A diary of the WMP Friends' Easter visit to Malawi
This year, it was the turn of Veronica, Viv and Joan and nothing could prepare them for the brute devastation of tropical cyclone Freddy, one of the worst storms to hit the southern hemisphere.
Here follows an account of the visit written by the group as they toured through southern Malawi, some of the worst hit areas.
Lilongwe
We then went to see Charity at Achikondi Clinic and it was as uplifting as ever to see her great work. She showed us all the equipment she bought with Aaron to treat cholera patients and discussed her plans to build a small laboratory on site. She was also desperate to replace the clinic's bedsheets and when we saw them, we were more than happy to give her the $100 she needed for the roll of cloth to sew new sets.
We landed in Lilongwe and started our tour with a visit to the maternity wing of the Bwaila district hospital. Matron updated us on her wish list to include premature baby hats and mits as well as a ventouse suction extractor.
If you would like to support Charity and her clinic, click here >>
We arrived in Blantyre on the day that the President of Malawi announced a state of emergency following the arrival of tropical cyclone Freddy. The rain is relentless causing local flooding, power cuts, road blocks and loss of life. The local news is grim reading as Malawians try to cope with the impact of the cyclone & it has shown me how fragile & vulnerable their lives are here.
We are fortunate to be staying safely in a hotel with its own generator and have managed several visits to Open Arms. Some of the staff have been unable to reach the house so we have been able to help care for the children. They are in need of some very basic essentials: bottles, drinking mugs, bibs, clothes, washable nappies, changing mats and bouncy chairs.
We also managed to venture out of our hotel to visit the STEKA project and meet Godknows who continues to be committed to looking after over 90 children at the moment.
We also managed to venture out of our hotel to visit the STEKA project and meet Godknows who continues to be committed to looking after over 90 children at the moment.
Zomba
After three days of heavy rain, we were relieved to be able to leave the city and go to Zomba, having to by-pass Mulanje as the roads were unpassable. On our way to Zomba, we witnessed the full devastation of the cyclone, with damaged housing and crops, flooding and partially blocked roads. The situation in Zomba was no different to Blantyre as we continued to shelter from the heavy rain. We were unable to visit Tom and Petal’s Zomba TREEZ project but Veronica managed to help them start a Just Giving campaign which has raised over £5,000 to date, mostly from the UK, to help with the cyclone damage, emergency food packages and land drainage/reafforestation works.
As the rain eased, we visited Liwonde National Park for two nights. The Park accommodation was nearly empty, as tourists still appear to be staying away from Malawi. There was limited viewing of wildlife due to the floods.
Mangochi
We then drove to Lake Malawi and visited more projects which we support. The drive was quite an adventure, with partially collapsed bridges & flooding. We had one day without Aaron as he was stuck the other side of a collapsed bridge, waiting for the waters to subside.
It was great to visit the Bolera Palms school and we met the three teachers we have supported, allowing for them to complete their teaching qualifications. Rita updated us on the impact of current economic conditions in the country as they face rising maize prices, currency devaluations and now the impact of the cyclone. We held our usual bra sale but the desperation of the villagers was clear to see. Many of the children appeared very hungry - something we had not seen in this village before.
Our visit to Netties Sewing Project confirmed to me how valuable this social enterprise continues to be for the local community.
Our visit to Tom’s school was less uplifting however as he told us of the huge challenges his local community are facing as a result of the cyclone. On the day of our visit only a limited number of pupils had managed to attend and many are now homeless. We hope the money we have provided for a feeding station will encourage more children to return to the school.
The Koche Clinic was our final visit in the Lake area. The clinic is as busy, clean and well organised as ever and they were very grateful for our donated supplies.
Lilongwe
We then returned to Lilongwe for our last two days. We attended a very productive meeting with Stella from the Malawi Scotland Partnership who promises to be an excellent contact for WMP in the future.
The final visit of the trip was to see Netball for All's netball court in action. It was great to see this being very well used with a coaching session taking place. However the court does need some maintenance work. The football team were grateful for further supplies of boots and gloves.
Our partners need our support more than ever
The impact of Cyclone Freddie has been huge and it has been very sad to see the country trying to cope with a rising death toll (currently estimated to be around 300 people ) and over 50,000 households displaced. The local news has been hard to read with very sad stories of landslides and rain washing away whole villages.
All in all, this was a very different visit from earlier trips as we faced the challenges of Cyclone Freddie. At times it felt like a roller-coaster adventure, with difficult driving conditions, lots of evening power cuts and ever-changing plans. We were very fortunate to have Aaron driving us very carefully and looking after us so well.
Our lasting impression is that the country will take a long time to recover from the devastation caused by the cyclone. The current economic conditions only make matters worse. Our partners need our support more than ever.
