ICS blog

Picture a typical English sports day, imagine the smiling faces of all those competing in an ‘egg and spoon’ race or cheering for their friends at the sidelines. Think about the enjoyment that is drawn from the events that are held annually in any English school. Now replace your image with the idea of never having a sports day, never being given the opportunity to compete against your friends. This is the reality that the youth here in Mzuzu face, not having the facilities or the equipment to partake in an ‘English Sports Day’.

Mwanawa Vikililike, Child protection, Mwanawa Vikililike, Child protection, Bringing light to communities, Ungweru Ungweru! 

This slogan was used by Team Lupya who have worked with partner organisation Ungweru to deliver child protection sessions, tackling issues such as education, peer pressure and child rights. Sessions were delivered in seven different primary schools within Mzuzu. 

This week, week number 3 of being in Santa Marta, has been pretty awesome. Week 1 and 2 were hard. I didn't realise how hard until I experienced this week. We have gone through a lot of difficulties. Not all of them have been solved but the fact that we have been aware of them makes a big difference. Every Friday afternoon we have a little honesty session where we exchange thoughts and points of interest from the week between the whole group of national and international volunteers. This makes a big difference. Brownie points to whoever thought of that one. 

After five weeks of constructing eco-latrines in Nicaragua we are pro-builders, and the latrines are coming along nicely. But we do have interests outside of toilets, and have also been working in smaller teams on projects relating to environmental sustainability, machismo culture, and sexual diversity. My group is concentrating on improving awareness about sexual diversity in El Pochote.

The Environmental Group started our first hands-on project at the school today. When we arrived, some of the school children were already congregating and getting their hands stuck in around the patch of soil we were going to start our work on. Our initial plan was to raise awareness about littering, recycling around the school grounds, and the advantages of creating one’s own compost.

Our women’s choir got off to a rocky start. To advertise it we made posters, sent out flyers, and visited families in El Pochote. We organised a venue, bought tasty refreshments, and prepared the music. So this Wednesday, we showed up raring to go. But there was one eventuality we didn’t prepare for: torrential rain. It seemed that this had stopped people from turning up.

During our 4th week of work, we went to visit one of the routes that were part of La Ruta del Guerrillero in Chalatenango, Cinquera.  This visit was carried out on Thursday the 31st July.

Along the path we visited places that were important during the time of the Civil War and still exist today as part of La Ruta del Guerrilero. Places like the Cascabela - a secret hospital where guerrillas would go if they were injured during the fighting. We also visited El Mirador (a view point) and La Posa (called The Witch). 

One of our main focuses this past week has been the Action Research section of our target. This involved visiting 18 rural communities and extracting from them their knowledge on specific environmental issues pertaining to their surrounding areas. Prior to our field work, our Progressio volunteers underwent Monitoring & Evaluation training led by Henry Chinthuli, Mulanje Mountain Conservation Trust’s (MMCT) Project Officer.

So far we are in week seven of our ICS placement and a lot has happened. Everybody is sad as the placement is coming to an end and we have had a good time together as a team.

We have enjoyed working on the programmes of our partner organisation, like climate change, food security, youth development and not forgetting HIV and AIDS, where we have been conducting meetings with AIDS Support Groups. We learn and share tips on how to live a positive life, something everyone loves. 

Joseph Meadows, aged 21, is a British volunteer working with Ungweru, one of Progressio’s local partner organisations in Malawi. Until coming to Malawi, Joseph had never moved out of his parents’ home or been away from his closest family and friends. 

Imagine what it could feel like if you were to be away from your family home or country and live in a family or a country where everything is new. Perhaps such questions usually raise a lot of mixed reactions.