Malawi Adventurez: IGA Training Camp

CENTRAL LAKESHORE INCOME GENERATING ACTIVITY CAMP

Alinon leading a session, he works in forestry

Important words on wall

Me and six friends put on another camp to provide income generating activity(IGA) training for twenty individuals. We held it in my area at a small community facility with a basic conference room, kitchen, and sleeping quarters. We each selected members of our communities that have shown an interest and/or currently manage an income generating activity. Examples are having bee hives, to sell honey; creating and managing a fish pond to sell fish; and performing services like carpentry or barbering. Our funding came from a small camp grant that is available to all volunteers.

Example be hive, honey, and oil samples

Both participants from my village are my students. Yamikani was a student of mine last year and although he passed his national exam, he is struggling to find work. His family has a pineapple farm and so I was hoping he could learn more about marketing his pineapples and get ideas for expanding. Luckily there was a man there who makes fresh fruit juice in close proximity to my village and he had a chance to talk with him about potentially selling him pineapples in bulk.

Yamikani (far right) playing tag..he was bad at it

Fackson, my second participant, is a carpenter and I wanted him to learn more about customer service and give him book keeping skills. We had a fabulous week where things went very smoothly. One highlight was our ability to deliver most material via a computer and a projector. Students may have seen a laptop for the first time and for the entire week, they had handouts that coincided with the power point presentations. I think they were very impressed by our delivery. We even made our own peanut oil to show students how they can make nutritious, affordable oil and take home great profits. Many people grow ground nuts but few press their own oil.

Fackson posing with a name tag

Fackson is shy in a group

My main role was facilities manager, making sure we always had food and all logistical issues were sorted out.

Serving sweet potatoes for snack!

We had two "fun" activities, the first, a trip to Lake Malawi where students had amazing poses and the second, a "disco." A disco is a dance and now I am famous for making them happen. Imagine, I made two phone calls and booked and hired a DJ on the day of the event. He came on time and we attracted at least one hundred people that night with our loud, blasting music. Their faces were pressed against the outside windows as we danced away the night (about three hours).