Report-April 2010, John Harrison
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Farming and Gardens
• The school committee harvested the maize in the school garden supported by CCS. Due to the long distance of the fields to the CBO, 5 trips were made in the CCS vehicle to transport maize back to the silo. The yield is very good even though we were not able to give the crop two dressings of fertilizer due to adverse weather conditions. The school and community maize are stored in the same silo but are being kept separate due to problems of separating the maize in previous years

• The CTC (Community Therapeutic Care) appears to have very few beneficiaries at present (less than 15) as the general level of local peoples nutrition status has improved greatly with the harvesting of crops. Harvest time and in particular the sale of tobacco has resulted with many people having larger amounts of “disposable” income and the number of people in the beer halls and drinking the local brews has increased greatly!!
• CARD-Church Action Relief Development are undertaking training of farmers at the CBO to help improve marketing of maize. Many farmers lose out when maize is purchased by unscrupulous dealers at rock bottom prices. CARD is trying to group farmers together and then identify reliable buyers who are willing to pay a fair price.
• Harvest the beans that we planted in January from the CCS supported community garden, a fairly good crop and the Soya we planted is going to be quite high yielding
• Had a great holiday visiting a lady (Rita) and her French husband (Phillipe) who has been assisting Chimteka with tree planting; her home is in the Lower Shire river valley.

Health
• Evelyne and Gaby come to Chimteka to conduct a malaria workshop for parents of disabled children. Gaby will return to the USA on the 7th of May with her husband Mark and they will be missed as they have done some great work and have become our (Francis and me) good friends. They purchased 470 more mosquito nets for€1,700, which were distributed to children under 5. My main concern is that those that receive nets (worth around €3.75 each) do not instantly sell them.
• Collect school health team from Mchinji District Hospital at 8am, consists of 3 nurses and 2 clinical officers. The outbreak of ringworm has been very nasty. The nurses and clinical officers assess these cases first in the Community Hall and then investigate other conditions that children are suffering from, a big exercise… The nurses and clinical officers then write prescriptions to be given to parents/guardians rather than distributing medicines directly to children.I ask the team if we can have the same program at Chimteka Full next week. I think we are very lucky to get the team as they have not conducted screenings like this in the District for a long time. We make sure that they are well looked after…. nice lunch, well prepared rooms, drive them back to there front doors etc.
• Arrange date of health screening of CBCC children and Primary children (Chimteka II) with various medical conditions.
• We have a meeting with the DHO who is very supportive of the potential program of the proposed pilot ambulance trailer project in conjunction with Imperial College (UK) and pledges a number of resources; motorcycle, fuel, driver etc. He advises on collection of Motorcycle Ambulance trailer asap.
• At the same meeting, we discuss a major outbreak of ringworm among the CBCC and Primary School Children, also a number of children are suffering from tooth decay. The DHO agrees to liaise with the schools health coordinator and I promise to make our resources available to transport the team to Chimteka/Chioshya health centre on the date of assessments.
•A motorcycle ambulance trailer has been found that may offer more flexibility as we would also have a motorcycle that could be used for other purposes when the trailer is disconnected. The unit has been developed by Imperial College (UK).





Disabilities
• Epilepsy and Orthopedic outreach clinic; collect team regularly from Mchinji District Hospital. Large numbers of people are know gathering for epilepsy medication and results appear good also large numbers of people with orthopedic conditions have know been treated on site with plaster casting etc or been referred for operations. A number of patients have had surgical procedures on legs and hips that they would never have had the opportunity of having.
• Olivetta has been having problems with her prosthetic legs - took her too specialist physiotherapy department at Kamuzu General Hospital. They made adjustments and repairs (no charge).
• Evelyne conducts a workshop for parents of disabled children regarding feeding/clothing and washing.




Energy
• We travel to ESCOM (Malawi energy provider) and ask for a quotation to connect electricity from Chimteka trading centre to the village/CBO and I also ask for a quote for the connection of electricity to Chimteka Full Primary. • Get quotes for Solar from Su-Kam and collect a new inverter for the CBCC building as the old one was damaged by lightning. • Discuss the possibility for Annual Maintenance Contract (AMC) as all the systems are out of warranty. • There is no news about possibility of Chimteka getting mains electricity.




Education
• The UNICEF director and (Malawi) country representative arrived with various other dignitaries from the District Assembly (including the District Commissioner). Visitors looked around Community Child Based Care Centre and what is being done to promote Early Childhood Development (ECD), then moved into the Community Hall for a general meeting. The UNICEF Director had many very kind words to say about the role of Chimteka Children Support and asked me to stand while he offered his personal thanks, to Ireland!! He also mentioned that people are talking about Chimteka in the UN headquarters in New York!!! I thought Francis’s head was going to explode….



Other
• Fr Julian arrives at Chimteka and it is good to see him for the first time at the project site. We jointly sign the 6 month report and VMM agreement (that should have been signed 6 months ago!!) He always has some good pieces of advice and fills in the gaps with certain other issues. After a walk around and a cup of tea Fr Julian returns to Balaka and in the next week or two he will be in London and then Rome.
• Bicycle: Purchase a mountain bike in Lilongwe market which should mean I can cycle instead of drive shorter distances, plus I love cycling!