Women CBO making a difference

Located in Traditional Authority Mzikubola in Mzimba, Kurya ndiko uku (This is what eating should be) Community Based Organisation (CBO) is giving a new meaning to community-led interventions.

Founder and coordinator of the CBO, Lexa Harrison Mkandawire, 59, left Malawi for the United Kingdom (UK) in 1973 and returned in 2002. It was from gatherings such as funerals and weddings that she noticed her community had problems of poor nutrition.

In 2005, she decided to do something about it.

“When I introduced the idea to women in the area, most of them showed interest and we rolled it out with 26 women,” Mkandawire says.

Her aim was to improve nutrition in the area.

Unfortunately, 22 women left the group when it dawned on them that the CBO was not there to make fast cash but to support the less privileged and offer voluntary services to the community.

However, this did not discourage Mkandawire who, with the four remnants, embarked on a food production project.

The group has since grown into a vibrant 32-member CBO whose impact goes far beyond Mzikubola’s area. They bake organic bread, make confectionaries and cook highly nutritious porridge for orphans and vulnerable children.

The women also have a woodlot and do patchwork bags which they export to the United States of America (USA) and UK.

“Each member pays a monthly membership fee of K250 to assist in the smooth running of our programmes,” explains Mkandawire.

According to the founder, who has two children living abroad, most women rejoined when they noticed that there is more to life than making fast money.

“This year, we showcased our work at the 26th Trade Fair in Blantyre,” she says with a smile on her face.

The group now runs a free early child development (ECD) centre called Wanambatonse (Children are for us all) where they care for toddlers and preschoolers whose mothers are still attending school. One of the children is autistic.

“We encourage girls who dropped out of school due to early pregnancies to return to school. We in turn look after their small children,” she says.

The women give each other turns to prepare highly nutritious porridge made of a blend of soya and maize for the children.

The CBO is also paying school fees for some of the girls, orphans and vulnerable children from surrounding villages from the proceeds realised from the patchwork sales, tailoring, bakery and the woodlot.

Apart from these children, the group also looks after 900 children from 15 villages in a programme called children’s corner. They organise Christmas parties every December in each of the villages for the children to have fun.

Chairperson of the CBO, 48-year-old Susan Banda from Matheza Mwale Village, T/A Mzikubola, has only kind words for Kurya ndiko uku CBO.

The mother of five, joined in 2005 because she was interested in baking and wanted to interact with fellow women. Banda, who lost her husband in 2010, says now the group is paying school fees for her daughter who is in Form Three at Kazomba Community Day Secondary School in the district.

Banda says: “If it were not for this group, I would be in dire poverty after the death of my husband who was the breadwinner. But I am able to support my children and I am not complaining.”

According to Mkandawire, the group discourages gossip and requires one to be a team player, a hard-worker, good listener and reliable to maintain membership.

“All we want is to develop, hence the motto One People, One Malawi,” she says.

She attributes the success of the group to the fact that it is their own initiative and not something that was imposed on them by outsiders.

“We make our own rules instead of depending on another organisation to dictate rules. Because we started without any external funding, we own it and we support one another in many ways,” Mkandawire says.

Joyce Mseteka, who has just joined the group, says her life is changing for the better.

“Although I am yet to be trained in baking, I do patchwork bags and life is much better for me,” Mseteka says.

To acknowledge the impact the CBO is making in the area, the Technical, Entrepreneurial and Vocational Education and Training Authority (Teveta) partnered the group in 2011.

In the same year, the Ambassador’s First Help Fund contributed K1.4 million towards boosting the CBO’s production of patchwork bags.

Mkandawire says she underwent a business training courtesy of Teveta at Small and Medium Enterprises Development Institute (Smedi) at Mponela, Dowa.

Since then, the CBO has been training women and young people from different districts in the region in baking, tailoring and bag making.

“As a CBO, we have trained men and women from Nkhata Bay, Chitipa, Likoma and Mzuzu in baking cakes, scones, bread and biscuits, among others,” she said.

Mkandawire says the women are thankful to Teveta for giving them exposure.

Regional manager for Teveta North, Conceptor Bamusi, says Teveta now sends students to Kurya ndiko uku to gain practical skills as Mkandawire is now a trainer of trainers and her CBO is a reputable one.