A solo volunteer's story...
Written by Freddie Scott-Cracknell
Thank You To You All
For 28 days this summer I was fortunate enough to have the
opportunity to both observe and participate in the incredible work carried out
by Joshua Orphan Care in the Southern region of Malawi. To support my work, I
asked for a few small donations, with the target of £250 set for my trip. The
overwhelming support given by so many people helped my trip to raise over £1273
(including gift aid) all of which has gone straight to Joshua and the projects
that they support and run. To say thank you, I thought it may be of interest to
share a few more details about the work that Joshua are carrying out and a
story or two from my time out there!
On 17th August I flew out to Malawi for four
weeks, with just my guitar and a smile (oh and 30kgs of luggage). In honesty,
despite having been fortunate enough to travel a bit in the past and having
done a fair amount of research, there is nothing that can really prepare you
for visiting your first developing nation, and the extent to which poverty runs
deep through Malawian society became quickly apparent on the drive from the
airport to Blantyre, Malawi’s second city. As the third poorest nation on the
Earth by GDP per capita, the work carried out by Joshua Orphan and Community
Care in more than 10 different communities around Blantyre is essential in
combatting issues ranging from vaccination to providing textbooks and feeding
schoolchildren.
After a few days of
adjustment in Blantyre, my first week in Chilaweni village arrived, and with 10
kilos of rice, a variety of vegetables and a pot of honey (home comforts) I
headed out to spend my first week in the village with my colleague/guide/friend
Jeston. Standing at the centre of the small collection of villages is the
Chilaweni Primary School (below), which has been supported in a variety of
funding by Joshua, and is run by Joshua Trustee and overwhelmingly friendly Mr.
Thumba (also below). Providing primary school education to over one thousand
students is no easy task, and seeing teachers take on the challenge of
organising sometimes up to 100 students in a class only served to incre ased my admiration for their work.
So with the first night of no
electricity or running water smoothly out of the way, and a warm bucket shower
to start the day, the first of three weeks of computer lessons began. Alongside
my colleague Jeston Mesiala, we took on the challenge of running Joshua’s first
ever computer class, and for every one of the students, their first ever look
at a computer. This experience was of course challenging, particularly when the
electricity in our class (the only place with electricity in Chilaweni) was out
due to a power cut. However, by the end of three weeks of lessons the students were
comfortable typing, formatting and navigating their way around Microsoft Word.
Whilst at times computer classes may not seem a necessity, the chance to learn
how to use Word allows students to truly mark themselves out and access job
opportunities that they never would normally have. In addition, the students
that have been taught now have the ability to pass on their skills, in the
words of Mr. Thumba turning Chilaweni from ‘computer illiterate, to computer
literate’.
The warmth and friendliness of everyone
associated with Joshua was an essential part to my experience of Malawi, and
despite being a solo volunteer, they ensured that I was comfortable whilst at
the same time allowing me the freedom to get a true representation of Malawian
life. Additionally, the freedom of the weekends allowed me to explore Malawi,
visiting the Lake, climbing 2750m up Mount Mulanje and seeing hippos and
elephants at the Majete National Reserve, all three of which I highly recommend
to any future volunteer or travelers in Malawi.
To conclude, I just want to
reiterate my gratefulness for the opportunity and the warm welcome extended to
me by the entire staff of Joshua. In particular I would like to thank Sylvia
Avgherinos, for helping to organise the trip, Gem Clark for keeping track of
me while I was out there and most importantly Jeston Mesiala, who was a great
translator and teacher, but more importantly a great friend from day one to day
29.
However, I have to finish by
saying a huge thank you to all those
who had the kindness to donate to the charity which made an absolutely
incredible total of £1273 including gift aid, over five times the initial
target. I was overwhelmed by the unbelievable support from family and friends
but even more from many people who I’ve never had the chance to meet! All I can
say is that I can personally guarantee that the money that has been so kindly
donated will be vital in supporting the projects that Joshua works so
tirelessly to support.
If you have any questions about
Malawi, Joshua or just my trip in general please don’t hesitate to contact me
at fscottcracknell@gmail.com.
For more information about Joshua
please visit: http://joshuainmalawi.org.uk/ or email gem.joshuainmalawi@gmail.com
Zikomo
