Lighthouse and Mphatso

This morning Ashley and I had an early morning meeting with our Partners at Lighthouse. We got to briefly sit in on the morning meeting then met with Daneck Kathumba, Prof. Sam Phiri, Micrina Mwandeti. We had a very productive meeting discussing the progress that the groups have made in addition to where we want to see the groups go in the coming years. Prof. Sam Phiri has made plans to go visit the Area 50 group and Mphatso group in the coming weeks. In October there is a big meeting held by Lighthouse where the support groups show off the goods that they make. This year the Vice President of Malawi will be in attendance. This will give our groups a great opportunity to tell more individuals about the work that they are doing. We are hoping that we might be able to plan a trip around this annual meeting next year.

At Mphatso group we saw the amazing products they have made over the past week. I'm really excited to share their talents. We have started giving fabric to the tailors in the group, so that everyone can contribute, to make knitting bags. We have Christmas ornaments and Christmas stockings, ponchos, bracelets, a tie, and we got some samples for the local shops in Lilongwe. Tasha will bring the samples to the shops to see if they are interested in stocking the knitted items. We are also looking into knitting labels for the items so it can be identified which group made them while in Malawi. I'm really looking forward to selling all of these awesome items in the craft shows in the US as well as some boutique shops in Alexandria, Virginia.

The beginning of the wind down

  Good afternoon KATW readers, I hope that you've had as successful a day as we have! While the morning did not go as planned with a last minute rescheduling of the NAPHAM meeting we made up for it with a wonderfully productive meeting with the Chisomo group.
  After the late start we ventured out to Chisomo with Tasha at the wheel on another exceptionally beautiful day. I had forgotten how wonderful the weather is out here during this time of year. The warm days, rarley getting above 85 F with no humidity and a light breeze continues to be a huge relife from the typically oppressive heat and humidity of the DC summer.
 When we arrived at the Chisomo meeting house, a concrete building with a large open air porch, we were eager to see what the group had made. While members gathered we chatted with the others already present through Tasha and Amos, trouble shooting any issues they had and discussing the possiblity of selling their wares at local stores that many tourists frequent. As more members brought out their knitted items, there were two sweaters that caught my eye; one sapphire blue, the other kelly green. While Kelly thought that the blue one would look best on me it turned out that the kelly green one suited me best and the sapphire one complemented her orange.

Here we are modeling our new sweaters

And Tasha found herself a new hat!

It was wonderful seeing all of the new merchandise, buying for the American market and a few items for ourselves =) The group members, as always, showed such ingenuity for the knitting craft. I am always amazed at how they can just look at a picture or a template and not only recreate the item, but improve it by adding their own personal flair! Kelly and myself always come away from those meeitngs with our cheeks hurting because we had been smiling and laughing so much.
  KATW's hope for the next year is that the Chisomo group keep expanding by acquiring repeat customers (they have a few already), selling in the stores we suggested and expanding their partnerships with local schools who need knitted vests and sweaters for their student. After seeing what they have done today I don't have any doubt that they will be incredibly successful!

Wednesday Walk-About!

Yesterday afternoon Zoey, the intern for World Camp, arrived and today Ashley and I helped her get aquatinted with the local shops. I the morning we each took her to great local stores to get food and local products. In the afternoon we took her to the fabric market behind the Mosque on Kamuzu Processional Road. We enjoyed a quick ride in a local motorized rickshaw pointing out various fruit and vegetable markets. 

The fabric market was wonderful as usual. Ashley and I, once again, enjoyed the beautiful fabric and couldn't help but purchase more. I enjoyed seeing some women recycling extra fabric from the tailors and making rugs. 

Our quest to find and speak with individuals that sell raw cotton is still ongoing and hopefully we will get a lead in the next day or two. 

Relaxing and Researching Tuesday!

Although we didn't meet with any groups today we still managed to get work done.  I started drafting out out yarn pilot program proposal. There is a lot of informational that still needs to be collected but it is a good beginning. 

This afternoon Ashley and I visited a Land and Lake Safari Tour Lodge where we ate lunch and checked out the gift shop for tourists. After speaking with a staff member we will be able to sell knitted items in the store and promote Knit Around the World. This is a very exciting advancement for the groups to be able to  knit for a new market. 

Meeting with Area 50 and Chigwirizano Groups!

Today we met with our other 2 support groups, bringing them the latest patterns and supplies. It was great to see all the progress they have made over the past few months. 

Ashley and I were greeted with smiles, laughter and song by Area 50 group. They had a variety of new items and were very excited for the items we brought. 

In Chigwirizano groups many of the members were out sick but we enjoyed working with those who were there. I particularly enjoyed teaching them new stitches. 

I really look forward to seeing the products next week.

Tomorrow and Wednesday Ashley and I will be doing research on local shops and  outlining our pilot program for yarn production in Malawi. 

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!

Back into the Swing of Things, Meetings with Heifer and Chisomo

We just arrived yesterday and spent time recovering from our over 20 hours of travel. Today was our first full day of meetings. This morning we met with the Country Manager of Heifer to discuss the possibility of having some HIV/AIDS support groups that grow cotton help produce yarn. Over the 2 months between trips I did research on what is needed to get from the field to the skein. I learned a lot and brought that knowledge back with me to share. The knowledge was and is very valuable so now we have to gather more information about pricing, practice and production to present to interested members before starting a pilot program. I learned today that I am much more of a big picture person and for this program I will work with Ashley, Tasha (our Malawi liaison) and Petronella Halwiindi (Heifer Country Manager) to work out the details. Ashley has volunteered to practice over the next year and teach the groups how to spin yarn. I’m incredibly excited about this new venture.

Tasha, Petronella, and Kelly

In the afternoon we met with the Chisomo group, one of our original groups. They were very excited to see all the new materials that we brought. A lot of the yarn and needles we bought at a store in Alexandria, Virginia,  UpCycle. We learned that they have been contracted to make 36, yes 36, school jerseys for a local school. They will also be making jerseys for a local women’s guild. They have made tons of progress with the use of their knitting machine and we are looking forward to helping them pay for the second machine.

When we visited the Chisomo group we noticed that there was a tent where there was a project performing male circumcision funded by National AIDS Commission and US AID.  The movement of male circumcision has gained a lot of momentum in the past couple of years because it reduces the chance of transmission of HIV by approximately 60% for males.