
Clean hands every time
Long before the threat of Covid-19, volunteers were keen on teaching about the benefits of hand washing especially using soap. Hands around Sitima, especially children’s are usually pretty dirty but the contamination poses some serious health risks. Soap is a precious commodity that villagers often don’t possess and it is normal for volunteers to take soap with them and/or to buy it out there to give away to local people.
During February, Marian and Veronica erected Tippy Taps in the front garden in Sitima and ran workshops, teaching the children, the teenagers and the adults, how and why to wash their hands properly, singing Happy Birthday Clean Hands, twice, whilst they did. All participants were given a bar of soap to take home with them
The children made a beautiful poster, as in the photograph, with their own strap line “Msambani m’mnja nthawi iliyonse” (Clean hands every time) We also had a lot of amazingly clean hands at the end!
As this is posted, Malawi remains free of Coronavirus, but working with the parish priest Fr Owen, N4BW has forwarded funding for the provision of sanitisers and masks for key works and for the distribution of soap to the villagers
Other News
International themes
October is an interesting month for us as two international themes which are celebrated during the month have a bearing on some of what we do.
Irrigation system
N4BW has installed a solar-powered drip irrigation system that allows edible crops to be grown all year.
Volunteer house
The house was funded by N4BW and built by the local people to house a maximum of 8 volunteers.