More Nsima? No thank you!

Hello azungu how are you? And other things to expect in Malawi!

kirrenmahmood — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 05:37:00 GMT

Supporters of the Democratic Progressive Party and the late president Bingu, displaying their political affiliations with big, bold DPP zitenje and party anthems, were scattered across the presidential grounds in Sanjika, Blantyre, to commemorate his passing, when I visited last Saturday. The place resonated with the beautiful singing of choirs. Choirs that had travelled miles and come from all over the country, to uphold the significance of such a monumental moment in the country’s history. He looked a lot younger than his 78 years, when I saw his body. He had died in very unfortunate but ironic circumstances. Ironic in that, he died as a result of the very issues that he was given the responsibility to find some resolve over. His air ambulance wasn’t available when he had a heart attack. With no state emergency services, he had to be taken to an ICU in a clinic in Lilongwe, in the back of an ordinary vehicle. There were inevitable delays getting there as a result. He was pronounced dead upon arrival, and supposedly the clinic didn’t have the drugs and equipment to try and resuscitate him effectively. These lack of resources were a direct consequence of an aid freeze over a fight Bingu himself had picked with donors. Bingu had lost the goodwill of several funding bodies, and had lost vitally needed aid that had traditionally accounted for approximately 40% of the national budget, on the grounds of being challenged over human rights violations and deterioration in a democratic governance environment.

Despite my sentiments towards his autocratic and intolerant regime, I couldn’t help feel sorry for the entire state of affairs in Malawi when I saw him. If that’s how your president goes, what hope is there for your average Joe. His funeral was on Monday, it was a national holiday. We were casually waiting on the lay-by, swapping passengers, when fortuitously; we encountered the presidential motorcade that drove by in Blantyre. They were all returning from his funeral. Nine heads of state drove past, as well as delegations of the African Congress, Commonwealth and Comesa [Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa], and of course Joyce Banda, the current Malawian president. It brought to a head for me that for Banda, her Everest is undoubtedly re-establishing broken relationships with important allies and donor organisations, in a bid to re-build the precariously fragile economy.

Not everyone, however, necessarily perceives donor-aid, or at least how it’s traditionally been, as a positive for Malawi. When I first arrived, I was lucky to receive an idiots guide to Malawi from the MD of Beehive, Peter Nkata, as part of my induction. He talked a lot about the economy, amongst other things, and the role international donors have had in creating a vicious cycle of dependency on external providers for things like fertilizer and hybrid seeds. He described it as the new colonialism. It was an interesting but cynical perspective. I wasn’t sure whether the introduction of the above was simply in response to resolving the dilemma of feeding a population that has doubled over the last 20 years or so. But nevertheless, he was right about the dependency, last year seemed to be gloomed over by anxiety from a national shortage of fertilizer, without which, the land can no longer support harvest growth.

For me, these recent political changes have allowed for an ideal reflection point about my changing perceptions of Malawi. At a first glance, it’s a country with grim HIV statistics, a country where 75% live under a dollar a day, placing it at 171 out of 187 on the Human Development Index, and a country that gets masked by its high profile tourist attractive neighbours. But at a closer look, a country that rightfully gets described as the warm heart of Africa, often described as ‘Africa for beginners’, and where these recent changes in presidency will hopefully call for interesting and better times ahead.

I’ve been here for nearly two and a half months now. I remember getting tired easily and feeling overwhelmed with how much there was to take in, when I first arrived. I kept trying to figure out why. And it was simple. Expect to be flooded by many different experiences and emotions. That would be Malawi if I was to sum it up- ‘it’s everything’. There’s a lot you come across when you’re here that simply breaks your heart- a raw reality, but it’s side-by-side with the heart-warming. Some things can really pee you off, and other things just crack you up. So, this entry, will simply be a list of what you could expect to come across if you ever visit.

First of all the names. Some of my staff are called Blessings, Loveness, Wonderful, Gift, McCloud, Precious, Hope, and Trouble (often given to a child that has caused a difficult labour. Charming).

Beauty! From sheet lightening to an expansive sky. And with such little light pollution, it’s an ideal place to brush up on your constellations.

The ‘pole pole’ (‘slowly slowly’) pace of life, especially in the workplace, which in one sense is a liberating contrast from the frenetic lifestyle we lead back home, usually at the expense of smelling the roses. But, it does also come at the expense of productivity, efficiency and development. Surely, there’s a happy medium somewhere.

‘Hello azungu (white-spirit) how are you?’ In all its political correctness. And I wasn’t white last time I checked. Expect it here all the time. Usually, by a lot of kids running up to you.

The shop names. ‘God is Able Hair Salon’. ‘Fear god’ buses. ‘God is good hardware (bridal dresses in the back)’. No joke.

Waste. When you don’t have a community waste management system operating, and it dawns on you that as an organisation you have indirectly authorized your cleaners to dump rubbish down the river, by not providing them with alternative feasible options, you very quickly begin to appreciate how much waste and pollution we create, and how complicated it is to work out the most environmental way to deal with the issue. And it’s a national issue, that requires a national scale system. Even the presidential grounds were badly littered.

A conspicuous religiously subservient culture. Most official Beehive meetings start with a prayer.

Hassle from sellers and azungu rip-offs- expect to be charged twice as much. Haggling, is a handy skill to have here.

National fuel shortages and petrol queues. And they are long. Expect to be waiting for hours.

A lot of bereavements, which is a closer reality working on a daily basis with staff from the local community in Chilomoni. The strong community sense regarding funerals is admirable, yet causes genuine dilemmas for work organisations. It surely is for Beehive. You would never have as many staff off for compassionate leave back in the UK. But as a community member here you would be expected to attend the funeral of someone from your community. I sometimes grimace at the thought that by imposing our work ethics/ expectations on our staff over such values, it might inadvertently result in a gradual distancing from these cultural norms/ practices. Speaking from experience, with my Pakistani heritage, I know that my parents generation uphold these community values, far better than those of my generation, because ‘we’re too busy with our other commitments, particularly work ones’. I am definitely reminded of this enough times by my mother. Here in Malawi, if you are driving, and you see two triangles either side a house, it means that someone has passed away, and you have to stop and wait out of respect until their funeral rites are over. I have waited for half an hour on the road before and got late for a meeting.

A lack of variety, especially in cosmetics and other contemporary luxuries. It does make shopping easier. I’m expecting to be overwhelmed by my first Tesco trip back in the UK when I return- ‘OMG, 10 different varieties of Weetabix, I can’t cope!’ There are some shops in Blantyre that you can get things from, but because everything is imported, they are so expensive. The prices of things here will strike you. Expect to pay about £10-15 for one box of hair dye. I’m missing corner shops. We get lunch and supper provided, but if you wanted anything different at work, there’s not really that much else you can get. Also, unless you constantly fresh cook all the time, there aren’t many healthy alternatives. I eat a lot of rubbish as a result.

The luring temptation of a black market. The current official exchange rate is MK240 to the pound, as oppose to MK350 on the black. A huge difference. An issue that has been exacerbated by the devaluation of the Kwacha.

Delays, delays and more delays. Things break down all the time. Nothing works. Everything takes ten times longer, and is ten times more complicated. In a subsistence existence, people often work so long and hard they don’t have the time or energy to work out a better way of doing it. It reminded me of the opening line in Winnie the Pooh.

“HERE is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin. It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming downstairs, but sometimes he feels that there really is another way, if only he could stop bumping for a moment and think of it.”

The work ethic paradox. On the one hand, you see people slogging it. Marian’s son, Joe, came a few weeks ago and carried out interviews with charcoal sellers in Malawi. Some of the sellers were setting off at midnight on foot, carrying an unfathomable weight of charcoal on their head, and arriving in Blantyre 5 hrs later, selling it, and making the 5 hour trip back. But then on the other hand, it’s more common here to come across a really poor work ethic: a lack of motivation, lateness, unauthorized absences, stealing. I guess motivation and ethics, including work ones, are inspired. Above everything, I have loved, loved, loved to see the shifting attitudes of the caregivers towards their work at the children’s centre. I have seen pride, responsibility, ownership, all within a few months. We have recently appointed room leaders and deputee managers and they have really stepped up.

A health and safety conscious nation. Not. Expect to walk past kids playing with fire on your way to work. The new children’s centre manager arrived a few days ago. She told me they now have a policy in county-wide Nottinghamshire that children can no longer junk model with toilet roll tubes because it’s potentially unhygienic. It’s health and safety gone mad. Again, surely there’s a happy medium somewhere.

Vehicles constantly breaking down. Driving vehicles without keys. Using a filing cabinet key as a vehicle key. One of our friend’s from Torrent ends up being called out all the time, and it’s amazing to watch him work pretty much any vehicle problem out.

Cold showers and very early starts. I have to get in for 6:30, which means cold showers at 5am. I wouldn’t describe it as the most enjoyable part of my day.

When there is such a lack of resources, finding a way and making it work. And you always do. Being resourceful and creative with what you have.

Long and frequent power cuts

Jumping in and out of land-rovers and being jostled about in the back, on the bumpiest rides I’ve ever had on un-tarmaced roads. I quite like it.

How the other half live? The relativity in privilege. Chilomoni- a perspective gained

kirrenmahmood — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 00:45:00 GMT

Upon entering the Beehive site one day, Vince found two female labourers asleep. It was well after lunch-time, and in classic Vince style he confronted the issue very calmly by saying to them you obviously seem quite tired, why don’t you go home to rest for the day. The construction manager seeing that something was going on, came over, heard the conversation and said to the labourers, in fact why don’t you go home for the week, and the senior manager said why don’t you go home for the month! The labourers went home but returned the following day and pleaded to Vince whether he would consider having them back. They were prepared to work for free just so that they were able to have the one free meal that Beehive provides to all its employees during lunch-time. They were both HIV+, they both had dependents and their medication (there is a national initiative supported by the government in reversing HIV mortality, funding for medication has therefore been pooled from several donor organisations and overseen by the National Aids Commission) would not be effective unless it was taken with some food. It probably was an issue of life and death for them. For many, that meal is their only meal. Despite food prices rocketing, Tony has maintained this provision for this very reason.

You always hear about it, but nothing prepares you when you witness first hand people actually living on less than a dollar a day. I recently had to do assessments/ home-visits around Chilomoni with the local Child Protection Officer. The assessments were of families that were referred/ put forward to MTCC by local community authority figures such as the village chief and church-members as well as professionals from the Health Centre of those they considered as the neediest. The purpose of the assessments was to determine the families/ children that would benefit the most from having a free (sponsored) place at MTCC. During the start of the new term in April, 30 sponsored places will be allocated. These 30 children will be chosen following a committee decision of the above community members and MTCC professionals based on the outcomes of the assessments. A wide range of factors are taken into consideration including: number of people in the household; number of financial dependents vs providers; household income; family assets; social support network; health of child and significant family members. And it’s such a hard-hitting reality.

I met a father who financially supports 12 people on a monthly salary of 6/7000 Kwacha, that’s between 18-21 pounds. He works 12 hours daily as a security guard, six days a week, he has a daily walking commute round trip of four hours. And on top of this, he works on his small plot of land, every spare minute he has. His eldest is at secondary school. Secondary education is certainly not free, so he somehow has to find the money for her fees and transport for school, that’s 7,500K in itself. He knows that when his second-born reaches secondary education next year, he simply won’t be able to afford it. Yet he was too gracious to tell us about his problems, we had to coax it out of him.

I met a mother who has had to leave her three year old at home alone while she does piece-work and washes clothes to bring in the only income for the household. Her husband recently became house-bound. When I saw him one of his legs was at least twice the size of the other. He’s been to the hospital twice with no joy, and as time has passed, he’s found it increasingly difficult to get out and about, so he hasn’t returned to the hospital. A man quite faithful to his prayer, he’s just hoping for divine intervention. We tried to persuade him that he needs to go back, no matter how.

Another woman, unemployed and dependent on her sister and brother-in-law, wanted to return to school. She had her son at 16, and was unable to return to her parents house, for having him out of wedlock. She is unaware of the whereabouts of his dad. She was starry-eyed telling us about her hopes for him. Her sister is expecting, and she’s worried about how much longer they’ll be able to support them both, with the increasing size of their own family. With her son at the Children’s Centre, it would free her up to go back to school. Probably quite important when it comes to supporting him in the future, especially beyond six, when he leaves the centre and starts at school.

And so the rounds continued. In comparison to these shacks that I visited, the volunteers’ accommodation that I’m staying at is five star. Most had no elec and running water.

It does bring to a head somewhat our mindless consumerist culture back home. In one sense, adapting to life here has been quite liberating. The 23kg baggage restriction when coming here meant that I bought very little across, and yet I’ve had no trouble living comfortably. I love my daily walk to work through the village, as it keeps my entire experience here in context.

The most difficult lesson everyone here has had to learn is that you can’t help everyone. Each volunteer has their own reasons when choosing who to help. It might be buying clothes for a child at the centre, because they’ve had to deal with his crying mum who doesn’t have spare clothes for him. So, when he doesn’t return with all his clothes, because they are being washed at the Children’s Centre if they have been soiled during the day, she has nothing to bring him in the next day. It might be buying a wheelchair for a disabled child you keep seeing on your way to work, that you know should be at school, but he has no way of getting there. He now attends school as a result. Or, it might be driving the cleaner to the hospital, because her daughter has malaria.

There is something bittersweet about these experiences however. On the one hand you witness the suffering people have to endure from such shocking poverty. Yet, on the other, you witness such a community spirit, and such simplicity in living. I was very kindly invited to stay at a rural village of sister Patricia, a friend of one of the employees at Beehive, during my third weekend here. The village is in Mulanje, in the mountains, and it was stunning. There was a smell of an organic world. It helped me appreciate that there is a difference between urban and rural poverty. Open space and scenic surroundings definitely allow for a better standard of living. Their hospitality blew me away- they waited on me hand and foot, and most likely gave me the best food in the village. And that was community living. I guess in a country devoid of an official organised social support system, it’s the only way, but the entire village came together.

I was the first ever azungu (foreigner) in the village, so I created quite a sensation, and I took the first ever photos. That was amazing, because as I got to know the families, it was nice to be able to take their first family photos, and see the stir caused by their sudden interest in their appearance as a result. Girls were fascinated by the little makeup and mirror I had bought with me, and lined up for a makeover. They definitely didn’t need it. Initially the gifts that I was considering to bring were things that I thought they would never have had, such as chocolate, crisps, and confectionary. But then I realised, that in addition to this, things like oil, sugar, salt, and soap would be more helpful in a place of subsistence living. They lived off whatever they grew. Their only income is selling food such as rice and maize.

They barely spoke English, I didn’t have anyone that I knew with me, I didn’t have reception on my phone, there was obviously no internet, and it was great. I taught them rounders as well as I could have with the language barrier, they got the basic idea. They taught me how to pound maize, make Nsima, they taught me local games, and they loved seeing me carry water. Obviously with no elec and running water, your entertainment lies with being together, singing, dancing and telling stories. There were also so many things I struggled with, such as the fly and cockroach infested hole in the ground, aka the toilet. They gave me the only bed in the village, which at risk of sounding like a spoilt little brat, just as well, because of what I heard scurrying around at night.

I spoke to the head-teacher of the local school, the only one with good English. He told me that children from nine villages come to this school. They have 2150 children, and 23 teachers. The government stopped providing books some years ago, so the children have to bring their own. Most can’t afford it. The nearest doctor is 4km away, the only mode of transport is the few bicycles that there are, or by foot. You have to pay for any medical service. The death-rate therefore, especially of children, from simple diseases such as malaria and diarrhoea, is quite high. The average age people get married at the village is 15, which, fair enough, if your average life expectancy is in your 40’s. The average number of children that people have is 6/7. It was interesting to see the conservative social norms, that would readily have been challenged back home, such as the dead-set biased gender roles. Our opinions are definitely dependent on our experiences. It reminded me of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. We only have the energy to address the fairness in issues such as gender roles, when we’re not busy worrying about food and water. I also spoke to the village chief, who is currently overseeing the repairs on the houses damaged from the last storm a few months ago. Both the head teacher and chief had high expectations from my visit. Overall, I wasn’t expecting to return having learned so much about myself from the serenity in their way of living.

To conclude this entry, for all family and friends reading this. If any of you intend to fundraise at all this year, and you need ideas, then Krizevac would always welcome funds towards child sponsorship. The cost of sponsoring a child for one year is £772. Alternatively, you could fundraise for consumable resources for the Children’s Centre. Stationary and art material are really expensive here, we’re always short of paper, card, glue, paint etc. Please get in touch if you’re interested.

MTCC- Setting the standard

kirrenmahmood — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 01:09:00 GMT

Setting up a Children’s Centre was Vince’s idea. He had been working in the UK when the Sure-Start model had been disseminated nationally. He experienced firsthand how Sure Start had revolutionized support and provision for children and families in small communities, and contributed significantly to the development within these areas. To this day these centres remain key features in communities. The idea? They are to be a one stop-shop for all early year needs. Needless to say therefore, a multi- disciplinary and multi-professional set-up is necessary in order to improve the social, educational, and health outcomes of the children. Children Centres can even provide counselling and courses for parents with the view that this will indirectly benefit the child. National reviews and audits have no doubt confirmed the success of Sure Start in England.

And this is the vision for MTCC- Mother Teresa Children Centre, to base it on an evidence based, tried and tested success story, the Sure Start model, right down to the training of all staff to Sure-Start standards, to the staff-child ratios in day care. An extremely tall order when taking into account the complete lack of infrastructure in child services in Malawi, which makes it so difficult to sustain a multi-professional set-up in the long run. Ideally a wide range of professionals would use the children centre as a base at frequent intervals to provide the various services. For instance prenatal and antenatal healthcare and advice by health visitors and midwives; advice and support on parenting; speech and language therapy; child protection officers and the list goes on. However, in a place like Malawi where the national number of nurses at one point was lower than the number of Malawian nurses between Liverpool and Manchester (the government down-graded the course so that graduates wouldn’t qualify for employment with the NHS in order to retain them in the country), you can appreciate the difficulty there is in maintaining consistent multi-agency provision.

How significant would something like MTCC be in a place like Malawi then? Well, when you consider that in terms of early year provisions in Malawi, it is of course only private, a luxury exclusive to the upper-middle class and with no official equivalent to Ofsted, even these private nurseries don’t come close to your average sure-start centres in the UK. Education is free for 6-14 year olds. The average number of students at a typical primary school varies from 4-5000, and often up to 7000, with approximately 60 teachers. You can do the Maths, how many students per teacher per classroom. Most children also have to pass selection exams to continue to the next academic year, your average student that reaches secondary school has to attempt about three times in order to continue. Drop-out rates are therefore high, and girls in particular start getting used more and more at home for domestic help, their numbers drop quite significantly.

I had never before fully appreciated how the British Education system fosters such a wide range of skills in children, that we take right through to adulthood, and take for granted, until I came here. I mean, we’re far from perfect, but when you consider the above ratios in Malawi, you’re left with an education system that can just about provide parrot fashion reiteration whilst you rock backwards and forwards with your 100 or so other peers in class, with a complete lack of opportunity to develop skills such as creativity, thinking outside the box, problem solving, curiosity....

And you have to wonder, how many of the current problems here are as a consequence of this. It seems to come across. There seem to be the same ongoing problems, and things come to a complete stand-still when anything goes wrong.

In light of this therefore, when you consider the staff to child ratios for 0-2 year olds at MTCC, which is 1-3, and 1-8 for 2-6 year olds, you then begin to appreciate the significance of this in the context of the current Malawian Education System. The volunteers at MTCC are rather confident that this is probably one of the best early year centres in Malawi.

So, where are we at with MTCC? The north site still needs to be completed. The other site however is open. Three rooms are operating and provide day care: the baby room, the toddler room, and pre-school. There are 30 children so far. There are three room leaders, one for each room, all three are volunteers from the UK. And at present there are 55 care-givers that are in the practical stage of their diploma course in child-care. The view is, the strongest candidates who are well-trained will continue their employment at the CC. The child-care diploma course? An absolutely amazing feat. Two volunteers who have been here for 18 months have single-handedly adapted and developed the Malawian Early Years curriculum (originally written by a member of UNICEF) into this course, and have taught and delivered it. Once the care-givers qualify the hope is they will be apt to teach the Malawian Early Year Curriculum to a high standard. They are leaving in a few months, and I will continue with this, as well as take on some of the management responsibilities. So, it goes without saying, I am quite anxious. Marion and David are impossible acts to follow. Marion did initially consider to stick with the British Early Years Foundation, but then decided against it to ensure the children receive a Malawi-centric education.

I was initially under the impression that in order to financially sustain the free places that MTCC are offering the most vulnerable children from the local village, just under half of all allocated places need to be fully paid for- the fee paying children. However, that isn’t the case, the fee-paying children that enrol are only paying for their own places. The cost of the free places will be covered by sponsorship; some locally, others from UK contacts through the volunteers here.

So, why have a mix of fee-paying and sponsored children at the centre? Why not just have all the places as sponsored? In order to maintain a good social balance. What better way to build the aspirations of these sponsored children, but to put them alongside their privileged peers. When MTCC reach full capacity, they can provide day care for approximately 250 children. The idea is, 100 will be fee-paying, 100 will be sponsored, and 50 will receive subsidized rates if their parents are working for Beehive (Beehive will cover the remaining costs). We currently have just 4 fee-paying children. Now, although at present we have the money to allocate further places for the children of Beehive employees, and also for sponsored places, we’re holding off until we have more fee-paying children for fear that upper-middle class parents might not want to send their children here, if there are too many children from severely deprived areas of Chilomoni.

This has been my first task starting here. Promoting the profile of MTCC locally and advertising special offers on available places targeted exclusively at the upper-middle class of Blantyre, in order to increase the number of fee-paying children that enrol. Now, based on the standards of MTCC, it should be as easy as getting the parents through the door, the place should sell itself. With this in mind I organised a ‘fun’ day- (a teddy bear tea party) this Saturday just gone, advertising specifically in the privileged areas of Blantyre. Although it was a great day in so many ways, and many children came, we seemed to have just one or two potential fee-paying parents attend. This seems to be the challenge, getting people through the door. There is a reluctance to come to Chilomoni, which is perceived as a township.

To conclude my sentiments on early year provision, I once carried out a systematic research review on longitudinal studies that investigated the relationship between a series of factors present during the early years of life, with long term outcomes for the individual. The significance of these factors such as early attachment, positive parenting, nutrition, play.... is absolutely astounding.

So, when I think about this in the context of our society that is geared up to act reactively when dealing with our problems today, it brings the concept of early intervention into its own league. And I think it doesn’t get earlier than investing in provision for the first few years.

The Origin of Beehive.

kirrenmahmood — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 07:05:00 GMT

Following the most eventful week of my life, during my first week in Chilomoni, Blantyre, I thought it appropriate to begin a blog about my time here as part of such a wonderful development project. And I would like to start by giving a bit of background on who I’m actually working for, and what I’m doing here.

Krizevac is the development project that recruited me to work in the Mother Teresa Children Centre (MTCC), which was set up using funds from a centre of social enterprise called Beehive. I hadn’t appreciated the sheer scale of the various Beehive enterprises until I arrived and saw the centre, it has created hundreds of jobs locally and is literally changing the face of Chilomoni. Beehive, was set up by a very successful businessman called Tony from Staffordshire. I was lucky that I got to meet him during my interview, and yep...he was nothing that I expected: old, quirky and with such an admirable vision. And his inspiration? Well, about 10 years ago, on his visit to a religious site in Herzegovina, Bosnia called Medjugorje, he had a religious experience, and I’m guessing quite a profound one.

A significant development initiative began in Medjugorje after an incident in 1981 where approximately six local adolescents had claimed they had a vision of the Virgin Mary on a mountain. A cross was laid at this place, a church was built, and ten years on, now a popular pilgrim-site, Medjugorje is unrecognisable following the investment in the region from pilgrim donations.

Weirdly, I happened to have visited Medjugorje in October during my Croatia and Bosnia holiday. Anyway, Tony was so inspired by this, he decided to continue the legacy elsewhere. When he visited his nephew called Vince (who was a Children’s Centre Manager back in the UK), and his wife in Blantyre who initially came to Malawi as VSO volunteers, and saw the mountains in Chilomoni, he found his opportunity. He laid down a cross, he built an exact replica of the church in Medjugorje, and he built a school. Although the locals in Chilomoni were extremely excited by Tony’s arrival and the millions he had spent, it very soon came to a head that with regards to the socio-economic issues of the area, the church and cross were going to have little impact in the day to day lives of local Chilomonis.

It was at this point that Beehive was conceived. Tony, along with other significant pioneers went on to set up non-profit viable and self-sustainable enterprises, being quite vigilant with regards to the ones they chose to financially support. All surpluses generated are being ploughed back into the enterprises and into projects that meet wider social need. On an arduous task of bringing across plant and vehicles and IT equipment from the UK, he set up a plant and vehicle hire and IT equipment hire called Torrent. Torrent is Beehive’s most successful enterprise, they are currently making over a million and 250,000 Kwatcha in profit, respectively, and it’s this money that has been used to set up the children’s centre. The discovery of Hydroform was key in allowing for cost-effective construction development at Beehive. A worthwhile investment in just a few conventional construction machinery, allowed for a simple and economical brick making technique to create extremely cheap compressed earth blocks using just soil cement and water.

Other enterprises include Beebikes and Beebooks...and as you guessed it thousands of books and bikes have been shipped across from the UK (apparently Beehive received thousands of royal mail bikes) that have been refurbished and sold. Again both have been relatively successful. You can buy any book for 50 Kwatcha, that’s 20p. I found the entire works of Oscar Wilde and Shakespeare in the bookshop the other day. A tomato also costs 50 Kwatcha. Other not so successful enterprises include their knitting and sewing. The competition from the local market of second hand clothes is too high (apparently anything you leave at Oxfam back in the UK, ends up here). It means you see half the boys walking around in British football shirts, and many women wearing an interesting combination of traditional chatinjees with contemporary logo shirts.

And their most concerning enterprise especially when considering the investment that went in, is JP Academy, an adult learning centre that provides IT and leadership courses. JP is in deficit, and because of how much it’s costing Tony, it has apparently been the reason behind the current hold-up on further construction.

And here it is, the fundamentals of starting any long term community development initiative! Financial sustainability, once external donors cut off the supply! It means you have to set up according to a business model. A social-conscious business, but a business nevertheless, (as oppose to a charity), if it is to be viable.

This vision of empowerment is consistent through all enterprises affiliated to Beehive. The only possible consideration for regret with regards to maintaining a cohesive identity, are the various names that have been adopted by Beehive organisations. It means many people outside the Beehive community are probably not aware that they are linked.

True to traditional work customs, your week at Beehive kicks off with an assembly which all members affiliated to Beehive should try and attend. All new members have to introduce themselves in front of the assembly, and it’s always the same few questions they have to answer: who are you, why are you here, where are you from, and first impressions of Malawi? It’s been a nice way to begin employment here, to be able to walk around the site soon after and to be instantly known.

So, Beehive in a nutshell? This isn’t just teaching a man to fish; it’s teaching the man how to make the rod...hook, line and sinker, a truly humbling vision. I consider it one of the most cost-effective ways to intervene in the long-run. We have to be mindful of the consequences of long-term provision of certain kinds of aid, to prevent a community becoming reliant on hand-outs, without bringing about any long-term social change.