” – Lingison Nkhoma, senior group village headman, Wanyala

In the 1950s, as the land along the highway through Santhe trading center grew crowded, the people of the Wanyala chieftaincy set out for the cloudy flank of Sintchere Hill. They bushwhacked through dense forest, fending off leopards and baboons. They saw hope in the clouds that gathered around the small mountain's peak.

“Our grandparents could see there was water here,” says Lingison. “Sintchere is a catchment area. Rainfall is always good around Sintchere.”

Settled at the foot of the hill, as the people of Wanyala found the promise of rain to be true, they also felt their isolation. Alone, they were forced to rely on each other in new ways. People pitched in to build houses and clear fields. If someone fell sick, neighbors helped with the harvest. Wanyala's elders met each week to discuss problems in the town.

Though there is a road and a school in Wanyala now, the nearest health clinic is still many miles away. Even those who could make the distance often lack the money to pay for services.

Five years ago, tired of seeing people die of treatable diseases, the elders of Wanyala decided they should set up a fund, drawn from the community, for health emergencies in the village.

Lingison says he cannot count how many lives have been saved.

Wanyala's elders dream that there will one day be a clinic in town. The doctor, they hope, might be one of their own.“I wish these children could finish school so that they could realize their future,” Nkhoma said. “I wish one day they could be teachers, clerks... and doctors.”