Rose Nyirenda was a businessperson many enjoyed buying from. It is not that she knew how to market her goods. Neither was it because her goods were the best. All businesspersons sold the same goods.
The attraction to Nyirenda’s goods was her ignorance. She could not count. Thus, when she gave change, it was more than what a buyer was supposed to get. Who would have avoided such kind of a generous businessperson?
“I never got the best possible benefits from my business. People were just stealing from me,” she said.
“I spent a lot on transporting fish mostly from Mlowe to Nkhata Bay.”
That is not the only misery Nyirenda went through. She could also not read or write. As a result, her life was something she never enjoyed. Someone had to be by her side to give a helping hand.
That was not all. Because of her illiteracy, Nyirenda never knew what to do to prevent some preventable diseases that easily smashed her household.
But the situation is different now. And one feeling they would steal from Nyirenda again would have a rude awakening as she will expose them clean.
“I now know how to read and write. My business is booming now. Besides, I know what to do to live a better life,” says the 31-year-old mother of four.
“I know a lot about issues to do with HIV and Aids. I know how to keep my home clean and hygienic. I don’t see diseases like cholera within my home anymore.”
Nyirenda is among a group of older men and women that joined literacy classes at Chinguluwe primary school in T/A Timbiri’s area in Nkhata Bay.
The classes are under the Functional Literacy for Integrated Rural Development (Flird) programme. It is run by the United Nations Volunteers (UNVs) and seeks to integrate different development works around reading and writing.
“The programme started in May 2005 and has adopted a concept called Regenerated Freirian Literacy through Empowering Community Techniques (Reflect),” said Flird Coordinator Prince Kaunda.
“The villagers now understand a number of development works. They have embarked on road construction. They also construct toilets to improve their livelihoods and started community based organisations (CBOs) to deal with issues of HIV and Aids.”
According to Kaunda, the programme has also cultivated a better understanding of gender issues in people of the area. They have also become successors in almost everything they have embarked on.
Currently, the programme covers 65 villages. It runs to 2011 and by that time, it is expected that capacity building will have been achieved.
With the period it has been alive, the programme has attracted many people. There were only seven participants when the literacy classes started in 2006.
But at some point, the figure shot to 60. Unfortunately, because of religious beliefs, a number of participants have pulled out.
“Some of our colleagues mainly those belonging to the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) church pulled out because they said they could not rear pigs,” said Nyirenda.
“We tried to reason with them that pigs were not the only option. We encouraged them to rear goats but they still insisted. However, one of the SDA members understood us and is now doing very well after agreeing to take up goat farming.”
Such has been the only drawback to the programme. However, the programme has proven a success in other aspects. As a result, when the UNV Deputy Executive Coordinator Naheed Haque visited the project recently, those who have seen the benefits recommended that it should be replicated across the country.
Said Haque: “From the impression I have gotten from the projects we visited, functional literacy has manifested itself as the entry point to all aspects of development.”
“After learning how to read and write, people can get into income generating activities like pig farming as we saw down there. This improves their economic status.”
Haque said there are up to 94 United Nations volunteers in the country. They are involved mainly in the health sector, social welfare and community development.
The programme that has opened the eyes of people like Nyirenda falls under social welfare.
“We want to raise the spirit of community participation in development projects. At the end of the day, we want to put development projects in the hands of the community,” added Haque.
The success of projects like Nkhata Bay’s Flird is what raised the impact of UN volunteers in the country thereby attracting Haque to visit them.
She said as a new person at the UN Volunteers headquarters, she had to familiarise herself with countries that were transmitting success stories. She said Malawi and Zambia are some of the successful stories in Africa.
The Nkhata Bay project, small as it may look, has impetus to push Malawi for a long way in its quest to achieve the millennium development goals (MDGs) by 2015.
In Nkhata Bay, the project is already achieving goal one, namely to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.
However, the knowledge Nyirenda revealed indicates that she could also directly help in achieving goals six and seven, namely to combat HIV/Aids, malaria and other diseases and to ensure environmental sustainability, respectively.
The other goals include to achieve universal primary education (goal 2), to promote gender equality and empower women (goal 3), to reduce child mortality (goal 4), to improve maternal health (goal 5) and to develop a global partnership for development (goal 8).
If it were not for this programme, Nyirenda could still have been a victim of exploiters today. But, her success will not go without mention of one John Mtambo, her teacher.
“My focus on topics is very simple,” said Mtambo about his classes which run for two hours.
“We start by reciting the alphabet and then graphics and we start learning how to take on problems.”
He added that his classes include a practical work on how to take care of livestock. There is also a provision for participants to study in the library.
