More notes from Teddy Phiri, describing the field day for youth who are learning how to become market gardeners.
55 men and women attended the show. They were 2 senior traditional chiefs, 3 senior chiefs, 1 teacher from nearby primary school, 1 veterinary field officer and 1 agriculture field officer (trainer). They had come from several villages surrounding Lusangazi demonstration garden.
The field day was organized to show the parents and the general public what the youth in the area had learned through training and the Demonstration.
Lottie Chirwa, leader of the youth group in Lusangazi area, gave brief history of the group. 10 boys and 2 girls were selected. The Agriculture Field Officer trained the group for 14 days in modern methods of farming, farm management and leadership skills. A demonstration field was chosen to demonstrate what they had learned. They planted a number of vegetables such as cabbage, carrots, tomatoes etc. A quarter of an acre of corn was also planted using the easiest and cheapest method.
Manyando, Gloria and Esther
Here stories of some of the orphans who are being cared for at Makeni. African Aids Angels are providing support to build a new dormitory and also some of the funds for day to day operation.
The St. Nicholas Village for Orphans gives the children a sense of security and continuity, whoever comes and goes, they have a roof over their heads, food and guaranteed education.
Manyando, eight years old, came to the St. Nicholas Village for Orphans four years ago. She has a loving grandmother, who works at the market place just opposite the Makeni Centre but she has many orphaned grandchildren, and even working all day at the market, she cannot make ends meet, or pay for schooling for Manyando, who is the youngest of her grandchildren. Manyando lost both her parents to AIDS four years ago.
Gloria and Esther , nine years and 13 years, are bright intelligent sisters. They come from a household that had been stable and happy, but which had been totally shattered when first their father and then their mother died of AIDS. They went to stay with an aunt, who was a nurse at the Makeni Centre Clinic. That is how the Orphan Home heard about them. The aunt had lost her husband, and when she discovered that she too was dying, started distributing the children in her care. Her own children would go to relatives. She begged the St. Nicholas Orphan Home to take Esther and Gloria. At that stage the Orphanage was fresh off the drawing board. Esther became the very first child of the St. Nicholas Village for Orphans. Gloria came later. Esther always comes top of her class academically. Her mother, like her aunt was a nurse, and both Esther and Gloria want to be nurses too.