Shaking Zomba Mountains with Smiles

Hi, welcome to team Zomba Plateaupus’s blog once again. My name is Mwayiwawo Chitsamba (In country volunteer). In this blog I will take you through my first experience in Zomba and our progress as team Zomba Plateaupus in the ICS programme, despite a few challenges. Even though I am a Malawian raised in Lilongwe, this is my first time visiting Zomba, thank you to International service for this opportunity. Zomba is a nice place to be in Malawi, surrounded by beautiful hills and is well covered with a lot of indigenous trees causing a circulation of fresh and cool air during the day making it a comfortable place for all the UK volunteers. Unlike Lilongwe, Zomba is quiet and smart and hopefully I am not going back to Lilongwe; my apologies to my capital city!

It is not only the beauty of Zomba making my ICS placement also the interaction with my team mates, and together we are known as “Zomba Plateaupus”. Everyone in my team is dedicated, hardworking friendly and passionate about ICS. Every team member has many different reasons for volunteering for ICS. Some are working to improve professional skills for example public speaking skills, monitoring and evaluation and project management experience. While others are interested in organising and managing sports tournaments and theatre for development sessions. This is what is keeping us strong as a team, each member is working towards their personal goals while aiding ICS and international service achieve their objectives; personal development for volunteers, making a positive impact in the communities and become active citizens within society. Let me also thank Samson and Liane for the good management of the team.

  Figure 1. Conducting a life skills session at Hi-profile secondary school

As ICS volunteers in Zomba, we are implementing several activities involving sexual and reproductive health and rights which is targeting young people in the local area. These include theatre for development sessions, drama, sports with a healthy message and monitoring and visiting parenting circles. We are also conducting life skills sessions within schools including; career guidance, motivation talks and information and HIV/AIDS. These hopefully will encourage the young people to set achievable, realistic goals, stay safe and become good and reliable citizens of Malawi. Through the life skills sessions the students feel comfortable to open-up and tell us the challenges they face during their daily lives. We have found several sensitive cases which are now in the hands of the YONECO helpline. I enjoy the life skills sessions because I know a direct impact to my fellow youths. Most of the time I am motivated to do the sessions by Diana (UK volunteer) who is passionate about women’s and girls’ empowerment, I have a lot to learn from her.

Figure 2. At Mponda bwino village during a drama about the effects of drugs and substance abuse.

One thing that is interesting about the ICS programme is that as volunteers we can show and discover our hidden talents. For myself that I can act and change people’s lives through drama.

Figure 3: ICS volunteers saying good bye to Bwaila LEA students after life skills sessions

Finally let me appreciate the tireless work of in trying to change people’s lives through the various activities we conduct in communities through community investigation the team is discovering a lot of issues affecting youths. At the end of the various activities we see the big smiles that shake Zomba mountains, a clear sign that we have imparted knowledge at the right time to the right people and we hope that Zomba will not be the same at the end of this placement period as we are doing our best that the youth are given the right information about human rights, life skills and sexual and reproductive health rights.

By Mwayiwawo Chitsamba

(Edited by Emily Kinsella)