* REPORT : 45

Malawi Exchange Report

From South Africa

Veliswa Mbeki

Nhlanhla Machete

Joyce Cwayi

Jemina Mazibuko

From Zimbabwe

Cornelia Lungu

Charity Chinyani

Douglas Kolwe

Beth Chitekwe-Biti

Day One

We arrived around 14.30. The South Africans had arrived about thirty minutes earlier. There were probably five or six singing women waiting for us. We were genuinely excited by this process that enables poor women to go to the airport to meet their own. As we got into Ntandire settlement where we were going to stay we were serenaded with songs. Minibuses do not get into the settlement because of the bad road conditions. One of the songs says that look we even got the minibus into the settlement it is the federation. As we drove into the settlement our cortège was picking up more women and curious children that by the time we g to the house there was a sizeable crowd of at least 300 women singing and ululating. We introduced ourselves and sat to have lunch/supper.

Skue the Malawi process support person briefed us on the programme. In the evening we were to go to a group that has started a mushroom project to assist them to set it all up. Nhlanhla from Protea South was really keen on this as in South Africa they are trying to establish business that work for the federation. We sat as the women from the three federations cleaned the maize stocks that will be used to propagate the fungi that will eventually turn into the mushroom.

Ntandire is a settlement that developed spontaneously.  The families that settled first have huge plots some as big as 2000 square metres. There have in turn developed rooms for rent. Some of the rooms have electricity and build of bricks. However some are just mud huts with no floors. The savings schemes in Ntandire are mixed both structure owners and tenants can belong to the same scheme. Sikhulile is worried that the most active women are structure owners.  This will needless be an issue that the emerging network will have to address.

Day Two

We woke up slightly sore from sleeping on the floor. This is when you know what a disadvantage being 100+ kg is. We divided ourselves into four groups that would go for daily collections. My group had Nhlanhla from SA to others from the Malawi groups. The saving scheme we visited Chikondi has 48 members and we managed to collect from 31 members a total of 426 Kwacha. The collector told us people were saving to impress us because this is how much she collects on a good day. We met two members that had resigned from the group and withdrew their savings. The reason they gave Nhlanhla fro leaving was that they had problems and needed the money. Nhlanhla told them this was the very reason they should have joined the federation. Another member had to stop attending meetings and her husband had forbidden her from attending. She had recently asked the group to send elderly women to talk to her husband, as she does not want to quit. Another member had Malaria and her son had a bad eczema. The group was going to give her a loan to buy Malaria tablets. Another women’s’ child was ill. It seems malaria is a huge issue in this community. There is no clinic in the whole community and people have to find the money if a family member falls sick. The women we talked to all testify as to how savings have they changed their lives. We also visited a member who is rearing chickens. She got a loan for 24 000 kwacha in January and she has already paid back 10000. Her husband was keen to know why the Zimbabweans had a man in their federation, apparently the women in Malawi have unanimously agreed that for the moment as they build their federation they do not want the distraction, hence all the saving schemes do not have man. The men support their wives and even give them money to save. Sikhulile mentioned that now they have started   working on water issues they have had to start interacting with man and they have had to deal with a patriachical culture. Creating their own organisation and saving and controlling money have given them confidence to deal with men more strategically.

At 11 we went to meet with WaterAid. There is a partnership emerging between WaterAid and the saving schemes in Lilongwe. Water in Urban Malawi is controlled and managed by the Water Board a quasi-government body. This body established water kiosks in informal settlements. Using a prepaid system people would pay for unlimited water supply at 150 kwacha per month. However the community leadership in the form of councillors and local chief would collect this money but not pay it to the Water Board. The Water Board then made a decision to close down the kiosks until the water bills were paid. Some of the communities had arrears of up to US$30 000. When the people were threatened with closure of the kiosks they approached the Roman Catholic Church who in turn approached WaterAid to try and find a solution. WaterAid in turn started a negotiated process with the Water Board and the community’s political leadership. They agreed that henceforth water would be paid for by the bucket. The community leadership agreed that they would discuss these decisions with the community. The idea was that an increased tariff would be paid to enable the community to pay up their arrears. However the community was not properly consulted. When the new tariffs were started people were up in arms. Water Aid’s involvement was misinterpreted. Sikhulile mentioned that there were meeting a saving scheme in one area and everyone was talking about this awful NGO WaterAid that was going to increase their water tariffs. She quickly organised a group to meet with WaterAid. They explained that they had not been consulted about the bucket system and they were unhappy about men continuing to manage the water given that they had misused the money for the water. They proposed that they would use a coupon system where people would still pre-pay for water. WaterAid has since agreed to try pilots in the communities where the federation women would set up a system of managing the water payment. There is currently setting up a pilot in Chisapo.  We talked about metered systems that are used in Namibia and South Africa. Sikhulile will write to Anna to get more details. WaterAid is also keen to support Sikhulile to set up an office to support the water initiative a bit more. Sikhulile is a bit nervous as she feels that there are somewhat will promote their own agenda. This was evident when we started talking about toilets. The women are keen to develop better toilets as in all the settlements the federation is mobilizing toilets and water are an issue. WaterAid thinks share toilets would not work because of cultural inhibitions. We suggested that the Malawians could take the opportunity to see how the toilets in Kenya and Uganda to see how the toilets are working. At the moment there is a multiplicity of toilets in the settlements and these contaminate the water. In Ntandire we met a member whose grandchild had fallen into a well. As the water is very expensive some families dig shallow wells sometimes very close to the toilets. In one area we saw at least two children with a very severe type of scabies. This might be because of the contaminated water they use.

In the afternoon we met groups in Chisapo another settlement. The South Africans talked about savings and its importance in building an organisation. The Zimbabweans retired these points and also talked about how saving small amounts have moved them to start other businesses as well as take each other when they are ill. What was evident in this meeting was the excitement of the federation process. We met groups that had been literally just been formed. We agreed that it was necessary to organise a meeting for collectors and treasures to assist them on their recording methods

On Saturday morning I participated in collections for a group called Tadziwana The group has forty members and we managed to meet 31 in their homes and all but 2 managed to save that day. The federation women have organised their groups in localities with a big group being about 50 people. This particular group has developed its own unique system of collections where each member has her own collection book and the collectors move with these books writing in the individual members’ savings. They then surrender the money to one treasurer who in turn logs the total in her own book and then they give the books to another treasurer to record into the individual member’s saving booklet. The third treasurer takes the money to the bank. We also met men who wanted to join the federation but the women have agreed that for the moment they do not want men in their organisation, as they would take over their organisation. We talked a bit how men were included in the South African and Zimbabwean federation. The women felt this was something they would need to discuss more and see if they were ready. At any rate they might consider involving the men only on condition they form their own organisation. We also talked about domestic violence. One woman is routinely bitten by her husband. The Zimbabwean women felt that the Malawi women should intervene and try to assist this woman. They also felt that this was why it was important to involve men as these issues could be discussed and they could also send federation men to talk to this particular man. The Mbare women narrated a situation where a male member in their group was beating his wife and the whole group took him to the police. They said that the federation is life and all these are aspects of life that the federation should feel confident and an obligation to intervene on.

In the afternoon we visited another group in an area called Kawale. Kawale is a planned area but there are no proper services some families have piped water in their homes as well as electricity. The housing conditions are very poor with most house build of unburnt bricks that are disintegrating under repeated rains. The road into Kawale is in a serious state of disrepair.   The South Africans talked about the networks they are developing to remobilise communities to take responsibility for community issues. The Zimbabweans talked about how they were tackling health and HIV in their communities and as a federation how this was helping them to mobilise the whole community. The issue of men came up again. The group wanted to know how long it took the Zimbabwean and South African federation to involve men in their process. The South Africans mentioned that most men got involved at the stage when they started developing their homes. They also mentioned the Malawi women needed not bee too scared of men as they would find strength in their numbers to be able to challenge men that tried to take over the process. The Zimbabwe mentioned that the process of savings gave women as a voice as women speak mostly by doing. They then needed to concentrate on savings.

In the evening we sat to talk about the next days program and also review the days events. The collections carried out in the last two days had exposed some technical weaknesses in the way savings were being record. We had agreed on Friday that we would have a treasurers and collectors workshop. All 60 of the Lilongwe groups would attend this meeting.  We also talked about the issues we had identified that we would talk about. The issues identified were:-

• Collecting people a collectors approach
• Collectors Sheets
• Roll Books
• Running meetings
• Group Statistics and chart system
• Recording Loans and withdrawals

We also had a discussion on loan sharking. One of the treasurers of a group we had visited in the morning operates a loan sharking business…. They call it caterpillar. Apparently it is quite prevalent in poor communities and interest rates range from 50% a month to 100%. We talked about the need for the saving schemes to be relevant to the needs of the individual. This meant that                                                                                             the saving scheme should provide loans to members rather than watch their savings go up in the bank. Currently the saving groups have two kinds of fund, the Mchenga fund where members contribute K20 every month and their daily savings. Some groups have split the daily savings so that they always have a fund revolving as loans within members.

Day Three

On the third day we held workshops with savings scheme treasurers and collectors. In Our group which had all nine Ntandire groups and one other group from Kawale Nhlanhla talked about collecting people not money. She also talked about recording collections, roll books and Charts. She emphasised that information is power and that it was necessary for all the members of the group to have the same information. We agreed that each group would have their own charts showing number of members savings, loans and withdrawals on a daily as well as monthly basis. Each area should then compile an area chart on a monthly basis. We also advised the groups that they needed to have a monthly meeting where all the treasures and collectors would meet and assist each other with their records.

In the afternoon we held a meeting at Piasan, which is adjacent to Ntandire. The groups in this area were introduced by their area coordinator. We took the opportunity to share with the groups are thoughts and reflections on the three days we had been with them. Veliswa talked about how impressed she had been with the Malawi process. When she had met the Malawian at the 5^th annivessary celebration of the Zimbabweans they only had 15 groups. Now there were 63 groups in Lilongwe alone and they had started a process in Blantrye. She felt that the schemes needed to internalise daily collections and proper information recording using the chart system as this would make the information available to everyone. She also share that in South Africa they had carried out community surveys as a way of identifying the needs of the community and this had led them to develop a component structure within each saving scheme. Nhlanhla spoke of how she had learned how to grow mushrooms from this exchange and how she would like to take this experience with her and share it with others. Cornelia spoke about the need for the saving schemes to sit and talk about what they would do with the increasing number of man who wanted to join their process. Douglas spoke about the need for a leadership that led from behind rather than in front.

Day Four

Before we left we had a meeting with Sikhulile and all the coordinators of the areas. We reflected upon the exchange and also talked about what we saw as a way forward for the Malawian Process. They are keen to

• Deepen their understanding of the federation process by getting exposure to other federations in the African regions. They are quite excited therefore to being going to Kenya as settlement upgrading is an issue they will have to manage as most of the groups are in unplanned areas.
• Deepen as well as widen the emerging process to other cities in the country. They have already started with Blantrye and would like to go to other towns.
• They have started a water programme with WaterAid. However they are wary of  not being swallowed by WaterAid before they build their own capacity and confidence to handle this partnership. Several of the communities we visited are under threat of water closures by the Water Board if they do not reduce their debts.
• In the unplanned settlements water and sanitation continue to be major issues. We talked about possible exposure to other SDI processes that have experience in these areas. Currently people use pit latrines that are in a bad state of repair and have contributed immensely in the pollution of the ground water supply that most of the people use.
• Continue their initiatives on income generation where some of the women have started growing mushrooms as well as rearing chickens with loans received from the groups.
• Upgrade housing and infrastructure and create more planned settlement. At the moment people are moving into the informal areas with no water and sanitation. Land is unlikely to be a problem.

We suggested that they might want to plan for several community surveys to enable them to develop a strategy around all the issues that they need to address. Perhaps more urgent is the water issues and lobbying the Water Board not to cut off families. A survey of water consumption patterns and coming up with alternatives to the current impasse with the Water Board might be useful. I also feel a settlement map and profile in the unplanned settlements would be useful for any future upgrading. This survey will also enable them to mobilise other members of the community. They would decide on dates and invite others within SDI to assist them with this survey.