eMas' Korner; More from Malawi

“If you don't like the way the world is, you change it. You have an obligation to change it. You just do it one step at a time.”    Marian Wright Edelman In June this year, I embarked on a project to empower the women of my community in a socioeconomic development endeavor hoping to transform as many lives of the women as possible. This was to be done particularly through empowering the women themselves to develop and attain skills that they would use to make a living as they also contributed to saving and preserving the environment around them. This is where the Integrated Women Empowerment Through Improved-Stove Production concept and initiative was born. Through this IWET project I embarked on a journey to challenge myself to train and teach women in my community how they can produce Improved Stoves locally known as Chitetezo Mbaula. I must confess that before starting this initiative, I had never made even a single Stove in my life before, yes; this was my very first ti

“Nothing truly valuable arises from ambition or from a mere sense of duty; it stems rather from love and devotion toward men and toward objective things” Albert Einstein When I was signing up to volunteer with CorpsAfrica, I had some worries and fears. I was worried about the things I normally used to do and run, whether I’m gonna have the time to run them the way I used to before my commitment. Worries about cutting some friendship ties or becoming disconnected to my friends and family especially that time I  didn't  know where I was to be posted. I had lots of questions. As I embarked on this journey in February this year, I carried along these questions with me to an “unknown” destination, a place I now call my home, my second home. As I established myself among the people in my community, I began to love what I do even more, not that I loved it not, but the magnitude itself grew and broadened significantly, especially after bonding with my students at Chitete Primar

So over the past days I have been updating you on our project concerning improved stoves which I am doing with the women in my community. I have been giving you some details regarding the progress of the same. I must confess that the journey  hasn't  been smooth and an easy path at all. I decided to start the project with the available resources and build from that as we grow it into something big. It is said in the good book that we must not despise the humble beginning of small things, and myself being a “religious” man knows how to value such humble beginnings. Today I am both humbled and very glad to look back and appreciate the collective efforts of the women and myself especially after reaching this far. So, Friday July 8 th was the day myself and the women’s group gathered at the same place where we left the unfinished movable Chitete-zo Mbaula. The day was chilly but this did not keep us in our warm blankets to save the work for another day. We were there to all wo

Today 6 th July 2016, is the day we scheduled to continue doing the first prototype for the Chitete-zo movable Stove. Again this post interlocks with my previous update on the production of the same. After what we made on Monday the 4 th of July together with the women, the anticipation was high  which was coupled with an excitement and yearning for more action towards the completion of our “Prototypes” for this project. The women came early as usual and following our agreement during our last meeting, the women brought sweet potatoes, some brought salt, groundnuts flour and pots to prepare some food cooked using the stationed Chitete-zo stove that we made on Monday. It was very interesting to see that our stationed Chitete-zo Stove was nearly ready and we decided to use it still for the purposes of demonstrating to the women how they can be cooking their foods using this stove with its numerous advantages. We ate the sweet potatoes which were cooked on the stove. The potat

If you read my previous blog post you will remember that Monday the 4th of July is  the day I scheduled to start doing the prototypes for the improved stoves in the IWETI Project with the women in my community. Well, it has been a very much motivating and adventurous journey working so closely with the women in this amazing project so far. The women continue to portray and show their keenness in knowing how to produce the improved stoves and their commitment is undying. I am  continuously  thrilled by their passion to learn and be empowered. Just imagine that even after we agreed to convene on Monday 8 am  at one of the group member’s residence, some women came 30 minutes early, wow! For today, do allow me to write less and show you more of what we did with the women as we get the IWETI Project on course. Last week when I met the women, we agreed to do a prototype for the Stationed Improved Stove on Monday the 4 th of July 2016. It is amazing to see that the women are so much com

In my previous post I shared more about women from my community, Chitete. And I tried to give some detailed account of the endeavors that these women are involved in here. Well, for those that run some small scale businesses, Zalewa turn-off is a must go destination so that they can capitalize on the many customers who invade the market on market days like today, Tuesday and Saturdays.  Well, ever since I came here I have always been bothered by many thoughts, many thoughts on how I can help to transform the lives of the women here. Honestly, in as much as there are those women who are busy running up and down with various entrepreneurship activities, many women do not involve themselves in some activities that might in turn uplift them socioeconomically. I cited an example of the only woman who owns a small retail shop in the village and some who run various other activities like selling sugarcane and other local fruits. Not many of these women own and or run more sustainable busin

Besides working with primary school kids at Chitete Primary school, over the past three months and some weeks, I have spent my time interacting and working with Chitete women. I must confess that my stay in this community has been quite amazing so far, and indeed this is my other home. My early days in the community saw me encountering various remarkable works by these women in this community, from a young mother who is taking advantage of the Out of School Initiative (OOSC) to reshape her future through free education provided by our development partner, buildOn to an old woman who caught my attention by cultivating a quite big piece of land that probably is above her strength all by herself. All in all I must say, these women are focused, hard-working, humble, energetic and development-hungry. I have been involved in a series of few meetings with these women on various topics like that of Agriculture, entrepreneurship, house-keeping, sanitation and education.  Day to day life fo