Friends of Malawi: News

The Peace Corps recently opened multiple HIV/AIDS Technical Assistant positions throughout Malawi . The full position description is here. Please read it over and contact Christina Breuer cbreuer@peacecorps.gov as soon as possible if you think you may be qualified, interested, and available for this assignment. The expected departure for this assignment is December 2007. The recruitment process consists of a phone interview, reference checks and medical and legal clearance. The entire recruitment and placement process can take up to 8 weeks. If you are interested, it is important that you act quickly.

For a complete list of open Crisis Corps positions go to www.peacecorps.gov/crisiscorps. If you have not been in contact with Crisis Corps in the recent past and would like to update your application, please send an updated resume to crisiscorps@peacecorps.gov.

For additional information please contact Christina Breuer directly at 202.692.1889 or toll free at 1.800.424.8580 ext. 1889 or through e-mail at cbreuer@peacecorps.gov .

U.S. Postal Service eliminates affordable method for shipping books internationally

The US Postal Service eliminated International Surface Mail/M-Bag ($1.05/lb) effective May 14, 2007. Now, books and other educational materials must be shipped to Malawi by airmail at $3.95/lb. This change has effectively shut down many humanitarian library and literacy efforts including the Friends of Malawi Book Project. For more information about this change and how you can help, please go to http://www.rpcv.org/pages/sitepage.cfm?id=1745. Zikomo kwambiri.

Education Peace Corps Volunteers organize high intensity summer school

The current Peace Corps Education Volunteers in Malawi are in the process of planning a summer school to be held from Nov. 20 - Dec. 4, 2007 for their top students and counterpart teachers from schools across Malawi. It is a chance for these dedicated students and teachers to experience a student-centered, exploratory approach to learning, helping them to expand their critical thinking and problem solving skills, and prepare them for their national exams. The program, run by 15 Peace Corps Volunteers, will invite 60 students, 20 teachers, and 10 junior counselors for two weeks of intensive learning. Learn more and help fund the summer school project.

September 27, 2006 View FOM Membership Survey Summary and open-ended responses.

We received 112 responses to the FOM survey. Over half submitted their responses online (60 online versus 52 via paper).

Pertaining to the "vision" of FOM, most people who completed the survey believe that FOM should be (1) a generalist philanthropic organization, contributing to small-scale projects and (2) an alumni organization. Further confirmation of this purpose comes with a strong majority of those surveyed naming the "small grants" project as the number one priority. When we asked if FOM were to focus on one major initiative, the responses were fairly evenly distributed across the categories of HIV/AIDS, education, environment, community health, and micro-enterprise lending. Of the HIV/AIDS activities that FOM members saw as a priority for FOM, Education/Behavior Change and Orphan Care came out on top. Access to clean water, teacher training, and permaculture (i.e. sustainable, nutritious gardening) were high priorities.

Generally, the majority of respondents believed that most of FOM's budget should be devoted to Grants and Other Development activities (56% of the budget). As for where those FOM dollars should go, Text

Books for primary schools and Bore Holes (drinking wells) appeared to be deemed the most worthwhile use, with Bore Holes rated more "sustainable." It should be noted that we provided only four activities here for respondents to consider.

Other activities were taken into account in the survey, as well. Talking to school groups/scout troupes topped the list from respondents regarding outreach activities. And would FOM members participate in social activities? Respondents were interested in Community Service, followed closely behind Potlucks or Dinner groups. Most respondents said they would not be interested in scrapbooking groups or attending sporting events. Just over half of respondents said they would be interested in contributing their time to FOM, mainly making phone calls, being part of a speakers' bureau or helping to coordinate meetings/social activities in their region. Very few would help someone learn a local language. If FOM created interest-based list serves, over half the respondents would be interested in an Education listserve. For the newsletter, most respondents are interested in Grant Activity updates and PC Malawi news, but not members' artwork or a "trading post."

Regarding meetings, most respondents would attend an FOM meeting if it was in their area, but not outside their area, choosing once a year appropriate for general membership meetings. And although most wouldn't go to an FOM meeting if it was held in conjunction with the NPCA conference that was out of their area, a strong majority of respondents said FOM should remain affiliated with the NPCA.

Sixty-three percent of the respondents said email was the most reliable form of communication, followed by 32 percent for mail. Ninety percent of respondents would like a membership directory and 78 percent would like it online with password protection.

Story Workshop Project

Update: Over $15,000 raised. Thank you!

Janie Hayes and Jimmy Bisese of Austin, Texas approached FOM in the Fall of 2005 to explore a fundraising effort for the Story Workshop Educational Trust in Blantyre, Malawi. The Story Workshop focus is on producing entertainment based educational material for rural Malawians. Their soap operas "Zimachitika" and "Tilitonse" are breaking ground by encouraging people to talk about taboo issues such as HIV/AIDS, gender equity, literacy, conservation of natural resources, food security, human rights, democracy and economic development. Big changes always begin with the spread of ideas. Knowledge and critical thought are seeds, which once planted cannot be stopped. FOM is excited to help foster the energy Janie and JImmy are contributing to the Story Workshop. FOM is overseeing a fundraising effort to purchase computer technology for the Story Workshop.

To learn more about Janie and Jimmy, go to www.jimmyandjanie.com.

to learn more about the Story Workshop, go to www.storyworkshop.org.

FOM has set up a list serve to facilitate faster and less expensive communication. No email addresses will be shared or visible, and only the FOM board is able to send email to the list serve. You may unsubscribe from the list at any time by clicking on the link at the bottom of each message. When successful you will receive a message from www.BizLand.com, which hosts our web site and email.

We do not intend to send messages more than once a month. They will include periodic updates about FOM activities, such as the posting of newsletters on the FOM web site, openings on the Board of Directors, requests for committee members, etc. We also anticipate this will be useful when major events occur, such as the food shortage, to quickly distribute information.

You may have heard about food shortages in Malawi and other southern African nations. A number of excellent articles have appeared in major news publications, such as the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. Friends Of Malawi is tracking the events and will try to post updates when they become available.

FOM has decided to donate $1,000 from reserves to the World Food Program (WFP). 100% of donations we receive for food aid will be given to WFP. We encourage you consider donating directly to the WFP, http://www.wfp.org/appeals/. (Select "Malawi" from the drop-down menu in step 2.) U.S. citizens' donations are tax-free through the Friends Of the WFP. If you would like to donate through FOM, checks may be sent to Lance Cole. Please specify that the money is to be used for food aid.

If you would like to know more about the current situation in Malawi, the web site www.AllAfrica.com is an excellent resource. The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the UN World Food Program (www.WFP.org) are tracking the situation and raising money, as are other organizations. Please remember that during times of "crisis" there is a risk of corruption as organizations raise large amounts of money. The WFP produced an in depth report in June 2005 on the Malawi food situation. link to PDF

FOM met with the Malawian Ambasador, H. E. Mr. B. H. Sande, and attended the International Monetary Fund (IMF) African Society and the IMF Civic & Community Relations fundraiser on Nov 18th. The Malawi Government established the Feed The Nation Fund to encourage Malawians and concerned individuals to donate to the relief effort. More information can be obtained from the Malawian Embassy malawidc@aol.com.