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| MACS Newsletter - February 2003 EDUCATION Malawians' thirst for education continues unabated but most schools are struggling. The current dire economic situation in the country means education is seriously under-funded. Primary schools, where there are no fees, are packed, usually with 80-90 or more in a class. Books are rare with teachers often having the only text book. Qualified teachers are almost as rare. Up to half the present teachers are expected to die of AIDS in the next 5-7 years. Fewer trained teachers are coming out of college each year than are dying of AIDS. Church and government schools often lose teachers to private schools where classes are smaller. Despite this, Martin Phiri, Education Secretary for the two southern dioceses, continues to smile. Martin has experience as a headmaster in a number of schools, including the Unit for the Blind at Mkope Primary School. Before joining the diocesan staff, where he looks after 39 primary schools and 2 secondary schools, he was responsible for all Special Needs schools in the country. Martin is an active member of the Board of ACEM - the Association of Christian Education in Malawi. This ecumenical organisation maintains pressure on government and donor agencies to increase support for education. All secondary schools are fee-paying. In January fees in boarding schools doubled, now standing at K6,000 (£40) per term. There have always been some students who arrive with no fee, but because of the famine, these numbers have increased sharply. Families need what money they have to buy food. It is heartbreaking to see black-boards in schools giving the names of students sent home because they are unable to pay their fees. Often they will have been the only member of their family to pass the exams into secondary school and are the one hope of their extended-family for survival in the future. With so few resources it is good to know that students at Malosa Secondary School did well in recent Malawi School Certificate exams, achieving a 69% pass rate, with 22 students qualifying to take university entrance exams. The top three were girls. As well as the 92 primary and 2 secondary Anglican schools in the 4 dioceses, an increasing number of parishes are supporting recently developed local Day Community Schools. In all these schools there are acute needs for basic buildings and equipment, not to mention food to feed the students. An impressive aspect of Malawian's thirst for education is the large amount of self-help that goes in to the making of bricks and building of classrooms. MACS has recently forwarded funds for:
HUNGER At the end of January DFID(the UK's Department for International Development) reported that 3.5 million people would be in need of food assistance from January to March. The most seriously affected area was the Central Region, followed closely by the South. The North was least affected. Since the onset of the famine, MACS has distributed £11,349 between the four dioceses for famine relief and to assist with cultivation of crops. The distribution of food has been arranged in conjunction with local chiefs and communities, medical centres and Orphan Care Groups.
FLOODS Already battered by famine and HIV/AIDS, at the beginning of January Malawi was struck by the worst cyclone in living memory. DFID's report says that in 15 districts 3,625 houses were totally destroyed, 56,973 houses suffered some level of destruction and 23,428 hectares of crops damaged. Figures for those killed and injured are not available but there are a number of reports of people being swept away by the torrents. Bridges on the main trunk road between Lilongwe and Mzuzu and Lilongwe and Blantyre were washed away, as was a bridge on the railway line to the Mozambican port of Nacala, through which passes much of Malawi's imports and exports. GROWING, GROWING, GROWING A by-product of the famine is that people throughout the country are eager to establish a wider variety of crops. MACS has supported a number of village projects to help achieve this. Hodgson Lulanga has been looking after the Malindi Orphan Project for the past 2 years. Now a Christian, but previously a Muslim, Hodgson has a good working relationship with the Headmen of the 11 villages, mostly Muslim, which are in the Project. 500 families are chosen by the Headmen, either where a grandmother has no support in looking after numbers of grandchildren, or a child-headed family. Hodgson Lulanga arranges for experienced people to visit on a regular basis to show these families permaculture methods for increasing the crops in their gardens - maize, cabbages, tomatoes, beans, onions - without the expensive artificial fertiliser that few can afford. There is a communal project garden adjoining the lake cultivated by orphans and others. Hodgson arranges the rota for the 15 watchman who chase away unwelcome cattle, goats, chickens, ducks, people, baboons and hippos. A full-time occupation! Protecting tasty plants from 2 and 4-legged marauders, feathered or otherwise, is part of the demanding production process in most Malawi gardens. At the nearby St Martin's hospital, the malnutrition clinic helps mothers to make best use of the vegetables they have grown. PERMANENT AGRICULTURE A team of people experienced in permaculture, ran several training courses throughout the country last October. This generated much interest and MACS has subsequently supported a number of 3-day workshops. The workshops are limited to 20 participants and there are long waiting lists. Information packs, seeds, fruit and medicinal-tree seedlings are handed out. Two youth groups have become so enthused that they have established their own tree nurseries. MALARIA Up to 8 million people in Malawi suffer from malaria every year, dramatically reducing the time they can spend growing crops or doing other work. Up to 5,000 people die of malaria every year. One-third of the children admitted to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Blantyre die of malaria. Over the years malaria has become increasingly drug resistant. Professor Malcolm Molyneux, head of the Malaria Research Project, and one-time doctor at St Luke's Hospital, is heading a campaign to provide impregnated mosquito nets at subsidised prices for people to buy. Local stores sell the chemical to re-impregnate nets. MACS has provided nets to hospitals. TRAINING NURSES The need for trained nurses in Malawi becomes more and more acute. One of the reasons for the current severe shortage is that hospital trusts in Britain have been actively recruiting Malawian nurses to work here. MACS has sent funds to help meet the running costs of the Nursing School. HIV/AIDS The Government of Malawi is working hard to combat AIDS but is very short of funds. Christians and Muslims often work together on AIDS programmes. But the pandemic continues its relentless march of death, with its knock-on effect on the economy of the country and immeasurable personal suffering. MACS continues to try and respond to the many requests for support. Some of those funded include: CLERGY For the clergy who encourage their congregations, MACS has agreed to fund the provision of 6 books a year for the clergy in all 4 dioceses, together with copies of The Lamp magazine. This excellent non-partisan magazine is published by Montfort Media and subtitled Christians, Politics and Culture. People wishing to receive The Lamp in the UK should either e-mail: monfortmedia@malawi.net or write to P.O.Box 346, Balaka. The UK cost for 6 issues a year is US$60. MACS WEBSITE LAUNCH MACS is finally reaching out to the whole world! The site has been designed by Redspy, a professional web design company. MACS is very grateful to them for producing a high quality site at minimum cost. The trustees and MACS supporters have also put a lot of work into the highly informative site. The site will be continually updated and will contain web versions of all MACS Newsletters and Nkhani updates. Please give us feedback on the site. If you have any 'first hand accounts' of life and situations in Malawi let us know. We want the site to provide an opportunity for people, especially Malawians, to share their stories, experiences and reflections of Malawi. If each MACS supporter aims to tell ten people about the site (preferably those with Internet access!) and challenges each of those to tell ten others it won't be long before the whole world knows about MACS! MACS is very grateful to Andrew Bell for all his hard work in preparing the site. 2003 ANNUAL MEETING Saturday 20 September 10.30 a.m. |
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