ICS blog

On the fifth of November, in celebration of both national and international cultures here in Nuevo Gualcho, we hosted a “Gran Fogata”, combining British bonfire with and a night of Salvadorean storytelling. 

We’re into the final two weeks of our placement here and last Friday we finally got to do a homestay with our national counterparts in one of the communities. Spending almost every day of the week with the Honduran volunteers, we’ve certainly got to know them all very well. Yet it’s only after spending a night in the communities where they’ve lived their whole lives that you can really get a feel of what life is like for them.

The communities we are working with in the Gracias region rely on farming; almost every family owns a farm that acts as their main source of income. This means that everyone has to work on the farm from an early age and the livelihoods of the people in the communities are especially fragile, a bad harvest can have devastating consequences.

On Saturday the 29th November, Team COWLHA Wa Mawa were joined by students from around Boma (town centre) at Chikhwawa Secondary School for an HIV and AIDS awareness day. We employed 10 HTC (HIV Testing and Counselling) volunteers from the District Hospital who set up their services in the school’s classrooms. 

My name is Ethel Msusa, am 23 years old and single, I have Malawi School Leaving Certificate which I obtained in 2012. I also have a certificate of attendance in Electronics.

On 21st October my team and I went to Mfera Health Centre where we conducted a meeting with two support groups, Chisomo and Tigwilizane support groups.

As the midday sun beats down strongly onto the centre, the 25+ children (and young adults) squeeze into the back of the truck, with volunteers heading quickly on foot towards the football pitch. By this time it is usually near to 1pm, making it a definite challenge to both coach and play football in the Zimbabwean blistering heat. This doesn’t seem deter the eager children however, and only seems to have an effect on us Brits - who certainly aren’t used to such constant heat or sunshine.

Having now spent a good few weeks of endless fun and work with Restoration of Hope, we’ve managed to get ourselves out of the office a bit more and spend much more time with the several contacts that we’ve been busy making. The Psychosocial Support Department in particular have been spending much of their weeks with Scripture Union. This is a contact centre and safe place for street children (ages ranging between 11 and 20+) to spend their day times, where they have the ability to wash their clothes, bathe themselves, and receive three meals per day. 

La primera construcción que haremos será una parada de buses en la plaza central de la comunidad,  con el objetivo de tener un lugar techado donde la gente pueda descansar mientras  esperan el bus. Además de la banca se construirá un muro  donde la comunidad podrá poner anuncios, afiches o carteles. Construiremos con técnicas de bioconstruccion donde utilizaremos materiales que se encuentran en la comunidad como piedras, barro, zacate, bambú etc.

We are over half way through our cycle in Zimbabwe and time is certainly flying!

Girls’ education is among the things that the Malawi Government is encouraging in the country, as part of the “50:50 Campaign” to achieve equal opportunities for both men and women. The government is working towards Millennium Development Goal 3; to promote gender equality and empower women.

To support this, Team Sapitwa visited Providence Girls' Secondary School with a career-guidance training session.  The main aim of the session was to inspire the girls by bringing in talks on different careers from volunteers who have “been there and done it” or are still underway.