What’s New with Agnes and Zumani Village
As a village team member of Zumani village, we invite you to check back often to follow the successes and challenges of Agnes and other members of the Zumani 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 Zumani Village
- Agnes's stepmother, Eliza Phiri, says this year has been a turning point for Agnes. She continues to work hard and was chosen as captain of the school's netball team. “I have seen a great improvement in her. We see her studying and even at school they are giving her this position as captain.”
- Eliza says that Join My Village has won over the people of Zumani. “At first we didn't understand the meaning of those things you were telling us because we were supposed to do this with our own money. But now we see we are able to buy soap and things for children without relying on our husbands.”
- Zumani had a close call in March, when a group of elephants escaped from nearby Kasungu National Park just as the crops were ripening. Fortunately heavy rains kept them from getting at the corn. “It was too muddy. Otherwise they would have destroyed everything.”
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 (10 of the girls are from Zumani 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 Zumani, there are five groups with a total of 71 members and savings to date of $128
Updates from Zumani Village
- Agnes failed her first term of the fifth grade. “The exams were more difficult than I expected so I failed,” she says. “I did not feel good about it.” Agnes is determined to pass the fifth grade this year. Four of her friends started high school in January with scholarships from Join My Village. She hopes to join them one day.
- Join My Village tracked down one of Agnes's friends, Joyce Ndwala, at Linyangwa Community Day Secondary School, where a scholarship has made it possible for her to continue with her third year of high school. Joyce, who is sixth in her class of 55, hopes to continue her education after high school. She is still deciding whether she wants to study medicine or law, though she is leaning towards medicine. One of the first educated women Joyce met was a nurse. “A certain young lady came to our school and she told us how she became a nurse,” Joyce says. “I was encouraged. She said she made it because of school.”
- Joyce herself has already become something of a role model for younger girls in Zumani. “Younger girls from our village are asking what I did to make it to secondary school and access the scholarship,” she says. “I tell them they should work extra hard in school.”
- Three knew VSLAs formed in Zumani after the scholarships were announced. Most of the groups are made up of members whose daughters received scholarships from Join My Village. “Parents are more interested in being in the groups now that more girls are going to school,” said David Ntenje, Zumani's group village headman.
January, 2010
- In November, Agnes found out that she had scored the highest possible grade on her final exams for the fourth grade. As a reward, her father bought her a new pair of shoes -- black plastic flats with decorative cutouts.
- Agnes likes to train her new reading skills on the newspaper her father occasionally brings back from his trips to town. It's gotten her thinking. “I want to be very educated so that I can travel and see the other side of the world,” she says. “Even to Kasungu town.”
- The seventh of December was Agnes's first day of the fifth grade. Mr. Chikumbe, Zumani Primary School's headmaster, is her new teacher. Apart from the 66 students in Agnes's class, he is also in charge of the second grade. Agnes misses Madame teacher, but so far, she is doing alright. “I will pass,” she says.
- In early December, CARE came to discuss plans to build a female teacher's house with David Ntenje, Zumani’s senior group village headman. Zumani already has enough bricks and sand for the house. With CARE’s help in securing the rest of the supplies, they hope to complete the house in February.
- Five VSLAs are saving money in Zumani. Agnes says her stepmother, Eliza, has been saving though her group hasn't yet started making loans.
- At Christmastime people in Zumani made a sweet millet beer called thobwa to drink with their nsima (steamy mounds of maize meal, not unlike Italian polenta). Instead of meat, they enjoyed mushrooms found in the nearby forest. “Mushrooms,” Ntenje says, “are even better than meat.” Afterwards they danced Gule Wankulu and held soccer matches.
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
- Since July, Agnes has shot from the bottom of her class to third place. Agnes credits this to the fact that her beloved “Madame Teacher” is once again her instructor. After CARE visited Zumani, the village’s three teachers decided to swap classes, providing the opportunity for Agnes to once again benefit from having her favorite teacher lead the class.
- Agnes’ father, Zumani village headman David Ntenje, says Agnes isn't the only girl in the village who is doing better since July. “When CARE came in July a lot of people got interested in educating girls. Before this, girls had not been performing well, but now they are doing better. Now the number one student in Agnes' class is a girl.”
- In early October, people in Zumani gathered each afternoon for two weeks to build two new teachers' houses. They also built new latrines for the school, and devised bucket sinks so students could wash their hands.
- Village headman David Ntenje remains hopeful that CARE’s presence will enable the village to secure more female teachers. “Maybe it will carry weight to have the fact that CARE builds the house.” Indeed, CARE's agreement with the Ministry of Education is that the ministry will provide a female teacher for each house.
- Agnes’ stepmother, Eliza, has joined a recently formed village savings and loan in the hopes of increasing the family’s income to help support her children through school.
October, 2009
- People in Zumani were interested in taking out loans to start small businesses before CARE came to Malawi. But, when they applied for loans with micro-finance programs, they were denied. Agnes is hopeful that participation in village savings and loan groups set up with CARE's help will give the people of Zumani the experience and references they'll need to take out loans from micro-credit agencies.
- Agnes's mom suddenly got very sick and died about two years ago. People in Zumani told Agnes and her little brother and sister that an aunt from a neighboring village had killed their mother with witchcraft. Without access to medical care and testing, belief in witchcraft is widespread in rural Malawi.
- Agnes's new stepmother, Eliza, is 25 and looks as though she might be Agnes's sister. In spite of all of Agnes's setbacks in school, Eliza believes she will make it through high school. “She is doing well. I see she will make it. I didn't get to secondary, I went up to standard eight.”
- Agnes's sister, Angelina has never stayed back in school. At ten years old, she is on track to finish the third grade this year. What does she do when she has a question and her teachers don't have time to answer it? “I ask Ag,” Angelina says.
September, 2009
- Although Agnes sometimes struggles with school, “Madam teacher” inspired her persistence to study hard and dream big.
- Agnes talks of being a teacher or president of the country some day. It is these super-sized ambitions that really set her apart.
- Agnes’ school has three teachers for the 590 students in grades one through seven. The Zumani School Management Committee hopes to attract more female instructors, like the inspirational “Madam teacher”, so all of their girls may soon dream big.
