Category: Youth

Community, Education, Healthcare, Malawi, Youth

E.A.R.T.H Workshops take place at NYM

Phunzira

Nyumba Ya Masambiro was delighted to host The E.A.R.T.H Workshops team from Butterfly Space in Nkhata Bay who came to share their knowledge and expertise on all things environmental. Standing for Environment, Agriculture, Reforestation, Topsoil and Health, the workshops provide a bottom-up approach to empower communities to be resilient, independent and find solutions to protect our soil, improve farming methods, reduce damaging activities, as well as improving nutrition through better, more environmentally friendly cooking methods.

The workshops were attended by a variety of community members from Ruarwe, and surrounding villages as far away as Kwenthu Village as well as staff from Nyumba Ya Masambiro and the clinic. On one day a primary school class was invited to join the session to start to inspire positive environmental thoughts and practices in the younger generations. This has been continued by one particularly proactive primary teacher, who has continued to bring his class to NYM to have lessons under the guava tree and discuss and analyse the positive impacts of the E.A.R.T.H workshop principles as put into practice at NYM.

A huge thank you to the team from Nkhata Bay for sharing your knowledge with the community in Ruarwe and your ongoing support as farmers, community members and NYM and clinic staff put the principles of your program into practice.

Community, Malawi, Sports, Youth

Community Football and Netball League

Phunzira

Nyumba Ya Masambiro has successfully run a community-wide football and netball league for mens and womens teams around the community. The League ran at weekends from 7th June to 8th July. 36 Football and Netball teams from the wider area competed and all teams won financial prizes to go towards their clubs for equipment such as new balls, new nets, new bibs and kits, as well as travel funds to allow them to continue to play against other teams in the wider area in the future.

Played at the football and netball pitches at the top of the big hill above Ruarwe Village, the games drew huge crowds from around the area. Bringing wider communities together to support their teams and each other, the joy was palpable and spirits really high.

Community, Malawi, Sports, Youth

Youth club football tournament

Phunzira

NYM Youth Club football team took part in a football tournament playing the youth team from Khomola Village in our catchment area. They had an afternoon of hype and entertainment together on Friday 3rd May at the NYM youth hall and in the gardens around the centre (think a Ruarwe version of a Pep Rally!). This was followed by a match at the Ruarwe football ground at the top of the hill on Saturday 4th May in the afternoon. Everyone was in really good spirits and both teams played well, with an end result of 3:2 to the Khomola youth team. With a winners prize of MWK3,000 and a losers prize of MWK2,000 paid out for the players to buy essential supplies for their teams. 

The NYM youth club is going from strength to strength with 50-70 kids turning up to each session, which still focus on education, creativity and sports and exercise. Having a safe space for kids to hang out and socialise is so important for Ruarwe village and the surrounding areas and linking up with other youth clubs and teams builds a network in our wider area. 

NYM is now preparing for a Senior Youth Football league for both men’s and women’s football teams in the area. With 40 Senior Youth and community teams taking part (20 men’s teams and 20 women’s teams), and further cash prizes to keep the clubs supplied with footballs, boots and kits. The league is due to begin in mid-June so watch this space for upcoming updates!

Community, Donations, Education, Fundraising, Malawi, Nursery, Youth

Youth activities go from strength to strength

Phunzira

The Nursery continues to go from strength to strength, having initially reopened with just over 20 students, there are now over 35 registered and attending daily. NYM’s nursery continues to be praised by the local primary schools for assisting children to enter primary-level education with sound educational knowledge and solid foundations for learning. Nursery students receive a subsidised fortified maize porridge breakfast every day. Given the recent devaluation of the currency and increase in prices, this subsidised meal is a vital provision for the majority of these children. NYM has not increased the price of the nursery fees to cover this change, and is currently assuming that cost with the support of the grant money. As ever we remain grateful for any and all donations, which continue to support the projects ongoing at NYM.

Following a change of nursery teacher due to maternity leave, NYM’s former Youth Co-ordinator Ekhesha, known to many of our former volunteers and now a qualified teacher at Ruarwe Primary School, has commenced voluntary training with the new nursery teacher on all the activities previously run at NYM. This includes activities undertaken within nursery school as well as teaching around Youth Club, sports events, educational quizzes etc, all of which we aim to restart in the coming months. We are delighted to see Ekhesha thriving in his new post, and also coming back to support NYM in its ongoing projects! Yewo Chomene!

Education, Nursery, Youth

NYM nursery school returns

Phunzira

NYM has re-opened its nursery school after nearly 3 years of closure due to covid. A lady within the catchment area was employed to educate and guide the children, with the support of other NYM staff for cooking and cleaning. NYM’s nursery has been praised by the local primary schools for assisting children to enter primary-level education with sound educational knowledge and solid foundations for learning. The nursery re-opened on 13th March – it started with only 8 learners and grew to 25 learners by the end of April. As well as providing the young ones with daily nutrition (fortified maize porridge) and educational activities (alphabet, numbers, calendar…), the aim is to adopt a holistic approach to learning by providing workshops for children and parents on current issues such as nutrition, sanitation, protection of land and trees for future sustainability, dangers of overfishing in the lake, and plastic waste management. The aim is to start sensitising learners when they are young, so they can grow with a keen interest in their surrounding environment, as well as acquire useful knowledge and skills on how to protect and sustain it in the future for their individual and communal benefit.

Community, Malawi, Youth

Senior youth shelter under construction at NYM

Phunzira

We are delighted to announce that Nyumba ya Masambiro is building a shelter for senior youth community members. The government initiative of Youth Friendly Health Services, which uses the youth hall to meet once a week and discuss issues relating to the youth and health, has highlighted that there is nowhere that the senior youth can meet, hang out and socialise away from alcohol in the bars and pubs of the village. Senior youth members have recognised that they need a safe space in which they can socialise independently and they approached NYM to see if such a space can be created.

NYM has board games such as chess, draughts, bawo, cards, dominoes and more. The senior youth will be able to use these and chat in an alcohol-free safe zone. The shelter is being constructed from as much existing material from around the centre to ensure that the building is as sustainable as possible with minimal impact on the environment. We are delighted to be able to offer this space as a solution to this issue, brought to us by the community in Ruarwe.

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, 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, Sports, Youth

Donation of Netball Dresses to Nyumba ya Masambiro

Phunzira

We are so grateful to the team at RUMS, the medical school attached to University College London, for their donation of netball dresses to Nyumba ya Masambiro. The dresses were brought out to Malawi and the staff at NYM was delighted to show them off immediately.

The dresses are being stored at Nyumba ya Masambiro but word has been passed around that any local team is welcome to come and borrow them when they have a competitive match in the area. The dresses were used for this purpose by Khomola Village team in a match against Banda Village. Khomola were so thrilled with the use of the dresses that they were spurred on to a 3:2 win against Banda!

We are always keen to promote and encourage female participation in sport and netball is very popular in Malawi, and a sport that women are happy to play. This donation of dresses and their availability for use is already encouraging more matches being scheduled. We are also delighted to see that women’s netball matches in recent months are also starting to draw bigger crowds, more like those often seen at the men’s football matches so we are starting to see a move towards more equality in sport, which is such a fantastic achievement by these community netball teams. RUMS – Thank you so much for your donation of these dresses and their contribution to gender equality in sport in this area in Malawi – Tawonga Chomene!