Growth in Malawi

Hello KATW readers, I'm back again in Malawi and loving it! Since landing a few days ago, I feel a surprising amount of familiarity. From the sights, to the sounds, and of course the smells, it all feels as if I left only a few weeks ago. It helps that not much has changed in Malawi, even with a new President, it is still the same old Malawi. Yet, that often is life; change is slow, but constant. One never realizes how much has changed until there is time to pause for reflection. I have been lucky enough to have had time away from KATW to see how much it has grown as an organization. As I'm sure you all are aware, Kelly has been able to include new support groups, and pick up a Malawi Liason, Tasha, that she met through NAPAHM. It is unfortunate that NAPAHM has been negatively affected by "cash-gate", a political scandal involving many Malawian officials misusing international aid funds, but it has led to the opportunity of having Tasha work exclusively with KATW, at least for the time being.
   With Tasha as KATW's Malawian voice, we have been able to use our time most effectively, setting up meetings with Heifer International (as she reported yesterday) as well as with all four groups, who we will meet with twice while we are here. We met with the Mphatso group on Friday and they have been doing extraordinarily well! This is largely a woman's group however many of their male counterparts (fathers, sons, husbands etc.) have been working with them to expand their market. They have been so successful that they now have been able to rent a house to meet at, pay three members a salary or stipend for work performed, and to loan out money to community members with a modest interest rateof 25% (for Malawians this interest rate is on the low end!), all the while spreading HIV/AIDS awareness and hosting a testing even that brought out 106 people! Kelly and I were both elated to hear this wonderful news and to see the faces of women who are truly making a difference within their community. While Kelly may supply them with yarn and a few new ideas, such as a Christmas stocking and knitted snowflake ornaments-these are very foreign concepts for Malawians as Christmas is more about family and food (which I prefer over the materialism that runs rampant in the States) and snow is a phenomena that few know about, the women of the Mphatso group are what makes KATW work so well. They are business oriented to the point that they should be giving Donald Trump a lecture or two, creative with knit patterns, and driven towards helping and supporting not only one another but their community. Truly they are a very real example that if organizations invest in women, they invest in communities.
   It hasn't been all business this time, we have been lucky enough to be staying at World Camp while one of their Managing Directors, Emily Stallings, has been here as well. Emily has proven to be a very useful resource for local spots, for example she took us to a wonderful little cafe and shop that many ex-pats frequent, as well as a wonderful friend=)
   As this week comes to a close, my hopes are that we experience the same level of success and enthusiasm in the other groups as we had experience with the first two. Until we meet again KATW readers!