These photos relate to the January/February 2009 Seeds for the Parish cover article (www.elca.org/seeds). Photos by Sue Edison-Swift, ELCA World Hunger Appeal.
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Date(s): October 2008. Album by ELCA World Hunger. Photos by Sue Edison-Swift. 1 - 73 of 73 Total.
enlarge 73KB, 639x456 1 DSC 0711Edit Sue, Pr. Phil, and Christopher with the ELCM staff we met with. Notes: ELCM sponsors 9 primary schools and 1 secondary school; there are school feeding programs for rentention. Capacity building is a primary focus. In Malawi there's an average of one teacher per 100--150 students; one pastor for 15 to 20 preaching points.; and one doctor per 50,000 people.Edit "Mphatso Thole, the Companion Synod Coordinator is bet..." "Also pictured are Mphatso Thole, Companion Coordinato..." View Comments...
enlarge 66KB, 638x424 2 DSC 0720Edit Our day of field visits began at the the ELDS regional office, Lipiri Trading CentreEdit
enlarge 57KB, 638x424 4 DSC 0722Edit Our day of field visits in Malawi began at the the ELDS regional office, Lipiri Trading Centre (mailing address is Madisi).Edit
enlarge 70KB, 638x424 5 DSC 0725Edit Charles Msowoya is Project Coordinator for the ELDS/ELCM DOWA WEST ministries. This picture peaks in to his office as he prepares to brief us on the day.Edit
enlarge 76KB, 640x427 6 DSC 0726Edit We'll visit village #1 and #17 first, then #21.Edit
enlarge 74KB, 424x638 8 DSC 0731Edit Charles Msowoya briefs us on our day: First we'll walk next door and visit a Savings and Credit village bank; we'll then drive to the Samuel and Chakwela villages, followed by a visit to the Kambuzi village. We'll then visit the Mkhute congregregation (ELCM) peanut butter processing project. Finally we'll visit an ELCM medical clinic.Edit
enlarge 56KB, 638x424 9 DSC 0733Edit We are briefed on the day ahead.Edit
enlarge 59KB, 638x424 10 DSC 0735Edit We met outside for the day's briefing...a good thing, as the day was already HOT. ELDS-DOWA WEST is working in 127 villages, with 1,977 households (567 of these are households headed by women). DOWA's foci include: (1) food security; (2) environmental protection (esp. planting and conserving trees); (3) water and sanitation; (4) AIDS care and support; (5) Savings and Credit village banks. "We empower local structures to work on their own," said Charles.Edit
enlarge 54KB, 640x426 12 DSC 0738Edit SACCO=Savings and Credit Cooperative. ELDS has set up four SACCOs in Malawi, to serve as village banks and centers for micro-credit loans.Edit
enlarge 50KB, 638x424 14 DSC 0750Edit The SACCO's bookkeeper is employed by the community. Only a nominal amount of money is kept in the safe in the office; share deposits are transferred to the nearest bank.Edit
enlarge 69KB, 424x638 15 DSC 0752Edit Newsprint on the wall offers complete transparency.Edit
enlarge 65KB, 639x456 16 DSC 0753Edit Albeta Chilombo makes a deposit in her SACCO account.Edit
enlarge 70KB, 427x640 17 DSC 0754Edit As Albeta banks, Charles explains the SACCO. There are 417 members; you become a member when you deposit your first 500K share (about $3.55 USD). SACCO: Savings and Credit Cooperatives are village banks built on offering micro-credit loans. The SACCOs are managed and supervised by the communities. The DOWA SACCO was established in 2005. "Before we had village banks," said Charles, "money needed to be buried in a corner of the house."Edit
enlarge 46KB, 425x639 18 DSC 0757Edit Albeta Chilombo happened to be making a deposit when we visited the Kasungu Community SACCO (Savings and Credit Cooperative). One of the first members in 2005, Albeta makes a deposit once a week. She is a farmer & beekeeper and she sells honey and bakery. She made 40,000 Malawi Kwacha last year ($1 USD = 141 Kwacha, so about $284) growing and selling tobacco, her biggest source of income. This is the youngest of the four ELDS-sponsored SACCOs, only taking deposits. Albeta is investing in shares (1 share = 500 K). Members can not withdraw from their shares, but next year they can start taking out loans with their shares as collateral. Albeta hopes to get a family loan next year to improve her house and increase her income-generation.Edit
enlarge 52KB, 427x640 19 DSC 0761Edit Sue with Albeta Chilombo, who made a deposit at the Kasungu Community SACCO, supported in part by gifts to the ELCA World Hunger Appeal through implementing partner, ELDS. Why does Albeta save here? "For security purposes," she said. "Houses with grass roofs are susceptible to fire; money kept in the house would be burndt, too."Edit
enlarge 57KB, 640x426 20 DSC 0762Edit Albeta's banking is done, and we're all glad to be outside were it's just hot instead of stiffling hot.Edit
enlarge 60KB, 427x640 21 DSC 0766Edit Samuel/Chakwela Village: a manual pump is used to get the water up from the bore-hole well. The villages do not have electricity. Note the cross-like shadow--God's work, Our hands meets "Let justice roll down like waters."Edit "[There is a horizontal--not cropped--version of this ..." View Comments...
enlarge 62KB, 427x640 22 DSC 0768Edit Samuel/Chakwela Village: Gladys Holiyabu demonstrates how water is pumped from the bore-hole well.Edit
enlarge 46KB, 640x455 24 DSC 0781Edit Samuel/Chakwela Village: These pigs are relatively new to the village; they were piglets, passed on as a gift from another village. The whole community is raising these first pigs. Once they are old enough to reproduce, they'll be given first to the most vulnerable in the community. When the piggery is established, the Samuel/Chakwela village will pass on the gift of piglets to another village.Edit
enlarge 84KB, 638x424 25 DSC 0783Edit This is a goat kraal, or "goatery." Being up high helps protect the goats from predatory animals and makes it easy to collect their manure.Edit
enlarge 110KB, 427x640 26 DSC 0784Edit Samuel/Chakwela village: In 2005, the village started with 11 female goats (does) and one male (buck). This is a complete gene pool, plus one, in case something happens to one of the females.Edit
enlarge 87KB, 424x638 27 DSC 0789Edit Gladys will be passing on this latest goat kid to her neighbor and good friend, Vernas.Edit
enlarge 63KB, 638x424 28 DSC 0799Edit Gladys (left) will be passing on this latest goat kid to her neighbor and good friend, Vernas. The community determined the 30 households most in need at the start of the project. They are the primary beneficiaries of the goats, pigs, and seeds. The other 30 households are secondary beneficiaries; for example, they have access to the well water and the goat and pig bores. I asked, "Isn't there jealousy?" Gladys quickly replied, "There's no jealousy, only unity."Edit
enlarge 52KB, 424x638 29 DSC 0803Edit Stella asked me, "Don't we need to catch up to the others (who had gone ahead while we stayed back with the women)?" I said, "No, this is the most important place for me to be." When Stella translated this, all the women beamed, including me.Edit
enlarge 72KB, 640x425 30 DSC 0806Edit Samuel/Chakwela village: Since 2005, ELDS-Malawi has worked with this village in integrated and sustainable ways: a shallow, pump well; goats; a seed bank; pig rearing; winter cropping; tree planting; sweet potato seed multiplication; manure collection. The first goats, pigs, and seeds were a gift from another village further along in its development plan. This village, once among the poorest, is now able to pass along the gifts to another village in need.Edit
enlarge 71KB, 426x640 31 DSC 0807Edit Bridge over river to the fieldsEdit
enlarge 108KB, 640x457 32 DSC 0809Edit Samuel/Chakwela village: this is the river that was the only source of water before the advent of the shallow/bore-hole well in 2005.Edit
enlarge 75KB, 424x638 33 DSC 0811Edit There's no breakfast before school or before working on the land. The first meal of the day is midday, usually the corn-meal porridge with a topping...a sauce or a hot relish. After the heat of midday, it's back out the fields to hand-water and weed the crops.Edit
enlarge 109KB, 638x424 34 DSC 0813Edit I've stayed back to interview Gladys and Vernas, with Stella's help as an interpreter. Then we hurry through the fields to catch up with the others.Edit
enlarge 78KB, 426x640 35 DSC 0815Edit The women demonstrate the treddle pumps water from a shallow well through a hose that helps get the water to the crops.Edit
enlarge 116KB, 424x638 36 DSC 0824Edit Tree seedlings (enviromental rehabilitation)--part of the integrated and sustainable efforts implemented with the help of ELDS.Edit
enlarge 51KB, 638x424 38 DSC 0831Edit Francis Ngopola, ELDS:
"ELDS accompanies communities through relief to rehabilitation to advocacy for rights." Areas of focus: (1) food security/nutrition; (2) water and sanitation; (3) HIV/AIDS prevention, control, impact mitigation, care; (4) human rights, gender, advocacy; (5) environmental protection & rehabilitation; (6) micro-finance, pooled incomes, village banks; (7) emergency/disasater preparedness, disaster risk reduction plans and emergency plans.Edit
enlarge 102KB, 640x427 39 DSC 0839Edit Samuel/Chakwela village: accompanying us to our vehicle.Edit
enlarge 115KB, 424x638 40 DSC 0843Edit This is the kind of tree that the community is tending/planting.Edit
enlarge 73KB, 638x424 48 DSC 0871Edit Kambuzi Village seed bank: soya, maize, and ground nuts (peanuts) are "banked": if you borrow seeds from the bank, you repay seeds to the bank. You can recycle/reuse the seeds three times; after that it's used as grain. The seeds came as a gift from another village, a gift that Kambuzi Village will pass on.Edit
enlarge 68KB, 638x424 50 DSC 0878Edit These women and others provided a sung narrative throughout our visit. The first verse, we learned, was "get out of the car, we want to welcome you." I was thrilled to learn that another verse was "Mama Sue is here!" As we left we wondered if the last verse was "get back in the car, it's time to go!"Edit
enlarge 72KB, 426x640 51 DSC 0890Edit Kambuzi Village: their shallow well uses the "dip" method.Edit
enlarge 76KB, 638x424 52 DSC 0896Edit These three women, all part of narrative chorus, are members on the community committee that makes project decisions.Edit
enlarge 72KB, 638x424 53 DSC 0901Edit Kambuzi Village: end of visit gatheringEdit
enlarge 63KB, 638x424 54 DSC 0904Edit When you're waiting for the speeches to be over, try making dirt an entertaining game.Edit
enlarge 69KB, 638x424 55 DSC 0915Edit We were ushered to this house "to rest." We discovered that lunch had been prepared for us.Edit
enlarge 51KB, 424x638 56 DSC 0918Edit We are offered a gracious lunch of maize and chicken sauce.Edit
enlarge 50KB, 638x424 58 DSC 0923Edit After the speeches we were quietly ushered to a home "to rest." Ah. Lunch had been prepared for us, the visitors, and we were to eat it out of the sight of others. We began with handwashing, where one person pours water over another's hands. It felt special; sacred. Only later did we learn the signficance of what we experienced. Traditionally a woman would have done all the handwashing, making sure her head was not higher than any man present. Tradition broke down with our group, with men and women serving each other. I will remember this moment every Maunday Thursday, as I think of Jesus washing the feet of the disciples.Edit
enlarge 36KB, 638x424 59 DSC 0924Edit Will you let me be your servant, let me be as Christ to you? Pray that I may have the grace to let you be my servant, too. (ELW 659)Edit "Amen!" View Comments...
enlarge 49KB, 640x427 60 DSC 0927Edit Kambuzi village "rest stop"Edit
enlarge 102KB, 638x424 61 DSC 0932Edit Kambuzi Village: the storytelling chorus; I love these women! Stella Nyasulu is on the far right.Edit "What a joy it is to see so many familiar faces of Mal..." View Comments...
enlarge 47KB, 638x424 63 DSC 0937Edit Without this grinder peanut-butter making is a much more labor-intensive process.Edit
enlarge 77KB, 640x426 64 DSC 0939Edit The Mkhute Congregation (ELCM) Women's Group makes peanut butter for family use and as an income-generating activity. Most of the 27 members are affected or infected by HIV/AIDS. The group has one grinder at present. They harvest their own ground nuts (peanuts), shell and roast them, remove the skins, grind them, and add a little salt and sugar. They are persuing safety and quality certification that will allow them to market the peanut butter in retail shops. They make five bottles at a time.Edit
enlarge 41KB, 638x424 65 DSC 0941Edit Peeking in on the peanut-butter processing demostration.Edit
enlarge 50KB, 639x456 70 DSC 0969Edit Maxwell Chauwa, medical assistant, is an employee of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Malawi. There is a serious nursing (and doctor) shortage in the country. Three nurses from Iceland are volunteering six months of service at the clinic.Edit
enlarge 42KB, 638x424 71 DSC 0975Edit Maxwell Chauwa is a medical assistant at the ELCM clinic; he's been assisted the past six months by three volunteer nurses from Iceland.Edit
enlarge 53KB, 424x638 72 DSC 0976Edit VCT=Voluntary Counseling and TestingEdit
enlarge 61KB, 424x638 73 DSC 0983Edit At the well outside the health clinicEdit
