SiyaSiya is Believing

First things first we want to introduce you to the team members of the second cohort!  

The in country volunteers are Lucky, Tryness, Priscilla and Beatrice. Lucky is 24, from Blantyre and likes reading. Tryness is from Mzuzu, but lives in Lilongwe, she is 22 and is a secret star tennis player. Priscilla is 22, she is from Zomba, has a BSc in nursing and midwifery, and loves watching the news. Beatrice is 20, she’s from Lilongwe, her birthday is in a couple of weeks and loves dancing.

The UK volunteers are Ryan, Charli, Tom and Sully. Tom is 24, half Ukrainian, lives in Nottingham and dances salsa. Charli lives in Lincolnshire, is 21 and has just finished her degree in criminology. Ryan, 22 is from Scotland and once broke his collar bone on a scout trip but didn’t tell anyone because he didn’t want to be sent home and miss out on the fun. Sully, 24 lives in Brecon, Wales and plays women’s rugby back in the UK.

And then of course we still have our team leaders – Sky and Adrian who have been in Siyasiya since our project work began in June.

The Team at the My Hands My Future washing community sensitisation

Our first week here has been action packed as we have settled into our new host families, learnt about the project and the work we will be doing over the coming weeks and attempted to find our bearings in the town of Siyasiya! Here is a rundown of some of the standout moments we’ve had in our first week!

On Tuesday the team introduced themselves to the 800 chiefs of Khombedza. As the traditional authority of the region it was vital for the whole team to introduce themselves to the chiefs and explain the work we will be doing in their districts. It also gave Ryan a great opportunity to use his newly learnt Chichewa – ‘Muli Bwanji Afumu!’ (Greetings chiefs!).

After the introductions to chiefs we went to Chikombe, a village near the lake where a hand washing ceremony was being held. The theme of the ceremony was ‘our hands, our future’. They talked about how hand washing is vital at preventing hygiene related problems, in particular diarrhoea, which is one of the main causes of increased child mortality rate in Malawi. In particular the sickness caused by cholera results in children being unable to attend school, which affects their performance and can lead to dropping out – exactly the problem we are trying to reduce!

The team distribute scholastic materials

The team also got the chance to assist in distributing scholastic materials to the schools and transitional centres in the Salima district. The process took two days, and consisted of dropping exercise books, pens and pencils to 16 schools in total. The materials are vital and will be used by children who have re-entered education through the programme.

On Friday we also had the chance to attend the famine clinic, which is run by Adrian’s host dad Mr Maunde and takes place every Friday at the hospital. The team learned about the processes involved at the clinic and helped distribute the soya porridge and chiponde to the families in need.

The team are taken through the vaccines delivered at the local hospital

Lastly on Saturday we went to one village where the new chief was being installed and there we had our first encounter with the infamous Gule Wamkulu (masquerade men). People cerebrated by dancing to modern music that’s when Sully, Tryness, Charli and Ryan joined in, as shown in the picture above. It was a crazy afternoon that really blew the minds of the UK volunteers especially, Siyasiya really is believing!

Ryan, Sully, Tryness and Charli dance at the installation of new chief

Written by Ursula Sullivan