Category: Volunteers

Healthcare, Malawi, Volunteers

Phunzira’s Volunteer Program reopens

Phunzira

After years of closure due the COVID-19 and the subsequent maintenance and reopening phase, we are delighted to announce that Phunzira’s Volunteer Program has reopened for both Nyumba Ya Masambiro and Ruarwe Health Centre. Our first volunteer, Rachel, joined us in Malawi for three months from Mid July to Mid October. A qualified nurse from the USA, Rachel helped daily at Ruarwe Health Centre as well as getting stuck in with community health visits to the wider catchment area with the Health Surveillance Assistants from the clinic team and by running First Aid sessions with both the NYM staff and Clinic Staff.

Rachel was really valued by the whole team, community members as well as staff at Zulunkhuni River Lodge, where all volunteers stay during their placements in Ruarwe. Rachel, we thank you for your hard work, for getting stuck in with so much while you were here and your cheerful demeanour throughout your stay. We would love to see you back some time very soon! Yewo Chomene!

Business, Education, Nursery, Volunteers

2022 NYM update

Phunzira

Despite the sad closures of NYM’s main activities at the community centre, in December 2022 some small parts were re-opened with great joy from the staff and surrounding communities. The library is running and being visited primarily by students to access during revision time due to its wide range of academic text books sourced in Malawi and UK. We are also happy to announce that the youth centre is currently being used by a children’s nursery, with free-of-charge access to the large room and recreational/ educational resources. In addition, donations are being sourced in order to provide medicines to the two nearby village clinics, where not even basic drugs such as paracetamol are available due to nationwide government shortages. The maize mill business has also received an injection of cash, allowing for essential maintenance work and the purchase of maize, to sell directly from the centre. All other activities in Ruarwe village still remain closed due to insufficient funds since the start of Covid – it has been a very challenging time and we are extremely grateful to our staff and supporters for keeping us alive over the last two years. We hope that by the end of this year the maize mill and its subsidiary businesses generate enough funds to re-open the weekly youth club and sporting events, at which point we will look towards starting up the volunteer programme again – it has been missed dearly in Ruarwe!

Community, Malawi, Volunteers

2021 Covid closures

Phunzira

Sadly NYM’s community centre in Ruarwe village still remains closed due to Covid-19 and insufficient funds. However, the maize mill business is open sporadically and helps to employ its two necessary members of staff (cashier and miller), as well as contribute towards the employment of two extra NYM staff members to look after and maintain the centre during its current closure. We are very thankful to all the staff in Malawi for their swift and transparent actions in managing the emergency donations we received for coronavirus provisions over the year, and we hope they will all be re-employed by the end of the year to re-open the community facilities and workshops once again. We are also grateful to our supporters out there for all the generous donations and offers to volunteer – we will assess the situation again in a few months so keep dreaming of Lake Malawi and watch this space!

Community, Donations, Education, Malawi, Volunteers, Youth

A wonderful donation from volunteer Mecki Ballantyne

Phunzira

This summer Nyumba ya Masambiro was joined by volunteer Mecki Ballantyne. Mecki is an experienced teacher who worked with the Ishmael, the Youth Co-ordinator and Frank, the Project Manager to share her skills and expertise for the benefit of the youth in Ruarwe and its catchment area.

Following her return to Germany, Mecki collected together a wonderful donation of almost 40 early-years reading books for the children’s section of the Nyumba ya Masambiro library. The community children love the injection of new reading materials. Most afternoons the children’s corner of the library is filled with children of all ages enjoying the pictures and sounding out the words alone or in small groups. These books are already making a huge difference to the confidence and desire to read, which is such a vital part of educational development.

Thank you so much Mecki for your time spent in Ruarwe and for continuing to think of Ruarwe with this wonderful and generous donation. Yewo Chomene!

Community, Education, Malawi, Volunteers, Youth

The children’s area of the Nyumba ya Masambiro library gets a make-over!

Phunzira

Volunteer Kate Probert from New Zealand and volunteer Denise Dolan from Ireland have been really busy and have completed a redecoration of the children’s corner of the library at Nyumba ya Masambiro. Last decorated in 2010 when the centre was built, the new paintings, quotes and comfy seating area have made the library much more appealing to the youth of Ruarwe and we are seeing many more children coming to attend the library, pick up a book and relax in the area.

Thank you to Kate for the vision, Denise for the wonderful quotes and the staff for the translations and all the help provided – the children’s area really looks great now!

Education, Healthcare, Malawi, Testimonial, Volunteers

Volunteer testimonial – Kate Probert

Phunzira

Nyumba ya Masambiro and Ruarwe Clinic have just hosted volunteer Kate Probert for 5 weeks. A qualified nurse from New Zealand, with particular experience in youth healthcare, Kate got involved with many of the activities in Ruarwe including working at the clinic, assisting the clinic staff to set up the Youth Friendly Health Services program, repainting the children’s corner of the NYM library and much more.
As Kate said of her time in Malawi:

“Volunteer and live in a beautiful jungle, right on the lake with not onlythe staff but the whole community that open their arms and welcome you in. It’s a no brainer.”

Kate, you really got stuck in in your time in Ruarwe and have made a real and lasting impact on the community here. Thank you so much for sharing your time, expertise and energy with us and we very much look forward to you coming and joining us again some time in the future. Tawonga Chomene!

Education, Malawi, Volunteers, Youth

Volunteer Denise Dolan

Phunzira

This spring Nyumba ya Masambiro was delighted to host volunteer Denise Dolan, a qualified teacher from Ireland. She came to join the team at NYM for 6 weeks to share her wealth of knowledge and experience with the staff for the benefit of the community.
During her time in Ruarwe, Denise started a Go Girls project together with local volunteer Mary. The Go Girls program offers small group seminar sessions for young females to provide information, advice and discussion topics to empower girls to seek good information, make good choices and further themselves. In a society where female empowerment and gender balance are sadly lagging far behind international levels these sessions offer a great space within which girls have access to information to allow them to make the best of themselves. Yewo chomene Mary and Denise!
Denise also assisted with the redecoration of the children’s section of the NYM library, repainted all the library signs, and undertook a range of activities with the children such reading the Very Hungry Caterpillar and then painting egg box caterpillars and beautiful butterflies among other things. Denise, it was a delight having you to join the team in Ruarwe, thank you so much for all your hard work! Tawonga chomene!

Community, Donations, Malawi, Volunteers

Introducing NYM’s upgraded kitchen

Phunzira

We are absolutely delighted that the kitchen at Nyumba ya Masambiro has seen a big renovation this year. The kitchen sits up on the rocks behind the Library with views through the trees down to the lake. It is one of the hubs of NYM, serving as the site for meetings, nursery porridge cooking, morning tea drinking, volunteer lunch eating and the perfect spot to cool off during the hot season as it is so well located that it catches any breeze passing through the valley.

Previously an entirely wooden structure, the new kitchen has a more stable concrete floor with an A-frame roof which has been raised up higher to even better catch the breezes, and a nice big socialising table.

We would like to thank Claire who donated the funds for the concrete for the floor and the staff at NYM who did a great job at salvaging so much material from the original kitchen to allow it to be built in the most environmentally sustainable way possible. Yewo Chomene!

Community, Education, Malawi, Volunteers, Youth

Educational Volunteer Marci Koenig

Phunzira

In January, Nyumba ya Masambiro hosted volunteer Marci Koenig for 4 weeks. Marci originally travelled to Ruarwe with her sister Nathalie last year and decided to return this year to volunteer at the education centre. Marci has extensive training and experience with teaching early years education in remote locations in South Africa, where English is not necessarily the first language of the students.

Marci brought her skills and enthusiasm to work alongside the Youth Coordinator in the nursery and youth club as well as running smaller group sessions in the library. Using art and games to facilitate fun learning she really made a great impression on the children she worked with.

Thank you Marci for your joy and passion! Yewo Tawonga!

Education, Malawi, Testimonial, Volunteers, Youth

The volunteer experience of Celia Daude

Phunzira

Volunteer Celia Daude came to Ruarwe to join the projects at Nyumba ya Masambiro for just over a month at the start of the year. She got involved with the youth club, nursery and teaching Standard 7 at Ruarwe Primary School next door to Nyumba ya Masambiro.

She said of her time in Ruarwe:

“I would definitely recommend to volunteer in Ruarwe! I will write a report for my university to inform the other students. In Ruarwe you can really get a good impression about the Malawian culture and school system. The people are really friendly and helpful.”

The best parts of her voluntary work were;

“to teach creative arts [and] play with the kids. To talk to teachers about their lives, about Malawi and the culture, [and] to get involved with Ruarwe everyday life, to get invitations to eat and cook together.”

Thank you Celia for your enthusiasm for Ruarwe and what the village can offer Phunzira volunteers! Yewo Chomene!