Through the ministry to widows in Mgona, Somebody Cares a WOW strategic partner in Malawi, has seen many women come in desolate and despondent and after skills training, encouragement through the Word of God and plenty of care, there has been tremendous transformation in the lives of these women. Even though they are lead busy lives (in managing their business ventures), they still meet with the widows group in Mgona once a month.

Somebody Cares gave Lydia, Mary, Esnat and Jane sewing machines after completing a tailoring training. The ladies were part of a group of 15 who were trained from Mtandile, Mgona and Njewa. 5 women were picked from Mgona, the four together with the zone leader, Grace. All four have become tailors and earn money through tailoring. They are able to support their families, pay school fees for their children as well as help their parents. It is a long way from the state they were in when they came to become a part of the widows program of Somebody Cares.

One of the ladies, Lydia Gama, said “I don’t know how to express my happiness for what has happened to me, to be able to be trained to sew. My late husband was a tailor but never taught me how to sew. So when he dies I was left with no skills and no source of income. I see God through Somebody Cares for teaching me how to sew. I am so thankful to mother Malila for what she has done in us here in Mgona and I will teach many others as I come to the widows group so that they too can be changed as I was. May God bless Somebody Cares.”

Berta Chirwa is another success story. She sells groundnut flour at the local market. She buys groundnuts from the market, pounds it and sells it. Berta joined the widows group in Mgona and received a small scale loan to start a business. Today she takes care of herself and her four children through her business.

Hilda Malungo, Fanny Meleka, Emily Kamasanga and Ida Sempho all work together in a partnership to sell firewood. They take a journey into Dzalanyama Forest, which is about 40 km from Mgona and buy logs and then chop it down to size and sell it in Mgona. They are very successful as firewood is scarce in Mgona.

As ministry to the women of Mgona continues, there is hope for the newer widows as they hear and see the success of their fellow widows. Not so long ago they were all in the same predicament but today, these ladies and others are able to encourage and help their friends. There is great joy in Somebody Cares, to see the lives of those that were almost hopeless rise above and become a light in their communities!

In Mgona construction of the Community Child Care Centre has reached an advanced stage with all that remains is roofing and plastering, flooring, doors and window frames to be fitted. The Mgona CCCC is very encouraging as we have seen a complete participation of all community members and it is amazing that whenever one goes for a site visit you are greeted by the smiles of chiefs, pastors, volunteers and community members who are ever present at the site. This is a community project, meaning more than just a place for people to meet. It is the picture of the future and a giant leap from the imprisonment of hopelessness. The centre goes up and with it are the dreams of those surrounding it. The songs sung as people work is evidence of this. With the 5 other centres that SC has built, this is one centre that has brought the most community participation and the community completely owning the program which is what Somebody Cares and Visionledd encourages all communities to portray. Here, in Mgona, the young and old are all over the building. If they are not helping it come up, they watch in the sidelines. But every day you see children, widows, men, volunteers, chiefs and pastors helping out by carrying a brick or just passing the sand.

The Deputy District Social Welfare Officer for Lilongwe visited SC centres and as he toured Mgona he even stopped taking notes. “May I just observe?” he asked smiling. After moments of visiting, dancing and observing what the widows and the entire community are doing, he asked a question, “How are you guys managing to do this? This is real transformation which government talks about and I think it is high time that government through the district started to invite SC ministries to high profile meeting so that you can share and others should follow the way as a model; your best practices are real and evident” he lamented with excitement. After the visit he commented that government was truly impressed with the centres and all that was being done. He commented that he had been from boarder to boarder all around Malawi but had never seen such centres as he was being shown.

Chiefs are very happy with the building and its progress in Mgona; chief Mwala said “This structure has changed the face of Mgona and the way people think about Mgona; most organizations have been coming to Mgona but they have never done what Somebody Cares Ministries has done for this community”. While some children who attend the early childhood learning center commented by saying; “We will have a good and better place to learn”. On the other hand the volunteers in their usual jovial and dancing mode had this to say; “People were laughing at us when we started but now we are like Kings in this community because of this structure, we are so thankful to Somebody Cares Ministries and all their partners, now we will be having our weekly meetings here in a good and clean place, there will be no congestion with the children and other groups as every group will have its corner”. The volunteers were also joined by the youth and the widows who were full of joy and excitement upon learning that the building will be finished by the end of 2010.

Meanwhile the toilets in Mgona have been dug and just waiting for the materials like slabs, cement, sand, roofing materials.  Going around the community of Mgona the news on everyone’s mouth young and old is the upcoming of this CCCC in the area. Some of the community members interviewed had this to say; “ We are so thankful for this building because it will not only provide shelter for learning and gathering to several groups but has also provided employment opportunities to some of our brothers and sisters in the community; most of people who were just walking around the community are now kept busy at this building site work from 6am to 6pm and earning some money for them and their families; therefore such projects should continue to come to our community and we accept them with open hands”.

Conclusion

The Construction of the Mgona CCCC is moving at an alarming rate with the contractor challenging that he will be done with the project before the agreed time. It is also one area and project that has called and pulled together several groups in Mgona for one common purpose. Mgona is really a role model for development, community participation, unity and commitment as the entire community has buried their smaller differences for the common purposes which is to see their children, their people, and the entire community meet, gather and learn under a more spacious, clean and hygienic environment. Through this projects, conflicting chiefs have put away their differences and joined hands in order to see change come to the once sleeping giant (Mgona means sleeping), now a standing warrior.

Through this building there is such an expectation that it is contagious to all who go into the community. This was a community that eight years ago, was the hub is death. This building now speaks of future hope and the raising up of the champions. The children that will learn and be fed in this centre WILL NOT be enslaved to the mindsets of old. They have a picture of a better life. You may say, “Can a building bring all this?” but you would have to be in Mgona to see that it already has.

Recently Rita Prins, WOW Executive Director, visited the Mgona Community.  Here is an exert of her report.

As I walked the paths that weave around the closely built mud brick houses in Mgona I wondered what type of family situations I might find in the patient’s homes we were going to visit that day. Home Based Care (HBC) workers led the way through what felt like a never ending maze. Even though I had walked these paths many times, I knew I could never be prepared for the heart breaking situations we would encounter. When we stopped to rest in the shade of a building, waiting for others in our group to catch up, small children began to playfully sing “Azungu!!”, meaning “Foreigner!!”. A few even dared to touch my hand or arm for a brief moment before squealing and running off.

Soon we came up to a small two room house. The HBC workers called out our arrival and then pushed aside the thread bare sheet that hung in the doorway and invited us in. It took a few moments for my eyes to adjust to the darkness inside. The room had no windows with the only light coming from the doorway. Lying on the dirt floor in front of me was a very ill woman. She was so sick; she could not even acknowledge our presence other than opening her eyes every now and then.

The HBC workers explained that Emily was a 51 year old widow with 7 children. Currently she was staying in her brother’s house but because he needed to go out each day to find piece work, Emily was alone. I didn’t know where Emily’s children were and she was in no state to be asked.

We were told that Emily had just begun ARVs three months earlier but because she was so sick it could take a long time to improve her condition, if at all. ARVs need to be taken with food and Emily’s symptoms would not allow her to swallow anything solid. The HBC workers shared that Emily’s life was an example of why their job is so important. As they walked through the streets of Mgona they talk with community members, educating them about why people need to get tested for HIV early. If it’s left too late then the ARVs may not work and if parents keep dying, more and more children will be left to survive on their own. Unfortunately many people don’t believe that ARVs can help and if they take sick family members to the hospital to get tested and receive medicine then they will only prolong their illness causing them to be a burden on the family for a longer time which is very difficult for families living in survival mode.

More than half of the HBC workers in Mgona are HIV positive themselves and they are beautiful examples of lives that can be lived fully, lives that can be used by God to touch others. This is the message they are giving to the community as they walk through the streets of Mgona. Please pray for Emily and many others like her, as well as the HBC workers that sacrifice their time and emotions to reach out with the love of God every day.

The success of the Mgona WOW program has been growing in the past several months. Evidence of this is found in the extraordinary tale of eight women who come from as far as the Salima road at Mchoka village near Malikha School (20 km away) to be a part of WOW Mgona and the ladies that make up the group.Sabita, Mainesi, Chrissie, Everesi, Mrs. Gwazani, Mrs. Muwanga and Mrs. Kadammanja all came to know the Ministry of Somebody Cares through the eighth member of this amazing group, Rekina.

Rekina is 65 year old widow who comes from Mchoka village.Her husband died in a road accident in 2003 and left Rekina with one child, Zelida. Zelida was married with three children but in 2006 she died as a result of HIV and AIDS leaving the three children with her husband. After three months Zelida’s husband disappeared from the village and until now, has never been seen by any one. Nikodemo (18 years), Samuel (16 years and in the first year of high school) and Kingsley 12 years (Std 5) were now the sole responsibility of their grandmother, Rekina.

In January 2008, Rekina was very sick and because she had no person to take care of her, her sister who stays in Area 50 (next to Mgona) took her in to look after her.One day when she was coming from the hospital she saw some Malawians and “Azungu’s”  (foreigners) dancing at the Somebody Cares shed in Mgona.Rekina was very interested with the songs that these people were singing because they were Christian praise songs and one of the ones that caught her attention was “Mwandichiza ine Yesu, Ndikayang’ana komwe ndachoka, mwandichiza” You have healed me Jesus. When I look to see from where I came, I know that you have healed me.

She remembered her situation in the village where no one took care of her when she was sick but only God.Rekina called one of the widows, Christina, and asked her what was happening there.Christina, a member of WOW in Mgona, told Rekina the whole story of the Ministry of WOW and Somebody Cares in their area and how  they have helped the community see the light. Retina being a widow was interested to join the group.

After getting well, she went back to her home and spread the good news about Somebody Cares and the WOW program to other widows in her village.Seven other widows agreed to join her on the journey out to Mgona (many were not able to because of the distance). The eight who are able to walk to Mgona have now joined the WOW group. They manage to come every Tuesday and Thursday and are passionately committed to being a part of the bible studies and the income generating activities that the widows learn. The walk takes the ladies three hours each way and so they are walking a total of about 6 hours to be a part of WOW in Mgona. Sometimes when activities take longer the eight ladies are accommodated by their new friends in Mgona. The tale of these women is extraordinary indeed as the oldest lady in this group is 65 and the youngest is 52…and they walk 12 hours each week to belong, to grow, to learn and to be inspired as well as to INSPIRE.

Thank you to all the donors who have helped the widows in this community gain such hope and healing that others are noticing and making amazing sacrifices to join them.  To God be the glory.

I am Mary Chisale. I never thought of much when it came to developing my life, always thought that what it was, it would always be. I had a comfortable life, my husband had a customs clearing company and we lived in area 25, in a home that had electricity and running water. When my husband died, three years ago, I sold almost everything in the house in order to take care of my family but I was unable to keep my family living the way we once lived. I had never worked before and had totally relied on my husband so, in the end, I had nothing and all I could do was rely on my brothers and friends to help meet my needs. Of course they all had problems of their own and I was not their top priority and neither were my children. I have seven children; Esther, Beauty, Magulama, Agnes, Chinsinsi, Brave and Irene. The eldest is 22 and the youngest is 6 years old. Beauty is in secondary school and the other five younger are in primary school.

Two months before my husband died, I lost my middle son who was a twin to Magulama. He was then 15 years old. He was on his way to school one morning and simply collapsed. By the time we got to the hospital, they pronounced him dead. I never knew what caused his death. Two months later, my husband collapsed and after we took him to hospital, thirty minutes later, he died. Again, I have no idea why he died. I sometimes think that losing our son was on his mind...I don’t know. He was a changed man after our son died, he was his favourite. I think the grief killed him.

The only talent I had to speak of after my husband died was making donuts and selling them, or doing some piece work, like gardening. None of these could help me make ends meet. I would buy flour, make the donuts, sell them and the profits would not even make a difference. I would end up going to see family and friends and beg for help. You would be surprised to see how far you are willing to be humiliated for your children. Begging is not something I would wish on anyone; the humiliation, the waiting while someone contemplates whether they want to help you at all is horrible. My first born daughter even got married as a way of escaping the poverty we found ourselves in. I could no longer pay school fees for her. I was forced to move to Mgona because it was much cheaper. A place I once passed by became my home.

Then I heard about Somebody Cares, a WOW strategic partner, from a friend and was incorporated into their WOW program with the widows. Within a month I learnt how to produce soap and sell it. I was also taught how to make tye-and-dye and I was able to buy some books for my children for school. I was able to save money and actually, for the first time in my life, I was able to have my very own bank account. I had money I could save. I had only heard of people having money in the bank but had never set foot in the bank before this but because the program pays for my children to stay in school, I am able to save what I earn and I have the peace of mind knowing that they have a brighter future. I never finished school myself but now six of my seven children are in school and I intend for them all to finish. I am no longer begging; it is such a relief. I have a sense of dignity; I do not have to walk with my head down. I can look up and I do look up – to God.

After learning about soap making and management of funds earned from that, I was further trained in tailoring, knitting and bead making. I am a full scale tailor now and people in Mgona come to me. I have made dresses, trousers, bed sheets, necklaces and bracelets. I make them and sell them to make a living. I have gone from someone helpless to someone hopeful. I was not just given things...I was also trained, so that I can have a sense of dignity. I know that depending on God is better than depending on anyone. Thank you to all the donors who have given us hope for the future.  May God continue to bless you abundantly.

Vailet and her husband, Ralph, came from Ntcheu District some two hundred kilometers east of Lilongwe City. Married in 1994, the young couple decided to move to Lilongwe in search of better life. As with almost all the rural poor who migrate to urban areas looking for greener pastures, the Dullas settled in one of the slums of Lilongwe – Mgona. They were blessed with three children – two girls and a boy: Ekile (13), Richard (10) and Faidasi (3). Vailet and her husband were regular worshipers at the local Baptist Church.

They later started a small scale business with incomes earned from domestic work. This provided a means of survival for the entire family. Their children’s education was also funded through the business. In October 2008 Vailet had a painful and persistent cough which continued for the next three months. She lost weight drastically and became very weak. A concerned friend took her to a nearby health center for a check-up. The result revealed that Vailet was both TB and HIV positive. Due to severe weakness she was put only on TB drug and told to go a month later for the ARVs.

Back at home Vailet broke the news to her husband and urged him to also go for the tests. Infuriated at the suggestion, Ralph gave his already devastated and sorrowful wife a more severe blow by verbally attacking her, packed his belongings and left the house. He went to live with another woman to whom he later got married, and completely abandoned Vailet and the children. Vailet’s depression due to both the ailment and her husband’s rash behaviour, she was no longer able to do active work. Her business soon collapsed because she had to feed the family and meet the cost of schooling of her two older children out of it. Now completely destitute, Vailet could not even provide a single meal for her and the children; consequently, they dropped out of school and started begging in the neighbourhood. Whatever they got from begging was taken home to share with their ailing mother whose health was fast deteriorating. Richard, the only son, had to take responsibility as head of the household at a tender age of 10. This meant he would go every morning into the community to look for piece work and return in the afternoon to take care of his mother.

The story of this unfortunate family came to the Catherine, home based care (HBC) coordinator’s attention through the zone volunteers. After investigation, Vailet was adopted last week into the HBC program and efforts are now being made to support this family.

Playing joyfully with her mates on the open grounds around Mgona feeding shed run by Somebody Cares Ministries, (one of WOW’s strategic partners in Malawi) Prisca, age 6, is unaware that she carries HIV the virus which causes AIDS. Like other vulnerable children she comes every day, Monday to Friday, to receive a hot meal, care and early childho­­od education at the shed.

With a large, deep and seemingly very slow-healing sore in the neck, Prisca was, a year ago, a very active kid at the feeding shed.Now with frequent bouts of fever, headaches, rashes and malaria she has been restricted to a quiet and sad life. She is only occasionally lively, as on the day of our visit, when these ailments temporarily subside.

Her low CD counts necessitated her placement on ARV drugs. Prisca’s story is similar to other children in many communities. In Mgona there are ten such children that we have come across, Prisca included. Some of these children are as young as four years old.

While her nine colleagues are orphans who got the virus from their late parents, Prisca was infected through a blood transfusion. Her father, mother and three siblings are all HIV negative. Two years ago she was sick and after a hospital visit, was found to be anaemic. The hospital recommended that she be given blood. Unfortunately, she was carelessly given blood that was contaminated with the virus.

With the other ten children at the center, Somebody Cares makes sure that they access their monthly ARV drugs and nutritious take-home food packs. Every month they are taken to the central hospital for treatment and supplies by their guardians/relatives. Somebody Cares meets the cost of transport.

In a place of difficulty and challenge, the courage of these little faces brings both joy and despair. It spurs us on in the fight to educate and care for those who do not yet understand the full impact of HIV/AIDS. It also fuels us to continue to be the voice of the little ones, one like Prisca.

Sophilet, from Mgona, was a 26 year widow and mother of 5 children.  Sophilet and her two year child died last year, both of HIV/AIDS related diseases despite being on ARVs. In the flash of a moment, four beautiful children found themselves without a mother, without hope. WOW's strategic partner, Somebody Cares, is working with hundreds of orphans in Mgona, and are now working to help the Mgona community care for Sophilet's children.

In August of this year, Theresa Malila, director of Somebody Cares, wrote the following poem about Sophilet's children when asked why the children in Malawi do not show emotion the way North American children do.  Please read her poem and feel the reality of what life is like for an orphaned child in Africa....understand why they do not cry.

“I want to cry but I don’t know how

My mother just died and I don’t know why

I have no home and no place to lay my head

These are the thoughts I always dread

I really had no mother, neither did I have a father

My father was taken care of by my mother

We (the 5 children) had to take care of each other

Then we had to take care of our mother

There was no time to grieve

When my mother died there was only fear and relief

Fear, we had nowhere to go

Relief, she would suffer no more

Don’t tell me you are surprised to see no emotions

For we have learned to go through the motions

Because everything in our life is uncertain

Around our hearts we have erected an iron curtain

No one can really comprehend our suffering and pain

As mere children it should surely have rendered us insane

We have survived each day as it comes

For when one of us dies, there is no one to beat the drums

May God our Father

Continue to bless our new mother.

Enoch is a boy that has gone through gruesome experiences for the past ten years. Born on the 26 of June 1993 in Mgona where his parents settled from Dedza District some eighty kilometers east of Lilongwe, the young Enoch was the third out of five children in the family. Their father and mother were said to be loving and caring parents who, though very poor, went all out to see that their five kids were well taken care of. Enoch’s family was struck by disaster barely two years after his birth; his mother died of an HIV/AIDS related disease and his father succumbed to the disease three years later.

Enoch and his four siblings were taken over by their old and poverty-stricken grandmother. Unfortunately, their granny also died (of natural causes) after three years of their stay with her. The five kids were then left in the village without anyone taking proper care of them.  Within three years all of them died save Enoch. The first two were said to have died from hunger and lack of care, the last two from HIV/AIDS but accelerated by improper care and famine. Left alone in the village a couple from a neighbouring village who knew his parents took him back to Mgona to stay with them. The couple, Mr. Augustino and Mrs. Elizabeth Band, had five children of their own and had to carry the burden of caring for Enoch also.

Augustino is a watchman and his wife, Elizabeth, a housewife who, until last year was running a small business; she sold buns and used the profit to feed the family. Augustino’s meagre wages went directly into paying house rent and whatever remained was used to supplement Elizabeth’s income. With this arrangement the family was living relatively ‘comfortably'.  A year ago while Elizabeth was gathering firewood in the bush, a large tree she was cutting fell on her, severely fracturing her left ankle. She spent two months in the hospital and though she got discharged she has still not fully recovered. She has difficulty walking, a situation that brought an abrupt end to her itinerant buns business. She now stays at home, thus making the family dependent on Augustino’s income, which the couple said could not support them through the month after paying the house rent.  

Though the Banda family would want to see Enoch in secondary school, they could not afford the fees. He was to start his secondary education at the beginning of the school year, as he passed the prescribed examinations very well and got selected. But due to lack of fees this did not materialize. Instead he stayed at home helping Elizabeth with the house chores. In the evenings he would go to a local catholic church one kilometer away for choir practice where he is a member of the youth choir group.

Enoch’s case came to light following WOW's request for information on an orphan who has lost successive caregivers (a serial orphan) and was struggling to survive. As we went to find such a child, one of the volunteers that remembered a weeping boy once approached him inquiring if Somebody Cares could help him go to school. Unfortunately the volunteer kept this information for his monthly report. We quickly visited the home of this boy that evening but found him gone to his regular evening choir practice. We had to arrange for another visit before we could find him.

In the house we found the food situation so serious that WOW had to provide food packs for the family immediately. As this is the rainy and hunger season, the family’s main food was pumpkins and other green melons harvested from their backyard garden. These melons are only boiled and eaten. Until we visited and provided them with food packs, these were the family’s breakfast, lunch and dinner for two weeks.

Meanwhile WOW has sent Enoch to one of the nearby private day secondary schools, as it is now too late for him to be admitted into a boarding school.

Surely, Enoch needs assistance in many areas including school fees, clothes, food, counselling and guidance. He is an intelligent boy with determination to get good education one day. His guardians told us he is a boy of good conduct, loving and caring especially toward their children. They said he is a devoted church goer who cannot afford to miss the weekly Sunday service even in the event of heavy rains.

Joining his guardians, Enoch thanked WOW for the visit and food brought. With tears running down his cheeks and vividly shaken, he said he always prayed that God would turn His face toward him one day and his prayer had been answered in our visit.

The widows and people living with HIV/AIDS in Mgona harvested their maize crop this month.  What a harvest!!!  They were so proud of the harvest and went to the fields with songs of praise bringing in the maize!  They are so thankful to the donors in Canada for providing funds for seed and fertilizer. 

Fanny Kenamu’s brother, Frank, who was living with her passed on during the weekend of 13th April.  We were able to console her and contribute toward funeral expenses.  In Malawi, you are unable to bury a body without a casket which costs the equivalent of $50 Canadian.  Fanny works to sell tomatoes for a living and receives about $1 CAD every 3 days, so you can imagine the distress of needing to find funds to pay for a casket.  This is one example of the desperation and extreme pressure that so many like Fanny are under.  WOW is working to help Fanny by learning a new trade that will help her to gain a greater income and provide for others in her family.

The chiefs and pastors in Ngona are on fire for the Lord; they cannot but express how thankful they are for the Word that is bearing much fruit. They have appealed on behalf of the widows that WOW start the IGA (Income Generating Activity) and small businesses account.

During the visit of Richard Brown (Visionledd's International Director for HIV/AIDS) one of the pastors (Rev Ziyaye) stopped us as we were leaving and remarked “God was dead in Ngona, but since Mama Theresa (Director of Somebody Cares, a Visionledd partner in Malawi) came to support the widows and orphans they have seen the face of God, He is now alive in Mgona!