Malawi Updates and a Request

The assistance to mothers, the feeding program, the school fees, the assistance to families caring for newborn orphans continues in Malawi. I never anticipated starting this handful of little projects but they naturally sprouted from working in the hospital and certainly when I left I could not drop them. I could not find a pre-existing organization in whose hands I could place them and though the activities are few and assist a relatively small group of people they do help. So, last June I organized a board of directors and filed the paperwork in the US to set up African Mothers Health Initiative (AMHI). Finally this June we received our 501C3 (legal non-profit status) letter of determination from the IRS. www.africanmothers.org

Before leaving Malawi, with the help of my dear friend Beatrice Namaleu – a Malawian nurse with 28 years experience in maternal and child health – I set up a sister organization (and board) in Malawi to carry out the activities called Chimwemwe mu’Bereki or Joyful Motherhood. Beatrice retired from the government in December and is now heading Chimwemwe mu’bereki. Beatrice is the only employee and at the moment she is working out of her one bedroom house (where she lives with five of her six daughters, her husband, and nephew). She has no car and travels through town and surrounding villages by a combination of minibuses, bicycle taxis, and walking. She keeps the nursery at Bottom stocked with formula for those babes whose mothers die or who cannot breastfeed, she coordinates with the nurses there and visits the babies at home; she oversees the feeding program working with Thoko and Melai who volunteer to run it from their homes three times a week; and she distribute tuition to about 10 teens and keeps tabs on their progress by visiting their schools and talking with their teachers. The wonderful piece is that the vast majority of money – everything except Beatrice’s salary and a little money for phone, fax, copies, etc – goes directly to the projects. But, for one person it is a big job without much support.

The fundamental idea is to provide quality care and assistance to the individuals enrolled in the project. We want the children to survive childhood, we want to assist women and families move from devastation to joy, we want to focus on stories rather than numbers. I want the money to go to Malawi, I want to support Malawians caring for these projects, I want any employee to have what they need to make it possible to enjoy this work and do it creatively while always prioritizing our clients.

Just limiting ourselves to the few projects we currently have, there is still a lot that needs to be done to ensure that roots set deep. This coming year in Malawi we want to rent land to for a garden which will be cultivated and used by the feeding program, we also want to increase the number of meals provided and work on making sure the children are growing well (kids are weighed and measured monthly), and we would like to create opportunities for the women who volunteer cooking and cleaning to organize a small business; for the newborns we want to improve our monitoring system and make sure that resources are enough to provide intensive support during the first year; and for the adolescents we want to continue assistance for those excelling and find vocational programs for those struggling.

We need people who are interested in becoming involved in the US or at least from somewhere regularly accessible via email. We are looking both for volunteer assistance as well as more formal affiliation. AMHI activities are focused on fundraising and project support. Up to this point, everything has been funded by donations from friends, family, and blog readers, which is wonderful and amazing but we do go through periods of financial drought. I am not a manager, I am not a fundraiser, but I am trying to develop a few new skills and stay on task. Please, if you have resources, ideas, a few hours a month to donate let me know, I have open ears. joanne_jorissen@yahoo.com