‘Hoe kijkt coördinator Mussa Nyirenda terug op het project?’

De partner vertelt... van 15 september 2023 door Mussa Nyirenda

Elk jaar vragen we onze partner hoe het project is gegaan en welke lessen de partner heeft geleerd.

CONTEXT AND SUMMARY
* Describe the original plan/idea for the project. Has the project been executed as planned?
The original plan was to construct two teachers houses and the project has been executed according to plan

* Give a (short) general description of the implementation of the project.
the construction went on well as from the first day there were locals and participants working together side by side. there was also good interaction between the locals and participants both at the construction site as well as during other activities such as home visits and church services. There was a lot of work on the construction site such as bricklaying, ferrying sand, ferrying bricks, drawing water, filling the foundation with soil but also digging the pit latrine. by the time of the handover the roof was already on top.

*How do you look back on the following topics? How was it arranged, what went well, what could be done better?
CONSTRUCTION
- Buildings worked on
The construction of two teachers houses and a double toilet with GCR went on well. Brick laying on the super structure was completed and the roof on both houses was done. There was good arrangement on the construction site and everything went on well as planned. There were always locals and participants doing different tasks such as ferrying bricks and sand, drawing water, digging soil to fill the foundation.

- Tasks to be done
Tasks remaining are plastering, beamfilling, flooring, skirting, drainage, pointing, door fixing, painting and glass fixing glasses.

PROGRAMS
- Children program
The childrens work went on well despite that the two qualified teachers were busy with trainings at their Teacher Development Centre ( TDC ). We used a student from a teacher training college to assist with translations. All the activities on childrens work took place at the soccer field and the learners had fun together with the participants through playing games, singing and dancing, sharing stories from the bible and drawings.

- Cultural and touristic outings
There were a number of cultural activities that took place some of which were house visits, traditional dances, cooking in the kitchen, baking pancakes, singing traditional songs as well as learning some tumbuka words. on the touristic outings the group went to lake Malawi where they spent a night and they were happy with the visit despite that it was a long drive.

- Life Skills program and Football for Water
The Life Skills program was done for three days and there were 10 boys and 10 girls who participated in the training. the trainings went on well and were successful. The football for water trainings were conducted for two days one at each school and then the third was the tournament where over 200 people attended and Endhlaleni school won the football match and eventually became the champions. The HSA was invited and gave some lessons on sanitation and hygiene and also highlighted the importance of getting a polio vaccine apart from observing sanitation and hygiene.

COOPERATION AND INVOLVEMENT
- Leadership team World Servants
There was good cooperation amongst the leaders both from the staff members as well as from ccap. The organization of the activities was also done well and they were being followed

- Local leaders / key persons
The SMCs/ PTAs did a good job of arranging the communities on the different tasks that they were supposed to do. They also cooperated with the CCAP team in communicating with the members about the programme of home visits as well as ferrying sand from the river to the construction site.

- Community
The community members were involved through their presence at the construction site as well as taking part in all the activities at the school such as drawing water, ferrying sand, ferrying bricks, mixing mortar, bricklaying and filling the foundation but also digging the pit latrine. They were also involved in the cultural activities taking place in their community.

- Beneficiaries
The learners who are the beneficiaries of the project took part in the childrens work activities whereby a lot of games were played including singing and dancing.

- (Local) authorities
The traditional leaders always made sure that in collaboration with the key people they send their subjects to do the development work at the school.

FACILITATION OF THE TEAM
- Accommodation
Accommodation was arranged in the 3 classrooms where girls occupied 2 classrooms while the boys occupied one room. There was enough space for everyone.

- Food
Food was prepared in a local kitchen and was served in a classroom which was used as a dinning room. No complaints were received related to food served and no illness was also reported due to food served.

- Transportation
Transport was always available for the team and we had no serious problems with the vehicles and transportation.

- Safety
We had no safety issues throughout the project implementation

LESSONS LEARNED
Since this community had already hosted a project before they were already conversant with working with the world servants teams and everything went on well and it was just a great project. The way World Servants prepares the teams is also good because the staff is very understanding and are able to adjust to our way of working when need arises. this is important because we differ in the way we do things so a compromise is the best way to go.