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We set aside the whole morning today for Thompson, Joseph and Chisomo to walk us around Home of Hope's 40 acre site, interested to learn what has changed since last time we were here. By now we have a reasonable map of the place in our heads, but it's still a lot to take in.
Almost all the buildings in the image above have been constructed since 1998, when Rev and Mrs Chipeta and their grown-up children began the work here. It's tough to be a building in Malawi! Torrential rains, searing heat, high winds, termites - not friends of the baked mud bricks used in the earlier structures, nor the timber roof frames and galvanised steel sheet coverings. One of the biggest challenges for Home of Hope Children's Village is buildings maintenance. It's costly, in the order of priorities comes lower than feeding children
We started at the north end of the campus (I won't try to steer your around the picture above, but "up" is west, so we're over near the church buildings.). Here a boys hostel has had to be demolished because of poor construction - no more contracts here for that contractor - and another needs some tlc.
Where a hostel stood. Happily a majority of the materials we reused in other structures.
Interior rendering and painting needed
Broken window glass
Flood water channel threatening foundations
Early on here one faces a simple choice: look, or look away. Looking can be overwhelming. Looking away feels more comfortable, but helps not one jot. With some attempt at a calm appraisal of the many, many things that could be done, followed by some thinking about what actually can be done any time soon - and we're looking here for stuff that would make a substantial difference to things that really matter - eyes can stay open. We're a small charity, trying constantly to maximise the impact of the limited funds available. Taking careful aim before committing resources is key. It's fantastic to be able to have a constant, open conversation with the Home of Hope leadership about all this. They draw our attention to the whole challenge they face not because we can "fix" it all, but so that as friends we can at least empathise and support, and as colleagues we can help get some things done.
Which rooms in your house would cause you the greatest problem if they went out of commission? (OK for now let's rule out the Netflix room.) How about the loo? How about the kitchen?
This kitchen building, and another that looks a lot like it on the other side of the campus, are blackened inside and out from years of timber-burning to heat large cook pots. The wood is fed in from the outside (the large hole), and burned on the inside - a scaled- up version of a three-stone-fire, if you're familiar. The roof here has failed because several galvanized steel sheets have been eaten up by the environment.
Looking away yet? I take moments to remind myself what matters more than the state of the kitchen, i.e. the energetic, joyful children who eat three meals a day here. That's just in order to be able to look back at the kitchen. It needs more than fixing - it needs replacing with something that won't inflict wood smoke inhalation on those doing the cooking, and there are simple designs already built on site that work just fine. Why has this not been fixed already? Just money. Building materials cost about the same here in pounds as they do in the UK. (Actually everyone thinks in US dollars here - same applies). It's the same reason the hostel had to be taken down: not enough of the most important ingredient went into the mix. Expensive cement.
I could add pictures of loos that need fixing next, but shall we move on?
As we walk on into the Secondary School area of the campus, we hear the quiet clatter of sewing machines. Following the sounds we mount a large step to enter the "Protection for Education" room. This is a project run by older girls at Home of Hope, making re-usable sanitary kits. Similar projects the world over help girls in education to be in the classroom all month around. It's a work here that Jo has done a huge amount to champion.
Finished pads
Finished pads, and boxes of pink soap on the shelf below
Here's something that is the opposite of broken, that has arrived and thrived alongside the cracked concrete outside. And it matters more. At the same time, anyone fancy buying a bag of cement? You get my drift.
Right next door are buildings of the Secondary School that have seen better days.
We have a conversation about glass in the windows, curious to know why it was fitted in the first place when it's easily broken. It's common to see grill-only windows in schools here - like those fitted last year in the Primary School (coming up below). "It's very windy in the winter, and children get cold." It's a dilemma. We wonder together whether some kind of transparent plastic might work. Priority? A pessimistic view would be say it'll never be done, because there will always be something higher up the list. We've found over the last few years, though, that different problems appeal to different people. Is there a shatter-proof window company out there looking for a worthy project to support? These kinds of "wild card" donations can completely ignore "the list" and just get stuff done. Let's not be afraid, and keep looking.
A great deal of water damage outside. What's needed here is a "french drain" (like a very wide shallow gutter all around the building, but on the ground rather around the roof), and big bore pipes to take water under the steps safely. There of examples of this on site, but again it comes down the cost, as measured in bags of cement.
For some students, education at Home of Hope includes the the Technical College or "VTC" (Vocational Training Centre), and it's there we headed next. On the way we noticed some children making dolls' clothes from fabric scraps they'd collected and neatly organized.
Future graduates of the VTC's up-and-running Tailoring and Fashion Design course?!
The Vocational Training College is the most recent addition to Home of Hope children's "all-through" education. The majority don't make it to university - after all that's not everyone' route to employment and independence. Learning a trade is a great way to go, too.
These buildings are on the west side of the site (you can easily spot the five-in-a-row at the top of the aerial photo above), separated from the main campus by a gated wall. One of buildings currently stands-in as a hostel for those young men previously occupying the one that had to come down. One stands empty, awaiting the arrival of three-phase power and then the provision of heavy metalwork and woodwork machines. The others host courses in Level 1 and Level 2 Bricklaying, Metalwork and Fabrication, Carpentry and Joiners, and Tailoring and Fashion design. All this was present last year, as was the "shell" of an administration block.
Inside it's a long way from finished. It might be tempting to think that if the courses are running anyway, we can do without an admin block. There's something here that's not obvious, though: at present, unlike the Primary and Secondary schools, the VTC receives neither government staff nor resources for teaching the courses. In round figures, finish the admin block and Malawi government staff, equipment and resources arrive. It's a "spend-to-save" opportunity. If Home of Hope can find support to finish that building, it will lift a very big financial burden.
Being on the side of the site just below the hills we're near the Home's "gardens" where vegetables are grown all year round, and near two other important and exciting projects.
Fish ponds! They were dug many years ago, but in the last year as an experiment Malawi Ophan Fund invested to support Home of Hope in running one pond (the"pilot pond") along commercial lines. Led locally by Joseph, the work went extremely well until the harvest-ready fish were stolen! A key question for us on this trip is to understand if increased security measures can stop that happening again. We'd love to see fish farming succeed as an "Enterprise", generating revenue for Home of Hope.
Just above the ponds another Enterprise - a Macadamia tree nursery.
Just as we reached the area where "mother bushes" grow, providing shoots to graft onto root-stocks germinated from seed, half an order of 1200 saplings was being driven away. There's growing demand, and typically buyers want a thousand trees or more, or nothing.
"Mother bushes"
Root-stock seedlings in raised beds
Grafted saplings potted into tubes
Thompson and Alex Chilundu have built up this project at Home of Hope over many years since our friends at Neno Macadamia Trust introduce them to Ken Makengala - a respected expert on the trees. It's wonderful to see the progress.
Nearly done. How's the Primary School doing? Last year we brought a group of volunteers here to focus on a refurbishment of the Primary buildings - one of the oldest areas of Home of Hope. Like other areas it had seen better days. Back down the hill, and near the southern limit of Home of Hope's land, a brightly painted scene:
It's still looking wonderful, and we're grateful to everyone who supported the work - especially SheffMed, Sheffield, UK. It's inspiring to think back to how it was, then see how it looks now. I encourage you to look at the "before and after" pictures,
here. If you'd like to be part of creating some more "after" pictures, do get in touch. There are plenty to make.
Alex, Gillian, Jo, Phil, Ruth
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