Planting Malawi 2009-02

February 2009

Emmanuel International

Prayer & Praise: • Andre’s Dad had a major heart attack but is recovering.

• Most of Malawi has enjoyed good rains and is approaching harvest season, ending the hunger season for most. Some areas have not had good rains though.

• EI is working with the government to distribute maize to food insecure households.

• Alex has found her ministry opportunity at ZAP. Pray for a fruitful ministry as project administrator.

• Many development projects are suffering from the effects of the global credit crisis.

• Our fence is finally being built! Praise God for keeping us safe all this time.

“Mango”

Planting Malawi Isaiah 61.3

an update from the VanWoerdens in Malawi

Zomba Action Project [linking communities for transformation] One community reaching out to another in a different part of the world, giving people clean water to drink so they don’t get sick, helping them build better schools to educate their children, providing them with protection from malaria, helping them grow food so they don’t go hungry, and so on. That is what the borough of Coleraine, Ireland, is doing to help alleviate the poverty in Zomba, Malawi. They call it the Zomba Action Project, aka ZAP. It’s a fantastic initiative really – businesses and churches in a community working together, raising funds to implement development activi-

ties in the Zomba District. Alex started working with ZAP this week. She is the administrator for the Zomba side of the action, which means she is the link between the various committees and the board, but also the liaison with ZAP Coleraine. She will receive project proposals from the implementing organizations, recommend projects to Coleraine, and monitor the progress of the activities. Emmanuel International’s agriculture sector, where Andre works, is one of the ZAP partners so although we’re working for different organizations, we are working

together. Emmanuel International partners with ZAP to implement development projects like irrigation, chickens, fruit trees, shallow wells, fuelefficient stoves, etc. ZAP also carries out projects of health, education, and church development. Alex is quite excited to have found her niche where she can be part of what God is doing here. She is able to work every morning while the girls are in school and use her organizational skills. For more info on ZAP, visit www.colerainezomba.org.uk

Books and Pens [hope for the next generation] more stories & photos on

vw-mw.blogspot.com

It’s hard to imagine: Kids going to school on an empty stomach, sitting on a brick in a rickety grass shelter, listening to the teacher who has a chalkboard but no chalk, unable to take any notes because they don’t have an exercise book or pen, and sharing a textbook with 3 or 4 other students. But this is the reality for some students at Mbidi Primary School and many other schools in Malawi. Andre distributed school supplies to Mbidi School this week. Textbooks, exercise

books, pens, pencils, sharpeners, and rulers for the students; chalk, dusters, flipcharts, and markers for the teachers – donated by a generous church in Ireland that sponsors many such projects. I think it’s the most impressive distribution I’ve been part of here. It’s hard to imagine simple things like basic school supplies making a huge impact but the amount of gratitude and joy that was expressed was immense. Mbidi Primary School is a blatant example of the ex-

treme poverty in Malawi. As a small rural school, it faces some huge challenges. It was built in 1996 with only two classrooms. The community built an additional two classrooms but has not been able to save the $400 it would take to put in a concrete floor. The kids sit on bricks because during the rainy season, the dirt floor is waterlogged – sometimes they can’t even sit down. A small chalkboard leans up against the wall, but even if there was chalk, only [see School Supplies, p. 2]

Planting Malaw i | Februar y 2009 Power All Day Every Day

School Supplies [from p.1]

The power’s out again! We thought we had come to terms with the frequent power interruptions that are part of life in Malawi but the month of February has been especially bad for our power supply. The other day when I got to the office, our country director exclaimed, “We’ve had power for almost 24 hours, if you don’t count the brief outage we had last night!” That probably about sums up our electricity situation for February – not a day has gone by without at least one blackout and usually they’ve been frequent throughout the day. Some days were rather unproductive in the office, looking for things to do that don’t require computers, printers, or photocopiers. Our evenings involve candles, flashlights, and early bed times.

the kids sitting in the front might be able to read it. The trusses are just some poles from local trees – the kind of roof that often collapses here with a little wind. There are two more “classrooms.” They’re just grass shelters that provide a little shade. I'm not sure what they do when it rains actually – either cancel classes or all cram into the two good classrooms I suppose. The school has no toilet either. A few broken plastic chairs are all the teachers have – you have to stack at least two together and even then it’s pretty risky to sit on – I moved to a log after trying the chair. Many kids don’t have exercise books or pencils, especially orphans. It is common practice to cut notebooks and pencils in half.

The motto for ESCOM (Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi) is “Power all day every day.” Maybe it’s more of a vision statement. It’s certainly ambitious. We’re lucky to have power at all — it’s a luxury.

No wonder absenteeism, dropout, and failure rates are so high. But this is the investment in the future leaders of Malawi. Some of them will actually make it and become teachers, doctors, and business managers, despite the huge obstacles they have to overcome.

Our Family

[news snippets

February has been a very stressful month for our family. Andre’s Dad had a major heart attack on January 26, the same day that we sent out our last newsletter. The doctors said it was a miracle he survived. It was really stressful being so far away from family during this time and although we decided not to go back to Canada we ques-

The amount of gratitude that was expressed at the distribution of simple school supplies is hard to describe. The program was attended by the school committee, parent teacher association, local village chiefs, the District Primary Education Advisor. The teachers and students alike were overjoyed to receive chalk and exercise books, pens, pencils, and rulers. There were speeches, and poems, and drama presentations, and singing and dancing. The excitement and joy was amazing. These school supplies made a huge impact for these kids – it will probably make history for the school. With these teaching-learning materials, they have one less obstacle to overcome. We’ll see what else we can do to assist this school – little by little. View the picture album of Mbidi School on our blog, vw-mw.blogspot.com.

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tioned that decision many times over. They installed a new valve and aorta and did two bypasses — he had a heart makeover, physically and spiritually. Praise God! His amazing grace has prevailed and Dad is at home, recovering “pang’ono pang’ono” (little by little).

Now that Alex is working, we decided to also put Ezera in school. She is in the same class as Talia and loves it. She loves playing with the kids, colouring, glueing, playing in the sand, swimming and the many other activities that they do at school. Ezera says that she goes to her “oppice” to work, just like her mother.

Thank you for sharing our journey and supporting our ministry! Andre & Alexandra VanWoerden [Lara, Talia, Ezera] Private Bag 12 Zomba Malawi 265.8.169.380 (Andre) or 265.8.169.382 (Alex) [email protected] vw-mw.blogspot.com

Emmanuel International Canada PO Box 4050 Stouffville ON L4A 8B6 905.640.2111 [email protected] www.eicanada.org