What’s New with Enita and Chigodi Village
As a village team member of Chigodi village, we invite you to check back often to follow the successes and challenges of Enita and other members of the Chigodi village as they begin to work with CARE through the Join My Village program. Here’s what’s happening now:
April/May, 2010
April and May have brought many reasons for celebration for the Join My Village communities in Kasungu. The tobacco and maize harvests have been good, there is once again enough food for everyone and the local markets are bustling with new business. Similar to the crops that were planted many months ago and have finally yielded valuable results, the seeds of change planted by the Join My Village program are also starting to bear fruit in a multitude of ways.
With the distribution of 160 girls’ secondary school scholarships, children are studying harder in anticipation of securing their own scholarship in the future. According to Lufina James, member of one of the Village Savings & Loan Association (VSLA) groups in Nguluwe, “Students are more eager to go to class. Parents who were not that keen on school are now keen.” All of this excitement is only heightened by the new construction of teachers’ houses across several of the villages. Communities know that a new teacher’s house guarantees at least one new instructor for their local school – a much needed resource when some teachers are currently instructing over one hundred children per class.
People are finally seeing the results of their committed saving through the VSLA groups and new businesses are popping up across the villages. Katrina Mwale, mzati in Tembwe village, said that evidence of the diligence of VSLA groups who stuck out the lean months is everywhere. “There are so many businesses – samosas (fried pastries filled with meat or vegetables), beer, doughnuts, sugar cane and others too. It's because of Join My Village.”
To celebrate the amazing changes taking place in the Join My Village communities, we brought all ten mzatis together in Kasungu to share their stories of challenge and success, learn from each other and celebrate all they have worked so hard to accomplish this first year of the program. Margret Banda, 8th grader and mzati of Katukula village, probably put it best when she commented on her first trip to Kasungu, “If I have been to Kasungu, I know I can do anything.”
Through this first year of Join My Village, we have indeed seen that anything and everything is possible – and we have only just begun.
Updates from Chigodi Village
- Enita Banda is feeling better after she was treated for chest pains in March. This is a good thing since she's been hard at work recruiting and training new Village Savings & Loan Association (VSLA) groups in Chigodi. By the end of April, she had begun to train four new groups.
- Recruitment is easy. People in Chigodi have seen how well the VSLA groups are doing and even relatively well-off residents have come to Enita to ask her to train them. “Even the staff of Chigodi Primary School is asking that I train them and they have government salaries. Even the chiefs are becoming members.”
- Business is going well for members of Enita's Chifundo (Chichewa for “mercy”) VSLA group. “Now things are better this month because people are selling their tobacco and their crops and they can afford to buy new things.”
February/March, 2010
Villages in Kasungu are feeding their guests again. In Malawi, if a village can feed visitors, it does. So, when the plates of nsima and greens with beans and drumsticks stopped this December, we knew it was likely people in the villages were not eating themselves. But, on visits in February and March, villages were once again welcoming guests with local treats. The signs that things are getting better are everywhere. Riverbeds that were dry have filled to bursting. The maize is ripe in the fields. Nutritious pumpkins and squash crowd at the stalks of the tobacco plants. Tobacco hangs to dry in every available shelter: from the ceilings of clinics, classrooms and is strung from the thatch of bedrooms. Though tobacco auctions haven't opened, it can be sold locally to buy small necessities like salt, soap and beans, and there is paying work to be found picking and stitching and drying the leaves. As the cash begins to flow, the small businesses set up by VSLA members are prospering. The members themselves are investing more.
Across Kasungu, communities continue to increase their trust in the Join My Village team. One reason is that the VSLA groups are starting to see results – their savings have grown and their businesses are bringing in new money. Another is that over 110 girls' high school scholarships were distributed in January and February.
The scholarships had a far greater impact than anyone at Join My Village had anticipated. Primary schools saw scores of girls returning to class. Many had not seen the point of finishing primary school, which is free in Malawi, when they knew that their families could not pay for high school.
Hope has indeed returned to the Join My Village communities, and the seeds of change that have been planted over the past nine months are growing strong roots for a promising future.
- Girls Education
- 113 secondary school scholarships distributed to girls across all of the villages (20 of the girls are from Chigodi village)
- 15 group village schools have received new reference materials, including English Dictionaries, English Grammar books, World Maps and Blackboard Rulers
- 8 new female teachers’ houses have been planned and materials secured, with a planned completion of June
- Village Savings and Loan Association Groups
- 55 Village Savings & Loans Association Groups have saved a total of $4,707 (over 700,000 Kwacha)!
- This averages out to $6 per person, which is nearly 5% of the average Malawian’s annual income of $160
- In Chigodi, there are four groups with a total of 66 members and savings to date of $562
Updates from Chigodi Village
- The prospect of a scholarship brought dozens of girls back to Chigodi's Santhe Primary School. Last year's eighth grade class had 38 girls. This year there are 62 girls in the eighth grade. “Before the Join My Village program, most girls thought, 'Even if we finish the eighth grade and are selected for secondary, there won't be any school fees for us,'” said Gustino Tembo, of Chigodi's School Management Committee.
- Chigodi is looking out for its scholarship girls. In March, the School Management Committee went to check on some of the girls who had won places at Santhe Secondary School. “They are doing well,” Tembo says. “The report cards weren't out yet but we went through their exercise books and they seem good.”
- Enita's daughter Ruth also won a scholarship to study at Chigodi Secondary School. “She is happy with school,” Enita says. “She is loved in school because she is good at many things.” For Enita, who had to leave school in the eighth grade herself, Ruth's scholarship was a relief. “Honestly, if it weren't for Join My Village, she wouldn't have gone to school,” Enita says. “I was very, very happy when she won.”
- Three new VSLA groups were formed in Chigodi this winter. Part of the reason may be that they have seen how well Enita's own Chifundo (“mercy”) group has done. “Many women are joining the VSLAs because they are admiring what we are doing,” Enita says. “One of our members has a tea room. Somebody is selling sodas. Another is knitting. Somebody is making pottery. Somebody is selling doughnuts. Somebody is ordering paraffin from town and selling it.”
- In March, after months of heavy work in the fields, Enita felt a pain in her chest. She went to a clinic where she was treated for malaria but she did not improve. As she rested at home and waited for an appointment with a specialist in Malawi's capital, Lilongwe, she was not alone. “The VSLA group has been here,” she says. “They are really visiting me. They are very worried.” She promised to update Join My Village's Kasungu team as soon as she found out what was wrong.
January, 2010
- In October Chifundo (Chichewa for “mercy”) VSLA chose Enita as its chairwoman. In her new role, Enita coordinates the meeting procedures for the VSL group, which includes calling the meeting to order, announcing the agenda and facilitating discussions to ensure every member’s view is heard. As chairperson, Enita also represents the group to visitors and non-members, including government officials.
- By early December the group had saved 9,800 Kwacha ($68) and began making loans to members.
- In many VSLAs around Kasungu people tend to use their loans to do the same types of businesses as other members of their group. Chifundo made sure to diversify. “It is something that we discussed in the group,” Enita says. “Not everyone should be selling mandazi because someone may come one day and say nobody is buying my mandazi! Even in knitting we decided some should be knitting sweaters and other shawls.”
- Enita has saved 1,200 Kwacha ($8.28) with the group so far. Coming up with money for each meeting has grown increasingly tough. “It has been very difficult to find this money,” Enita says. She ran out of corn this month and now she is living off money from her peanut and soya bean crops.
- Enita's first loan was a conservative one. She borrowed 1,000 Kwacha ($6.90) to make doughnuts – “mandazi” in Chichewa -- to sell at the primary school. The timing is right, Enita thinks. “Mandazi business is very quick in Christmas time,” she says.
- For Christmas Enita bought some rice and meat for Ruth and her brothers, Gordon and Chikondi – a real treat in Kasungu where many rural families only eat meat on special occasions. Afterwards, they went to watch a soccer match at the school.
December, 2009
The hungry season, which lasts from December until February or March, is a precarious time for people in Kasungu's villages. In years like this one, when the last harvest was scant, grain stores are exhausted by December and new crops will not be ready until March, or sometimes later. All too often, simply focusing on survival trumps plans for the future. Because so many people rely solely upon agriculture, crucial things like education, a roof to keep the rain out and good health – a mother's best intentions – are subject to the whimsy of annual weather systems.
This is exactly the vicious cycle that Join My Village was designed to help break. By introducing the Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA) model, villagers (in particular women) have a new opportunity to diversify their incomes by learning how to save their money, earn interest, borrow from their groups and start new businesses that do not rely solely on farming. By enabling women to earn an income for their families, and have a new-found voice in the household’s financial decisions, history has shown that more children, especially girls, have the opportunity to complete their primary educations and often continue onto secondary school. Coupled with the secondary school scholarships to be funded through Join My Village, the program provides a powerful one-two punch to loosen the grip that the “hungry season” has traditionally had on these villages.
Tufwe Mwafulirwa, a veteran VSLA trainer with CARE, has seen groups in rural Malawi grow their savings from nothing to as much as 600,000 Kwacha ($4,166.67) as women establish durable businesses. “This is the peak period in Malawi when money is in the field,” Tufwe says. “But it will pick up (referring to VSLA activities). By May you will really start to see a result.”
November, 2009
- With Enita’s leadership on the School Management Committee, and the help of the senior group village headman, the members of Chigodi village have already started improvements for Santhe Primary School, including molding bricks for female teachers’ houses and setting a goal of 10 new school latrines.
- Enita helped form the Chifundo (Chichewa for “mercy”) village savings and loan group. Meeting weekly, the 12-member group has already saved 8,000 Kwacha (U.S. $56). Enita chose the members of her group carefully. “I looked at the character, commitment and also for somebody who cares about others, somebody who is active.”
- Enita says, “The best thing that has happened to me is joining the VSLA group that Join My Village introduced.”
- Enita’s daughter, Ruth, completed her secondary school entrance exams in October. She thinks she did well, but will not receive results until December. Enita hopes she will be able to start a business and earn enough money to support her daughter’s secondary education.
October, 2009
- Santhe Primary School, located in Chigodi, is huge for the Kasungu district – there are 1,206 students, 617 boys and 589 girls. Last year 48 eighth graders, including 22 girls and 26 boys went on to secondary school.
- There are 14 teachers at Santhe Primary – seven of them are teachers in training. It's tough to recruit new teachers to the school because there isn't enough housing that is up to the standards of qualified teachers. That's why the School Management Committee has focused on teacher housing, according to SMC chair Enita Banda. “We say that, if they come, the management can help them find a place,” Banda said. “Now we are molding bricks for teacher houses. And if a teacher comes here we are finding houses for them to rent.”
- Still the future is looking better for young girls in Chigodi today, thanks to a generation of women leaders who have emerged in the village. On the School Management Committee for example there are five women and five men. Why? “We wanted to have gender parity,” Banda said. Banda says the SMC is trying to discourage parents from taking their daughters out of school once they hit “marrying age,” which is how they refer to puberty in rural Malawi.
- Enita’s 14-year-old daughter Ruth likes science and math best; English and agriculture are the subjects she finds most difficult. Ruth says she’d like to be a nurse.
- Everything in Chigodi is in the sway of the tobacco harvest and international markets for tobacco. Parents take children out of school to help with the harvest in January, February and March. Years when the harvest is bad or prices are down – like this year – parents are more likely to take young girls out of school to marry them off, leaving one less mouth to feed.
September, 2009
- CARE introduced the village savings & loan association (VSLA) program to the members of Chigodi village in late July. Village members, like Enita, are excited about the opportunity to learn more about the VSLA program.
- Enita has expressed a strong interest in joining a VSLA group to help her save money, borrow from the group and cover costs to ensure her 14-year old daughter, Ruth, can continue into secondary school.
- Enita is also part of the Chigodi village’s School Management Committee (SMC), a group of parents and teachers who work together to identify and address their village school’s most pressing needs. As part of the Join My Village program, CARE will also work with the SMC to help them plan for school improvements, and apply the new school enhancement funds that will be available to them through Join My Village.
