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.
