What’s New with Mercy and Nguluwe Village
As a village team member of Nguluwe village, we invite you to check back often to follow the successes and challenges of Mercy and other members of the Nguluwe 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 Nguluwe Village
- Join My Village's high school scholarships have changed attitudes toward school in Nguluwe, according to Village Savings & Loan Association (VSLA) group member and mother Lufina James. “Students are more eager to go to class. Parents who were not that keen on school are now keen.”
- Lufina is training new savings and loan groups in Nguluwe. She tells them what being a VSLA member has meant to her. “I have learned how to save money and get a loan and this is changing our livelihood. In fact my dreams have been fulfilled. I am now able to buy things for the house and clothing for my children which I was never able to buy before.”
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 (6 of the girls are from Nguluwe 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 Nguluwe, there are three groups with a total of 39 members and savings to date was not available
Updates from Nguluwe Village
- Two years ago, Daress Kachibapa enrolled for her freshman year of high school at the exclusive Santhe Secondary School. She was the first in her family to go so far in school. She finished two terms, but when it came time to pay fees for the third term, Daress’ widowed mother, Roses Phiri, said she needed Daress in the fields. “That third term collided with the farming season and I also had to buy fertilizer,” says Roses, who has seven children in addition to Daress. “She has always been asking, ‘Mom, what are you going to do about my school?’ but there was nothing I could do.”
- Daress didn’t give up on going back to school. “I just kept hoping someone would pay for me and so when I heard about the scholarships, I just went and submitted my name,” she says. She was chosen for a Join My Village scholarship and returned to school. “I am not worried anymore,” she says. “I am just assured that now I have a future.”
- Roses has formed a new VSLA group in the hopes that she will be able to support Daress, who wants to be a nurse, to continue her schooling. “I will make sure that she gets an education even beyond high school,” Roses says. “All of the other children are not educated but at least this one will have an education.”
- For Roses, the VSLA has taught her something new, as well. The women of Nguluwe are capable of far more than she thought. “I have discovered that out of the money we earn we can save,” she says. “In the end we can even take a loan out of our own money and pay it back.” She hopes to use her first loan to buy second hand clothes to sell in the village.
- Nicholas Bwanamili, whose daughter also received a Join My Village scholarship, says the scholarships have changed the way people in Nguluwe think about school. “There is a new attitude,” he says. “They are now positive about the education of their girls. They know that even if they don't have the capacity to support children in high school, someone is there to help them.”
January, 2010
- Nguluwe's VSLAs started saving in November and some have begun to make small loans. Even group village headman Black Ching'oma has taken a small loan to buy bananas in Nguluwe to sell at the trading center in Santhe.
- For Mercy Jaleke, watching hungry children's progress in school slacken and slump became unbearable. “Most of the kids in Nguluwe would be intelligent but they don't have food now,” she says. “You will see a child stop on the road to school and do casual labor to get food. That really upsets me.”
- Unlike so many women in Nguluwe, Mercy had the option to leave the village. Her father had left a somewhat rundown building for his children in a scruffy neighborhood beside the industrial area in Lilongwe, Malawi's capital. She loved farming and the people of Nguluwe but she could not support her children's education there. So she moved into two small rooms, rented the other three, and enrolled her children in school in Lilongwe. “It doesn't make sense to me that a child makes it to the eighth grade and then she drops out,” Mercy says. “I would rather be here and fend for the children.”
- It's not easy but at least now Mercy can save enough money for school. “We don't have salt to put on our beans,” she says. “But I am able to plan well. If I have 2,000 Kwacha ($13.89) I know this 2,000 Kwacha will go towards my child's school fees.”
- When Mercy left, her VSLA group in Nguluwe stopped meeting. “I am not surprised that group collapsed because I was the one encouraging them,” she says. “Many men would not want to encourage them to be strong. I also feel for them. I love that village.”
- Mercy will be missed but her decision was almost certainly the best and bravest one for her children. “I really liked being in the VSLA,” she says.
- Some of Mercy's independence must have rubbed off. When they saw that the group was no longer meeting, five of the women from Mercy's group decided to continue saving as part of a new group. “I will use my first loan to buy bananas to sell in Santhe,” says 27-year-old Lufina James. She won't waste a cent on transport. “I'll put the baby on my back and walk,” she says.
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
- People in Nguluwe have already made 150,000 bricks – more than enough to build a teacher's house and a large new school block (set of classrooms). They hope the new school block will afford them enough space to add sixth, seventh and eighth grade classes.
- Mercy and 16 other women formed Tiyanjane village savings and loan group. Tiyanjane means “let's cooperate” in Chichewa.
- Mercy was elected to chair the group but she worries she may not be able to attend weekly meetings. She is anxious to start saving money, and eventually start a business so she can increase her income. Earlier this year, Mercy had to peddle kitchenware in Lilongwe (capital of Malawi) to pay her daughter's school fees. She looks forward to borrowing money from her village savings and loan group to support her farming, so she can have a steadier source of income.
October, 2009
- Nguluwe's comedy troupe isn't just for entertainment. They are often hired to dramatize issues like preventing HIV and child abuse, and to promote community development in neighboring villages.
- The people of Nguluwe are known in the region for being open to economic innovations. In recent years they have set aside part of the town's land for natural forest, where they keep bees. In the spring the village began to keep a herd of communal goats, which they will use to learn more efficient techniques for goat rearing.
- The highest authority in Nguluwe, the Senior Group Village Headman, is a woman. A bit like a protective mother, she warned visiting CARE staffers that they had better not be like other organizations which had made promises to the people of Nguluwe and then abandoned them. There are now many female headman in the villages around Nguluwe, something people here attribute to new government policies promoting gender equality across Kasungu.
- Part of the reason that Mercy is so enthusiastic about participating in a village savings and loan is that she knows she can run a successful business. Before she spent all of her business capital on caring for her dying mother, Mercy used to import kitchenware from a town in eastern Malawi. “Life was then good. The proceeds from the business would help support the family. The business meant I could provide soap, meat or beans. I was even buying clothes for the family.”
- Mercy's husband supports her entrepreneurial ambitions. “The capital for starting the kitchenware business was given by him. But I was left to do what I knew better. He didn't say the money is mine, he gave me control.”
September, 2009
- CARE introduced the village savings & loan association (VSLA) program to the members of Nguluwe village in late July. Village members, like Mercy, see the VSLA program as a way to save and borrow money so they can start businesses, enabling them to increase their household income and ensure their children can stay in school.
- Mercy has stated that she would like to venture into the restaurant business. She is hoping to increase her family’s income so they are not hurt so much in bad harvest years.
- When we talked to Mercy in July, this year’s bad harvest left her unsure as to how she would pay her daughter’s school fees in January. She left hopeful after learning about the VSLA program.
