In Chiuno Village, where there is no running water or electricity, dealing with legal forms is also a new challenge. The community-based organization corresponds to a non-profit association in Germany at the municipal level. Here, as there, the members and their boards are subject to a set of rules based on legal requirements. The social welfare department trains the people. We owe this training to our donors at YOOW e.V.
The workshop is outdoors and only partially covered. Sawing and drilling are done with a hand drill. There is no electricity. The only drill bit is 10 mm thick and already quite blunt. It is used for pre-drilling and then doweled with a wooden dowel. There are only a few screws, so the wood is…
The Tchapa School is the school closest to Chiuno Village, located 3.5 kilometers away. We visit a class with 116 students sitting close together on the floor. There are no tables or chairs. The teachers are often overwhelmed.We want to remedy these conditions, which we find unbearable but are common in Malawi, by building a…
It was a big surprise when my physical therapist, whom I told about my trip to Malawi the day after next while lying on the massage table, pressed a few bills into my hand as I was leaving. In the village, it was said that Coretta could no longer work on the board because her…
For a long time, Africa was spared from the pandemic. Now it seems to have arrived in Malawi too (Der Tagesspiegel on 23 April 2020). The entry ban has been in place for some time, so our plans were also rendered obsolete. The planned lockdown is now pending in court because the population has put…
We built a water tower next to the pump house. A 5,000-liter tank stands on its plateau at a height of 6.2 meters. Above it are solar panels that supply electricity for the pump. The pump is located at a depth of 37 meters and lifts the water 45 meters to fill the tank. From…
In 2019, we collected plastic and metal scrap for the first time and ended up disposing of 50 bags filled to the brim. The campaign was exhausting, but incredibly motivating. In 2023, Malawi’s president took up this idea and launched a national Clean-Up Day, which has since taken place every third Friday of the month….