Team Umoza is formed of six UK volunteers and seven in-country volunteers. We are located in Mzuzu, North Malawi. Progressio Malawi has been working with Ungweru, a local organisation that targets the communities around Mzuzu city. Ungweru has had five cycles of Progressio volunteers. The first two cycles were June-December 2012, the last three were January-September 2014. As the sixth cycle and the last cycle of 2014, team Umoza are fortunate enough to work with a well administered and experienced organisation.
I spoke to two Ungweru members of staff to gage their opinion on ICS Progressio volunteers. Dominic Nyirongo and Sypriano Mwenibabu Ungweru (also known as SAKs). Dominic Nyirongo is the Executive Secretary he joined Ungweru in July 2010. SAKs is the Leading Field Work Progressio Officer, he joined Ungweru in 2013. SAKs works closely with Progressio volunteers, he is their first point of contact, he advises on activity planning and organises transport and liaises with host families on our behalf. Both Dominic and SAKs have been overseeing the Progressio volunteers from the last four cycles this year.
In the local language ‘ungweru’ means light. Ungweru builds the capacity of the communities so they are able to recognise their own development needs and teaches them skills they can use in their everyday life. In doing so Ungweru brings light to these communities. The main areas Ungweru targets are education, climate change, food security, HIV AIDs, child protection and water sanitation. Six weeks into our placement, as team Umoza we have already carried out projects in these areas and are more knowledgeable about how Ungweru tackle them.
I asked Dominic and SAKs which Ungweru projects Progressio volunteers have made the most outstanding contributions towards. Climate change activities, namely “the clay cook stove and briquette making and planting of trees” have been outstanding contributions according to SAKs. However, Dominic outlined two areas in which Progressio volunteers have made outstanding contributions. First volunteers “document and evaluate the progress of Ungweru projects, to do this they gather information from the field to identify the gaps within the community and inform Ungweru”. Secondly volunteers “increase the visibility of Ungweru by writing blogs about what the organisation does, consequently more people know about Ungweru now”.
Then I asked Dominic and SAKs which qualities they think make Progressio volunteers the most useful and productive team members to have working with Ungweru. Dominic attributes “flexibility and adaptability to Progressio volunteers” he goes on to explain how these attributes allow volunteers “to associate closely with the communities; they live like them when they go out into the field and listen to what Ungweru say about the communities. I look at those attributes as very good qualities, it makes going out to the field a success”. On the other hand SAKs values the diversity the UK Progressio volunteers bring to the Ungweru field work team. “Progressio volunteers are a group of people with different cultures, different races, different skills and different knowledge. So they can all contribute in a different way. We look to see how each individual will be suited to different activities.”
The learning aspect of the ICS programme is shared by Ungweru as an organisation, as expressed by Dominic: “the partnership with Progressio has helped Ungweru both at organisational level as well as community level due to the skills Progressio volunteers bring”. Additionally, as team Umoza we have learnt how to plant trees, make clay cook stoves, how to sanitise water, options on natural compost; these are all essential life skills volunteers can leave with. Similarly, writing surveys, conducting surveys, writing proposals, writing reports, evaluating projects are skills volunteers can utilise in future careers.
Written by Naima Aden
