Reminiscences of my CorpsAfrica Adventures

Today, I would like to look back and appreciate the experience I had whilst volunteering with CorpsAfrica. I will try to make it more visual and keep the writings short. It has surely been an amazing ride, full of wonderful encounters and great challenges that has changed my life completely. I hope you will enjoy the pictures and the stories behind them. I have tried to let every picture or at least a chunk of them tell a story but briefly. Here's to my CorpsAfrica Volunteering experiences! 

"I believe that Individuals can make a difference in society. Since periods of change such as the present one come so rarely in human history, it s up to each of us to make the best use of our time to help create a happier world"

Dalai Lama

First and foremost, allow me to appreciate and thank one of the amazing woman I have ever met, Liz Fanning. Liz founded CorpsAfrica in 2011 after her Peace Corps service in Morocco. CorpsAfrica is as it is today because of her amazing idea that has actualized to this wonderful platform for young and emerging African leaders to help transform their own local communities through volunteering and facilitating developing among their communities. Today, we are talking about CorpsAfrica because someone had a dream, and worked hard on her dream to make them come true, changing the world systematically and transforming African communities from inside out.  Thank you Liz, for CorpsAfrica, you are truly a beautiful soul.  

Liz Fanning

After successfully going through interviews at CorpsAfrica in 2015, I went to attend a Pre-Service Training  (PST) in Dedza district, along with other successful candidates. We all came from different backgrounds and made an amazing family. A family of hardworking and dedicated young people passionate about developing communities in various parts of Malawi. Amidst the PST we went around surrounding villages shadowing and learning how people lived. I shadowed a teacher at a certain school in one of the villages and this helped me understand the problems communities face from the roots. We also had a Human Centered  Design training which equipped me for my life and work at my site of work. 

at a primary school in Chongoni, Dedza

Facilitating a community meeting in Dedza

After six weeks of PST we went to Lilongwe for a swearing in ceremony, where we took an oath of service to  serve our communities with diligence. From there we were deployed to our host communities. My community was the Patisoni Village, popularly known as Chitete in Neno District. 

Swearing In Ceremony

I was hosted at the chief's house where I was warmly welcomed and  well taken care of. The hospitality at the chief's house helped me integrate and bond quickly with the entire community. This made my work easier since I made a lot of friends and I was frequently invited in people's houses for a meal or a chat which made my assessment of community needs quite smooth. 

The road to Chitete..

The Chief's house, (host family)

Nsima and Pumpkin leaves (Lunch)

a house in Chitete

front view for one of the house

a bachelor's dwelling 

After assessing the community needs I carried out various projects within the community with the help of the community members themselves. I earned the community's trust and this led to my working with the women of the community in one of the projects (IWET Improved Stove Production) despite being a male volunteer. You can find out more about some of my projects right here on my blog. 

The women I worked closely with

a photo after completing our first Stove Prototype

Making a stationed stove with the women

appreciating my community's nature

A good part of my time in Chitete village was spent at Chitete Primary School where I adopted and taught Standard 3 and 4 Pupils. The time I spent with the kids at the school was simply amazing altogether.  But let me give you a brief background of this school. The community never had a school before, and children used to travel close to 5 kilometers to the nearest school. The challenge however, wasn't the distance necessarily, but the fact that children were been killed as they crossed the dangerous highway ( the busy road that connects to Mwanza boarder) to go to school everyday. It was due to these unfortunate episodes of accidents that made most parents to be reluctant in sending their children to school until they were of a much older age. In the year 2014, the community decided to elect a tiny grass-thatched shed to be a classroom for their children. They employed a volunteer teacher for the kids until a certain organization known as buildOn intervened and built the only classroom in 2015 with the amazing contribution of the whole community. According to statistics from buildOn, the school had 65 pupils in 2015 with 39 girls and 26 boys. Today, the School has 7 teachers (2 female and 5 male) with a total enrollment of 253 students; 133 girls and 120 boys yet there's still one classroom that covers only Standard 1 and 2, while Standard 3 and 4 seek shelter in the grass-thatched structures. However, the good news is that buildOn is electing another classroom after the rain season this year, meaning students from Standard 1 to 4 will now be taught in a good and health environment free of dust and without being exposed to the harsh weather in the sheds. It is more likely that the School management will extend the school to standard 5, and if that will be the case, then one class will still be learning in the grass-thatched structure. 

Chitete School in 2014 (picture by buidOn)

Women participating in building of the first classroom in 2015

The completed Classroom in 2015

The School In February 2016

The Grass-Thatched structure in 2016; Classroom for Standard 3 Kids

a closer view

Lesson in progress

My students working in groups

Inside our Classroom

Maths in progress

A student writing teachers' names 

Maria's smile

Outside lessons

Having "ball-Talks with my students

The School in March 2017

Mary lee's students @ St Martin's Episcopal School reading a post about Chitete School

March 2017, the Grass-Thatched shelter is only remaining with a roof

With some of  my students during the International Day of the Child 

Faless, Dorris and Mariam (from Left)

My service brought  so many collaborations with other volunteers in my country as well as Senegal and Morocco. When we went for the CorpsAfrica All Countries Conference in Morocco, I shared one of my initiative with Alhassan and Awa. I shared my knowledge on the hand-washing gear known as the Tippy-Tap which fosters sanitation in many ways. Together we worked on a design that would be used in all the CorpsAfrica countries and made a prototype while we were in the Atlas Mountains. 

Hiking the High Atlas Mountains on our way to the Azzaden Valley

Hiking on 

  

Houses in the Atlas Mountains

Preparing the Tippy-Tap with Alhassan

Electing the Tippy-Tap

Children washing hands using our Tippy-Tap in a village in the Azzaden Valley

The power team ( with Alhassan and Awa)

Making a presentation on the Tippy-Tap

Having a great time 

A taste of Moroccan tea

Conducting a Leadership capacity building training for local leaders

My CorpsAfrica service was full of mixed experiences and there are these diverse experiences that made it all to be transformative altogether. As I move on to take up new challenges in my life, I look back and pat myself at the back for an incredibly successful yearlong service in Neno. I will surely miss my students above everyone else in my host community, this is why I have committed to visiting them at least once every month to make sure I keep in touch and motivate them. Towards the end of 2016, I made some friends from Canada through this blog who have been helping a few of my kids at the school with School Uniform and other scholastic materials, I feel this gesture has to be sustained especially considering the humble backgrounds of the kids at the school. I told the kids I will endeavor to assist them in whatever way possible knowing that it is these little gestures of kindness that change lives. 

Ready for new challenges

If you are interested in joining hands with me and my friends in reaching out to Chitete Primary School in helping the school, or the students with books, scholastic materials or writing them some motivating notes, please reach me through the contact form on this blog. 

Thank you for reading, please keep checking for more interesting updates on my new upcoming initiatives.

"Your Life and mine should be valued not by what we take..but by what we give."

Edgar Allen