MIND PILOT PHASE (2009-2010)

(This report can be downloaded in full as a pdf document. )

INTRODUCTION

Organisational Background:

Diaspora Malawians living in UK have been involved in international development for some time. Through remittances, they have individually supported a range of livelihoods and education needs for their respective communities. In-order to mainstream our contributions in international development, we formed an organisation. MIND strongly believes that Diaspora organizations can bring a new dimension to development in countries where the Diaspora themselves come from, for as long as they have the passion to do so. And it is this passion that led to our formation and shaped our objectives and values. This is exactly what we are proud of. We have studied the development scene and policy context, consulted and networked with other players, invested in ourselves by gathering our skills and have learnt from our past work that systematic consultation/baseline and needs analysis is crucial in developing a credible piece of work with local communities. We are therefore keen to compliment global development agendas by forging "power-balanced" partnerships at community level.

Our Vision:

A society where rural, disadvantaged and marginalized female communities enjoy an improved quality of life and economic empowerment

Our Mission:

To be a premier Diaspora-led organisation in international development through project interventions that genuinely engage and empower communities to take centre stage in problem identification, analysing issues and jointly developing strategies for action.

Our Aims and Objectives:

  • To improve the quality of life for marginalised communities
  • To develop community capabilities in co-managing project interventions
  • To promote sustainable livelihoods by tackling the root causes of poverty
  • To improve primary school enrolment, retention and achievement
  • To improve maternal health and reduce child mortality rates
  • To mitigate the impacts of HIV/AIDS and other preventable diseases
  • To promote the rights of vulnerable and marginalised communities

Our Programmes:

Over the last three years, MIND has mobilised experienced Malawian Diaspora and deployed them on a range of volunteering placements within key social sectors of Malawi (primary education, vocational training, HIV/AIDS, maternal and child health and livelihoods. MIND has and continues to conduct global development awareness amongst policy drivers and the wider British public within the framework of Millennium Development Goals.

Volunteer Training and Personal development:

MIND has recruited and inducted over 25 Malawian Diaspora individuals to the concept of international volunteering.

Capacity building and service delivery in Malawi:

Our 25 volunteers have delivered a range of capacity building initiatives to local staff in hospitals, community-based organisations, teacher training colleges and colleges teaching health professionals.

Expanding our work:

The British association of social workers is currently in discussion with MIND so that we can pilot a community-tailored social work port folio in Malawi at community level MIND has social work expertise within its operational and governance layers.

OUTCOMES/CHANGES FROM VOLUNTEERING

(Outcomes are changes or benefits that take place as a result of project activities)

Deria Wells, a social advocate, volunteered her skills at the Light House- a key HIV/AIDS service organisation where she joined local staff in service delivery and training. As a result of her work, Deria shared her skills with 50 service users in advocating for wider support, in-addition to clinical interventions. She engaged service users in exploring their experiences in accessing services and their unmet needs. Deria also capacity-built 10 local staff and 20 volunteers in managing home based care activities, counselling and health promotion. The Light House is now keen to work with MIND in developing work around socio-economic support to families affected by HIV/AIDS, beyond clinical care.

CASE STUDY

From Leicester to Lilongwe: The case of Deria Wells

Mai Chinangwa is a 37 year old woman caring for three children. Just like the 1.9 million people (15% of Malawi's' population), Mai Chinangwa is HIV positive and receives treatment at the Lighthouse (in Lilongwe district of central Malawi) which sees 12,000 service users per month. The Lighthouse is Mind's Local Partner. Deria Wells expressed interest to volunteer her skills at the Lighthouse as a result of Mind's promotional work on raising awareness about development issues affecting Malawi. During the volunteers assessment Deria came across as having significant knowledge, experience and a right set of advocacy skills to work at the Lighthouse. Above all, she demonstrated a solid understanding of global issues and a positive attitude towards volunteering as a means for social change.

Deria left Leicester for the Lilongwe. "I am amazed that someone of Malawi origin has come to volunteer: We are used that volunteers are Europeans", remarked Pascal Jimu, a Lighthouse staff upon welcoming her. Deria capacity-built 10 local staff and 20 volunteers with skills in organising and managing home based care activities, counselling and contemporary health promotion knowledge on HIV/AIDS. She empowered 50 service users with skills in advocating for wider, rather than mere clinical support to addressing their unmet needs. "I am impressed that Malawians in the Diaspora are sharing skills back home", commented Mai Mbeke, a service user. Deria also joined local staff in service delivery. "I was thoroughly challenged by the sheer numbers of service users against service providers, observed Deria. Arguably, her work contributed to the achievement of the Millennium Goal of combating HIV/AIDS & malaria. By empowering service users with skills in advocating for wider socio-economic support, MIND has generated some learning. A proposal is being developed to address these needs.

PROGRESS TOWARDS ACHIEVING RESULTS

HEALTH COMPONENT:

Raise awareness about global development issues:

To the wider public: We had planned to deliver five development awareness raising events across UK to reach out to 150 people. MIND has delivered six such events in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, London and the Scottish National Party event in Glasgow. Over 100 people attended. Evaluation from the events indicated that participants had increased their awareness about global issues.

To MIND volunteers: The volunteer pre-departure training content included a development awareness component in-order to raise that understanding amongst volunteers. The aim was to ensure that upon return, the volunteers would be agents of disseminating challenges and prospects for socio development in Malawi at their work places and local community forums, besides Mind's structured workshops. Returned volunteers have briefed colleagues at their work places on their experience in Malawi.

Promote the spirit of volunteering amongst Diaspora Malawians: Our promotional work was a catalyst in revitalising the spirit of volunteering. We generated significant interest from potential candidates (30 applicants) from where we recruited seven volunteers with a broad range of skills in teaching (in health colleges), mentoring and health care delivery (refer to the All Volunteer Data Spreadsheet).

Increased quality of health trainee students: Our monitoring and volunteer placement reports indicate that 75 students were taught in theoretical and practical aspects of health care delivery by our two volunteers (at College of Health Sciences Lilongwe) and the one volunteer at Kamuzu College of Nursing, University of Malawi. Evaluation feedback from students and staff found experience rewarding and contended that the lectures very relevant, concise and interactive.

Capacity build local Tutors: Six local Tutors, at the abovementioned health colleges, were capacity-built by our volunteers in lesson preparation, interactive approaches to delivering teaching and environmentally friendly issues in motor vehicle and electrical mechanics. MIND M&E report indicates that the local Tutors our volunteers engaged with absorbed the following skills: Lesson preparation, interactive lesson delivery, time-management, record-keeping and organisational management

Improved service delivery: MIND placed one Nurse Volunteer at Bwaila Mental Hospital and another two at Kamuzu Central Hospital (children's department and medical wards). Volunteer placement reports and corroborated by MIND monitoring reports, indicate that overall, more paediatric cases and adult patients were attended to more promptly during the month long placements. Normally, one ward has one Nurse against over 40 clients. Improved quality of life for those affected by HIV/AIDS: An HIV/AIDS Advocate volunteered at the Lighthouse where she shared her skills with 50 service users in advocating for wider, rather than mere clinical support.

Improved health care delivery through skills transfer: Our volunteer at the Lighthouse also joined local staff in service delivery including counselling and health promotion. She participated in volunteer management training in support of 20 local volunteers in home based care. Our volunteer also shared contemporary knowledge on social and nutritional regimes to over 10 local staff aimed at maximising clinical treatments of patients. The Light House is now keen to work with MIND in developing work around socio-economic support to families affected by HIV/AIDS

EDUCATION COMPONENT:

Promote the spirit of volunteering amongst Diaspora Malawians: Our promotional work revitalized the spirit of volunteering. We generated significant interest from where we recruited two volunteers skilled in vocational education. Our assessment report evidences this achievement. Volunteers went on placements to Malawi for a period of 4 weeks. Our monitoring report corroborates attainment of this outcome.

Increased quality of vocational trainee students: Our monitoring and volunteer placement reports indicate that 25 students were taught in theoretical and practical aspects of motor vehicle mechanics by our volunteer (Tamara Liwewe) at Lilongwe Technical College for four weeks. An evaluation feedback from students (through MIND M&E report) found Tamara's lectures very relevant, concise and interactive and her time management skills excellent.

Capacity build local Tutors: Three local tutors were capacity-built by our volunteer in lesson preparation, interactive approaches to delivering teaching and environmentally friendly issues in motor vehicle and electrical mechanics. MIND M&E report indicates that the three local

Tutors Tamara engaged with absorbed the following skills: Time management, record-keeping, organisational management and strong team player skills.

Improved curriculum development: Our volunteer mentored seven members of staff in the review and development of a more market focussed curriculum for training and vocational colleges in Malawi. Additionally, our volunteer was involved in Training six Trainers (these are Tutors in technical colleges) in identification and documentation of learning resources. MIND M&E site visits as indicate that our volunteer shared her unique skills in curriculum review and development and she had excellent team work skills in driving the work forward.

International volunteering: MIND is Diaspora driven and engages Diaspora volunteers. Through VSO/DFID funding, MIND has successfully achieved one is its critical "soft" outcome to the entire programme: Promoting the spirit of volunteering amongst skilled Diaspora Malawians, through raising their awareness to global issues. We received over 30 expressions of interest from where we recruited 10 volunteers with a broad range of skills in health and vocational education and a passion to the international development agenda.

Skills transfer:

Our approach was two-pronged: Firstly, our volunteers joined local staff in front-line health service delivery, teaching trainee health care and vocational education students at three such colleges in Lilongwe. Secondly, our volunteers capacity-built local health care staff Kamuzu Central Hospital, the mental health unit of Bwaila Hospital and the Lighthouse (an HIV/AIDS treatment and counselling centre). Our volunteers also capacity-built local tutors at Lilongwe Technical College, Kamuzu College of Nursing and College of Health Sciences.

Human development: By undertaking teaching at health institutions and technical colleges, our volunteers contributed towards the development of human capital. This is crucial for ensuring that the future workforce in health and education keeps pace with the rising population of Malawi. By placing volunteers in training institutions, our pilot project guaranteed that more health care providers are trained and access additional knowledge and skills beyond the local training menus.

Inspiring others: The personal "journeys" of the 10 volunteers has raised motivation amongst the un-tapped pool of Diaspora professionals. We have continued to receive more expressions of interest, further enriching our database of more potential volunteers. In Malawi, beneficiaries have expressed deep appreciation for our work and the contribution to health and education sectors. This is evidenced by volunteer placement reports and monitoring and evaluation feedback. The Malawi Nation, the most widely read daily, carried out a comprehensive feature of our pilot project, citing a new chapter in the development theatre of Malawi through volunteering-a key success of our pilot project.

KEY CHALLENGES THAT AFFECTED THE IMPLEMENTATION OF OUR PROGRAMME

Balancing skill-set with the volunteering spirit: Overall, our volunteer assessment was a success. However, we have had instances where some volunteers had difficulty in balancing these two aspects. Arguably, this is a reflection of our volunteer assessment exercise. We have re-visited our assessment tools and have built in practical and simulation exercises to capture not only skills but, crucially attitudes towards the entire volunteering philosophy. Flow of information within partner organisations: There have been cases where the integration of our volunteers started on a slow pace. Not all sections of placement organisations had been internally briefed about the arrival of our volunteers. We managed this challenge by re-orienting more "layers" of the local institutions hierarchy.

Red tape: Some of our placement organisations are government institutions where "red tape" is a reality. Some of our volunteers experienced some frustrations in rapidly getting onto the work floor. However, amidst all this, we now have built significant personal contacts within the various layers of government. We have also broadened our partnership-base to include more Non-governmental organisations in mitigating the challenge of "red tape".

The per diem syndrome: There is a persistent culture of per dimes amongst civil servants in Malawi for any event that is workshop or seminar based. Some of our volunteers encountered this barrier in the delivery of structured capacity building sessions with local staff and tutors. Currently, the budget does not allow for this expense.

Delays in submitting placement reports: Submission of placement reports by some Partner Organizations and some returned volunteers is another challenge we have encountered. We have since revisited this issue and have put in place a new approach to ensuring that this aspect of our work is improved. In future, we will "loosely" peg the disbursement of weekly allowances to volunteers upon receipt of draft reports of the ended week. We have developed a simple template for volunteers to record inputs, outputs and outcomes on a weekly basis. On the part of Partner organizations, we will continue to encourage them to write their own independent reports

New angle to further develop the work of the Lighthouse: Whilst the HIV/AIDS clinical intervention is an excellent piece of work the Lighthouse is doing, our work has identified gaps in wider socio-economic support those affected by HIV/AIDS. In light of this, MIND is developing a proposal to address livelihoods and household economies for such families to maximize on the clinical interventions the Lighthouse is providing

New partnerships with missionary health institutions: Our work has generated significant public recognition in Malawi. We have received a request from Christian Health Association of Malawi (CHAM) a key player that accounts for over 40% of health care provision and 20% of trainee health students.

DEVELOPMENT AWARENESS

Using our launch ceremony to raise public awareness on global issues: Our programme was launched to a cross section of the British audience, graced my Jack McConnell MP (former First Minister of Scotland). We used this occasion to raise awareness about the developmental needs in Malawi.

Influencing democratic institutions: MIND has joined the Cross-Party Group on Malawi at the Scottish Parliament. We have and continue to raise awareness amongst policy drivers in Scotland about development issues in Malawi and how, on its part, MIND is rising up to the challenge. We have since invited to submit a bid to the Scottish Government, to consolidate and expand our work in Scotland and Malawi.

Through networking: MIND has also joined the Network for International Development Organisations (NIDOS) and the Malawi Scotland partnership - Forums that promote learning and sharing. We have continued to use these forums to raise development awareness amongst members and the wider public through structured events that NIDOS organises.

Volunteer assessments: Short-listing of candidates was tightly linked to those that demonstrated some awareness of developmental issues and the assessment exercise had to corroborate that aspect. The pre-departure training content included a component of development awareness in-order to raise that understanding amongst volunteers. The aim was to ensure that upon return, the volunteers would be agents of disseminating challenges and prospects for socio development in Malawi at their work places and local community forums, besides Mind's structured events.

DEVELOPMENT AWARENESS CASE STUDY

Re-appraising senior citizens with global issues On 4th March 2009 MIND engaged with 40 members of the Deeside Rotary Club in Aberdeen comprising retired professionals. The event was aimed raising awareness amongst senior citizens on global issues and development challenges facing Malawi. Raising the profile of Mind's work occurred by default.

Mr. Ngwira, Executive Director of MIND explained that whilst Malawi has made significant gains in improving social development, challenges still remain. 15% of Malawi's population is HIV positive. The ratio of health worker to patient is 1:100,000 and 50% of births are not attended by a trained health worker resulting in high maternal and child mortality rates. Of the 47,840 primary school teachers, 23,274 or 48.6% are untrained. On its part, MIND deploys the Diaspora to volunteer their skills back home. It was an interactive event and participants showed great enthusiasm about the topic. An evaluation feedback indicated that participants had gained a fresh understanding of development issues; they promised to disseminate the knowledge gained to other clubs. "I came out of the event strengthened that I have effectively reached out to the wider public with the message", remarked Malawi Ngwira, at the end of the event.

CAPACITY BUILDING & ORGANISATIONAL GROWTH

Development of systems, procedures and policies Since its inception, MIND has received comprehensive support from VSO in developing operating systems, procedures and policies critical to our work. The entire of Mind's organisational growth is attributed to the capacity building support received from VSO. We have in place all the necessary paper trail to guide our work in terms of equality; inclusion; fairness; security and risk analysis; volunteer recruitment, support and management.

Research and analysis of in-country needs to inform proposal development During our formal research and needs analysis exercise in Malawi, VSO was part of the team and guided us throughout the process. We were able to forge links with a range of local partners through existing networks of VSO Malawi.

Developing Log Frames to guide monitoring and measure outcomes Some members of our management committee have also been trained by VSO in Log Frame development - a key tool for project design and monitoring. MIND has found the knowledge gained from this training extremely useful. Our monitoring visit to evaluate the work of our returned volunteers found the Log Frame very useful in distilling outcomes and challenges.

Skills in volunteer assessment: MIND has been trained by VSO in engendering the concept of development awareness throughout our project cycle. MIND has also received training from VSO in volunteer assessment. Therefore, we have used the knowledge and skills gained from VSO in developing and administering our promotional and marketing strategies in the recruitment of volunteers. Only candidates who evidenced that understanding in their applications were short-listed. During interviews, candidates (with the right skill set) who demonstrated that they had grasped the concept were recruited into our volunteering programme.

Engaging the public: Our programme was launched to a cross section of the British audience. The then First Minister of Scotland, was a Guest of Honour. We used knowledge gained from VSO about global issues to raise awareness amongst the British public about the developmental challenges and prospects in Malawi. Our key message was that as global citizens, our actions or inactions inter-connect and shape the nature and pace of international development.

Influencing policy drivers: In an effort to engender development awareness in our strategy and programming, we have joined the Cross-Party Group on Malawi at the Scottish Parliament. We have and will continue to raise awareness amongst policy drivers in Scotland about development issues in Malawi and how all of us should rise up to the challenge in generating understanding, knowledge and sharing learning. We have since developed a project proposal and submitted it to the Scottish Government International Division, to consolidate and expand our work in Scotland and Malawi.

Reaching out to the wider society: Through knowledge gained from VSO training, MIND has delivered a series of development awareness events with the Rotary Club in Aberdeen, Africa Centres Scotland, Christian Aid forum, Malawi Charities Networking event in London and the Scottish national Party event in Glasgow

Networking skills: Through VSO training events in networking, MIND is an active member of the Diaspora Volunteering Alliance. MIND has also built viable networks beyond that and is a member of the Network of International Development Organisations in Scotland (NIDOS) and Malawi Scotland partnership - Forums that promotes learning and sharing. We will continue to use these opportunities to raise development awareness amongst member organisations. Our returned volunteers will periodically make presentations about their experiences in Malawi through structured events that NIDOS organises time and again.

PRESS & PUBLICITY

UK Publicity: MIND has used its networks to raise awareness about development issues in Malawi and publicize how our Diaspora volunteering programme, is contributing towards global citizens taking some action and share skills and influence others.

Malawi Press and Publicity: Our Executive Director, whilst on a monitoring trip to Malawi gave an interview with The Nation-the most widely read daily paper in Malawi. MIND used this opportunity to articulate global development issues and how various international and local actors can take action in addressing the challenges. MIND paid tribute to VSO for funding its Diaspora volunteering programme for the benefit of Malawi's health and education sectors. The paper dedicated a whole supplement in promoting these messages and our volunteering programme in Malawi. The Director also gave an extensive TV presentation on similar themes as described above.

Last updated 10/11/2011