Community Ambassador

ABOUT

Mbawemi means ‘good woman’ in Chichewa which is the local spoken language. This organisation has vowed to strive for the improvement of the social-economic challenges encountered by women in general and other vulnerable people from their surrounding communities.

Mbawemi has established a variety of projects to support women and children to improve their living conditions, educational needs, income-generating projects and general day care for orphans and vulnerable children.

The team at Mbawemi has many ambitions, but financial restraints and the lack of manpower leaves them in a situation where they must make the most of what they can achieve. Volunteers can support this organisation in creating new programmes, uplifting existing programmes and learning from each other.

Volunteers can choose which programme they like to partcipate with. The surroundings and who they work with depends on which programme they choose. They will work with the team who is running the programme. Surroundings are good at all projects, they can ask questions to the people who work there. Below, you'll see what you do on daily basis!

PROGRAMMES OFFERED

Early Childhood development

Mbawemi has an early childhood development and day-care centre in the community, developed so that women from the surrounding area are able to go to work or work the field and be assured that their children are looked after. The basic school offers 2 classrooms with 40-50 children each.

Human Right Awareness

To educate women about their human rights, Mbawemi runs an outreach programme aimed specifically at women, to create awareness and possibilities for them to develop leadership skills. The aim is to encourage female empowerment in communities where women are often marginalised and unsupported due to various factors.

Economic empowerment for Women

To offer women resources for increased independence in a male-dominated society, Mbawemi has developed several income-generating projects such as their beekeeping project in Mzenga. Honey is sold to create income for the women, and they are also able to create products out of by the wax such as candles and soap. Mbawemi and assistant volunteers educate and support these women with a number of projects, to become more independent and self-sustainable by providing them with a way to generate a small income.

DAILY ACTIVITIES

Volunteers can be involved in a variety of tasks and activities within the diverse framework of Mbawemi’s programmes, such as:

• Assisting with teaching at the child care centre.
• Monitoring and offering technical support to women with small businesses.
• Teaching extracurricular lessons to primary and secondary school students.
• Offering activities focussed on sports, arts, music.
• Creating holiday programmes during school holidays.
• Education in aspects of basic sanitation and hygiene.
• Assisting in skills development such as cooking, housekeeping, plumbing, tailoring, knitting and other skills.
• Possible training in the fields of project management, caretakers training, leadership skills for women and/or computer skills.

DAY TO DAY ACTIVITIES

Volunteers can take part in assisting with child care at the creche, working in the community vegetable gardens, getting involved in women’s empowerment projects and skills training, helping to set up income generating projects or work with existing projects, and so much more.

There are a few things to do in Mzuzu. There is a shopping centre with a modern supermarket, an internet cafe and a few restaurants where you can go to. Furthermore you can go hiking in the Mkuwazi forest reserve! If you like to do more, you can go a little bit further by public transport or rent a car and you can do it yourself!