| Aid to Malawi | ||||||
| By Zhou Xian-bin and Yuan Ya-qi Translated by Wu Hsiao-ting Photos by Zhou Xian-bin | ||||||
One brick house after another was constructed in a mountain village in Malawi, providing shelter to impoverished villagers. Almost everyone in the village had become a volunteer in this Tzu Chi reconstruction project, helping out in whatever way they could.
Rain poured down at three in the morning, waking Michael Pan (潘明水), a Tzu Chi volunteer from South Africa. Once awakened, he couldn’t go back to sleep, concerned that the rain would delay a housing reconstruction project Tzu Chi had initiated for storm victims in Malawi. The rain finally stopped at nine. Pan and other volunteers first went to purchase cement, then they set off for Ching’ombe village to start the reconstruction project. The journey wasn’t easy; the roads leading to the mountain village were slow going due to the extensive mud and deep puddles in many places. November through May is the rainy season in Malawi. In early March 2019, a tropical depression brought a lot of rain, resulting in flooding in many places in the south of the country. The depression later developed into Tropical Cyclone Idai, wreaking even greater havoc in neighboring Mozambique. Tzu Chi volunteers in Malawi quickly went to disaster areas in the nation to assess damage. Another team of volunteers from South Africa traveled 2,400 kilometers (1,490 miles) by bus and joined their counterparts in Malawi in delivering aid to victims. They brought cornmeal, second-hand clothes, and other needed supplies. Over 40,000 people in Blantyre, a large city in southern Malawi, were affected by the cyclone. Ching’ombe, located on the outskirts of the city, had received aid from Tzu Chi before. Volunteers found after visiting the area that 120 houses there had been destroyed or severely damaged. Indigent locals typically build their homes with sun-dried mud bricks, but when torrential rains hit, this kind of house is at a greater risk of collapsing. After assessment, volunteers decided to use more durable materials, such as fired bricks and cement, to rebuild the homes for 70 impoverished households in the village. The reconstruction project was kicked off on March 18.
Water-carrying team The day after the project started, volunteers traveled from a market in Blantyre to Ching’ombe to continue working. Hampered by difficult road conditions, they didn’t arrive there until nearly 11 a.m. Once there, they were surprised to find that the walls of the house they had started building the day before had grown considerably higher overnight. The walls had barely reached their calves when they left the day before, but now they were as high as their waists. It turned out that local villagers had, without being asked, arrived at eight to start building. The village tribal chief, Godfry Madukani, expressed his appreciation to Tzu Chi: “I thank Tzu Chi for everything the foundation has done for our village.” Touched by how Tzu Chi volunteers had traveled a long way to help them, the chief had taken the initiative and called on villagers to join the reconstruction effort. He had also rolled up his sleeves and helped move cement. Heavy rains had washed out depressions and holes on the roads. Early that morning, residents had filled some holes on the roads with dirt to allow safer passage of the vehicles transporting building materials to the village. Everyone helped the best they could. Villagers also helped by transporting bucket after bucket of locally collected sand and water to be mixed with cement. Local women were good at fetching water from local water sources, which were located at a great distance, some as far as two kilometers (1.2 miles) away. Balancing water buckets on their heads, a team of female villagers moved one bucket of water after another back to the construction sites. Volunteer Zhou Xian-bin (周憲斌), from South Africa, followed the women to a water source. He said that even without carrying water, he became short of breath just tagging behind the women. He became even more winded on the uphill stretches. Fetching water was clearly not an easy task. “I was amazed and touched to see them helping out so cheerfully.” Many hands make light work From the first house, the project spread out to many other sites in the village. Sometimes as many as eight houses were being built at the same time. From the launch of the project, Zhou and his fellow volunteer Pan had been inspecting the various construction sites and helping get building materials ready. However, frequent rains posed a challenge to the reconstruction effort, slowing its progress. “Due to difficult road conditions after rain,” said Zhou, “some merchants refused to transport cement and bricks into the village. As a result, we had to take care of many things ourselves.” Thankfully, the volunteers had the help of the villagers, for which Zhou was very grateful. From children as young as four years old to women carrying babies on their backs—everyone could be a volunteer. Some work might be beyond some villagers, but almost everyone could help move bricks. Each brick weighed about 2.5 kilograms (5.5 pounds). Younger children could be seen balancing one, two, or three bricks on their heads, while older ones were up for more. Some girls had amazing strength, carrying eight bricks at one go. Over a hundred people, including villagers, Tzu Chi volunteers, and skilled construction workers participated in the project. To keep better track of the progress on each site in the widespread reconstruction area, volunteer Joana M’dala was assigned the role of site manager. She and several villagers regularly visited each site to find out whether there was a shortage of bricks, sand, or water. Then they reported back their findings for replenishment.
Malawi is the eighth country in Africa where Tzu Chi has started charity work. Since 2018, volunteers from South Africa have been visiting the country to inspire people there to join the work of Tzu Chi and guide newly joined volunteers in providing care to their own communities. M’dala’s mother was the first person in Malawi to benefit from a house repaired by the foundation. Impressed by the volunteers’ effort in helping her mother, M’dala joined Tzu Chi and became a volunteer. Her son was sick when she volunteered for the reconstruction project in Ching’ombe, but she entrusted him to the care of her mother so that she could dedicate herself to the project. Some of the houses Tzu Chi was rebuilding were in areas susceptible to flooding. For safety’s sake, it was better to rebuild the houses on higher, safer ground, but in the village, the location of a house could not be changed without the permission of the tribal chief. Thankfully, Chief Madukani gave full support to the project, working with Tzu Chi volunteers on the construction sites every day, helping in whatever way he could. He also helped find temporary accommodations for those villagers whose houses were being built. Near Chief Madukani’s home was a piece of woodland. He allowed trees growing there to be used as building materials for the construction of the houses. “Those trees have been grown for sale as timber,” said the chief, “but I’m offering them for free for the project. Like the Tzu Chi volunteers, I want to give for the good of others.” Whenever volunteer Pan went to make purchases for the project, whether it be building materials like cement and bricks, or food for project participants like cornmeal and vegetables, he never let go of a chance to introduce Tzu Chi to the people from whom he was buying. He did that so that people in Malawi could have a chance to help their own country people. After Pan and other volunteers had made purchases at the market in Blantyre for a few days, many vendors there knew about the reconstruction project, and a sort of friendship developed between the volunteers and vendors. A woman who sold vegetables showed her support by setting aside a bunch of vegetables to be given to the volunteers for free. A plastic bag vendor refused to charge the volunteers for the bags they bought. These were two examples of people who contributed to the meaningful project. The monetary value of their contributions wasn’t important; what truly mattered was their heart to give. One day after sunset, volunteers went on their way down the mountain after a day’s work. The vehicles were traveling in the dark, and the muddy roads were hard to negotiate. Despite that, Pan’s heart was full of hope. Solid homes were going up one after another, providing shelter to needy villagers. In addition, the project had brought out love in many local people. A brighter tomorrow was ahead. |
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