Alle updates van Myrthe

Het gaat goed in Makonje

Doordat we het project later op de middag bezoeken zijn de meeste kinderen al vertrokken, maar de ouders en docenten hebben trouw ons bezoek afgewacht. Naast de docenten is de dochter van de hoofdmeester natuurlijk weer aanwezig. Zodra ze de setuppers ziet is er een blik van herkenning en blijdschap.

De twee door World Servants gebouwde lerarenwoningen staan er prachtig bij. Ook zijn er extra lerarenwoningen door de overheid bijgebouwd. Dit alles geeft een impuls aan de leraren voor deze prachtige school. De docenten leggen uit dat zeker in een gebied als dit goede lerarenwoningen van cruciaal belang blijft om goede docenten aan te trekken. Omdat Makonje eerder een ervaring had om samen met een groep te bouwen zouden ze in de toekomst heel graag weer een World Servants groep willen ontvangen.

Makonje krijgt een heus bos..

Met hulp van EO Metterdaad gaan we in de komende twee jaar 15.000 bomen planten in Malawi. Onze partner is goed op weg en dit keer werden bomen gepland in Makonje. In totaal zullen er zo'n 1200 bomen in Makonje worden gepland, 1000 'gewone' bomen en 200 fruitbomen.

Zoals je ziet zijn het, naast de gemeenschap, ook veel leerlingen die helpen bij het planten van de bomen, dat is bewust. Door hen te betrekken bij het planten van de bomen en ook het onderhoud wat hierna volgt is de kans groter dat de bomen het ook daadwerkelijk gaan overleven. Daarnaast worden de kinderen zo al vroeg bewust gemaakt van het belang van bomen voor hun omgeving. Zo zorgen de bomen voor minder erosie in de grond, geven ze schaduw, beschermen ze de school voor de harde wind en ook niet onbelangrijk, ze nemen CO2 op uit de lucht en zijn daardoor goed voor het klimaat. Om het laatste te bereiken moet de bomen natuurlijk wel goed onderhouden worden en mogen ze ook niet gekapt worden. Daarom gaat CCAP ook in gesprek met de gemeenschap op het belang van de bomen te benadrukken.

Teacher houses are finished!

Makonje school is one of the schools to have benefitted from world servants by having a repetitive project. The first project targeted construction of a school block of two classrooms and an office in between and the second project in 2021 targeted construction of two teachers houses. The two teachers house have since been occupied by two new teachers who have been posted to the school. A improvement for the school! The other old teachers houses are also being renovated and one is already occupied.

Verschoningsruimte in gebruik in Makonje

Hierdoor is de kans dat meiden tijdelijk of helemaal stoppen met school een stuk kleiner en daarmee de kans groter dat ze langer naar school toe gaan.

Progress at Makonje on kitchen and renovations

Makonje school is one of the schools which has been well supported in terms of renovation and additional structures such as kitchen, washroom and stores for teachers. The two teachers houses are being renovated and there is good progress so far. The work on kitchen, washroom and stores is also progressing well as they have been roofed and what remains is flooring and plastering. People are now busy working on the fields so work will stop for the mean time to give them time to work on the fields. The teachers houses and the kitchens are already attracting teachers to come and teach at the school. The school received a new female head teacher who has been there for less than two months but she has been promoted to be a Primary Education Advisor (PEA) and a new head has already been identified to head the school. This shows that the school is now being recognized and more teachers are expected to come and teach at the school.

Nog meer werk in Makonje!

"Makonje school is one of the schools which has received overwhelming support from world servants. The school has been previously supported with two classrooms, one head teachers office, two double toilets. Currently the school has been supported again with two teachers houses, one double toilet, kitchen for staff with washroom and stores and renovation of two teachers houses. Before the coming in of world servants project the school had only one grass thatched school block and a grass thatched teachers house built from mud. The school had only one qualified teacher by then and this time there are three qualified teachers. Through the support under renovations the school will significantly change is face and the Primary Education Advisor has already promised to send more teachers to the school."

Makonje legt de laatste hand aan de lerarenwoningen

"The construction of two teachers houses, one double toilet and a Girls Changing Room is going on well. The teachers houses are almost ready to be occupied in a few weeks. The fixing of doors is in progress while painting and fixing of doors is almost done. Currently they are working on finishing the construction of the drains on the second teachers house. The teachers’ houses look very nice and Makonje school is not the same as it has completely changed its face. The community is always thankful to world servants for the support rendered to them which has put them on the map in the zone. The school has 3 permanent teachers as of now and the Primary Education Advisor has promised to send two more teachers to beef up the staffing at the school."

Bij beide woningen in Makonje zit het dak erop!

Bij de eerste woning is de ruwbouw klaar, nu moet alleen nog de vloer worden gestort en de wanden worden gestukt en geschilderd. Ook is de gemeenschap begonnen aan de bouw van de Girls Changing Room (GCR) die met extra fondsen van EO Metterdaad kunnen worden gerealiseerd. Door deze GCR kunnen ook meisjes die ongesteld zijn gewoon naar school.

In Makonje bouwt men rustig verder aan de lerarenwoningen

"Makonje community was visited on 2nd July, 2021 and the visit showed that there was some progress being made on the structures as the first house was at an advanced stage and the work on second house had also started. The community is working hard to finish the construction works in good time. This being a small community work is not as fast as the other communities but they are really working hard to have the teachers houses completed in good time so that the teachers houses will be occupied by the teachers to ease the challenge of accommodation for teachers."

Makonje Community Mobilisation

The visit to Makonje was to inform them about the failure by the participants to come and work with them due to covid-19. The community received the news with great sadness because they were very prepared to interact with the participants for the second time. They even suggested that if its possible maybe only 2 participants could just come and be with the community as they will be constructing the structures by themselves. The community members were very hopeful that the construction will be done and that they will work hard for the teacher’s houses to be completed within a reasonable time so that the teachers can occupy them and that more teachers can be attracted to teach at the school. It was also pleasing to see that after the installation of the borehole teachers are able to stay at the school and so far the school has 3 qualified teachers and 2 volunteer teachers.

Cards have arrived in Makonje

See the video for the response of the community.

Update on Covid-19 training in Makonje

Makonje School was one of the schools that benefited from the training on covid-19. The training targeted traditional leaders and church leaders and a total of 14 people were trained. The community leaders are expected to reach out to their subjects in the churches and the community members with the knowledge gained from the training. It is expected that 400 people will be sensitized including learners. The training mainly focused on the prevention measures as set out by government and also on how to handle key suspects of the covid-19. The community leaders were very thankful to World Servants (with help of EO Metterdaad) for organizing the training through CCAP. They promised to sensitize their subjects on the dangers of covid-19 and make sure that they are safe. Amongst some of the topics covered were signs and symptoms of covid-19, how it is transmitted, how to prevent it from spreading, how dangerous is covid-19and demonstration on hand washing just to mention a few. The school was also given hand washing facilities including soap to be used by the community. The facilitators were medical personnel from health centres in the catchment area and they also registered their gratitude to World Servants for the resources which they said will help the communities in combating the spread of the virus. CCAP is thankful to World Servants for the training which has helped us to reach out to the school. Since the school is also preparing to host a group it will help in mobilizing them as they continue with the preparations.

Foundations for teachers houses in progress

The foundations for teachers houses at Makonje are underway despite the usual water challenges. The community is working hard on the construction despite being a small community. The community is also very excited that they will receive another group of volunteers to help them with the construction of teachers houses. They have also received the news about the mechanical drilling of a borehole with a lot of excitement. The plan is to have the borehole drilled before the group comes so that we reduce the water challenges experienced during hosting of the group. The borehole will also solve the challenges of staffing at the school as all the teachers that were posted to the school have since left due to water challenges. The Primary Education Advisor (PEA) has given an assurance that the moment a borehole is drilled teachers will be reposted to the school.
The community is currently working hard to complete the foundations for teachers houses and they believe that their school will be transformed with the construction of the new teachers houses. The community has also been sensitized on the measures to be taken in order to reduce the spread of COVID-19. CCAP engaged Health Surveillance Assistant from The Ministry of Health to sensitize the community. This community however has not registered any cases of COVID-19 so far. Despite the uncertainties surrounding the coming of the group due to the covid-19 the community remains Prayerful that a solution to the pandemic will be found and that the project will take place.

Jullie zijn van harte welkom in Makonje

De mensen in Makonje kijken al echt uit naar jullie komst en hebben veel zin om dingen samen te doen. We hebben ze verteld dat jullie graag samen met hun aan de slag willen met de bouw en graag van ze willen leren. Daarom zou het mooi zijn dat straks op de bouwplaats de Nederlands en Malawianen ook echt gaan mixen. Ook hebben we het erover gehad dat de culturen in Malawi en Nederland erg van elkaar verschillen en dat het mooi zou zijn om hierin meer van elkaar te ontdekken. Ter voorbereiding op de o zo belangrijke interland tussen Nederland en Malawi hebben we de dorpelingen een voetbal gegeven.

Dat er eerder een World Servants project is geweest in Makonje maakte deze voorbereiding extra bijzonder. Natuurlijk zagen we dat de klaslokalen er nog erg mooi bij stonden. De lokale gemeenschap had nog veel herinneringen aan de vorige World Servants groep. Ook wisten ze zelfs nog een paar woorden Nederlands. Graag gaan ze komend project nog meer Nederlandse woorden leren.