Because of the children....

Hello everyone from a bright but cool Mzuzu,

Its been quite a week all in all.  I had a lot of paperwork to catch up on but of course some of it is still waiting as other things took over during the week.

Last Sunday some of the ladies were inducted as new Umanyano members (PW to those of you in PCI).  Here is Luso, the personal secretary of the General Secretary looking well in her new uniform.  

Every few years a group of school children and their teachers come from Blairgowrie in Scotland to assist with maintenance in one of our local schools.  Linda was one of the teachers who I met in two previous trips, so it was a joy to meet with her again.  On Wednesday morning I took Linda (who is now retired) and the other teacher in the group to visit some of our centres in Mzuzu.  They were very enthusiastic - here is Linda giving out the porridge in one of our centres.

And Annette greeting some of the children!

It is always good to visit centres unannounced and I was delighted to find the children and caregivers busy playing, here with blocks........

and here with dried maize stalks.......

Yesterday, I went with three of our ECD trainers to the Day of the African Child celebrations which was held at Ekwendeni primary school grounds.  It was supposed to begin at 11 o'clock - on the programme on arrival it said 12 o'clock but in fact it was 1.45 before the guest of honour, the Vice President arrived!  We left at 4pm and it was still going strong!

The theme of this years event was 'The rights of children with disabilities; the duty to protect, respect, promote and fulfil.'

In  Malawi in previous years as the poster below suggests, children with disabilities were hidden away or locked up.  Today, we see more attempts at inclusion in society and many schools have children with disabilities in main stream education.  We also have some schools for children with particular disabilities such as schools for the hearing impaired and the sight impaired children.

While we waited for the guest of honour to arrive, we were entertained  by children with different forms of disability playing drums.....

dancing traditional dances.........

the Ngoni dancers in their traditional animals skins....

and a great show by the old Ngoni dancers in their full regalia, complete with spears and shields........

Choirs from different schools.......

and some great performances from the children at Embangweni school for the deaf - here is a girl telling her  story in sign language, with  her teacher translating for her,

and from the same school playing the national anthem using hand bells  when the Vice President arrived - a wonderful sound.  I am always humbled when I see these  children perform as they cannot hear but are making such beautiful music.

The highlight of the day for me was this lovely girl reading a speech on behalf of all children with disabilities in Malawi.  It was very powerful and read with such conviction outlining the problems that children with disabilities face in this country.  Unfortunately I was sitting behind her so its only a back view.

Just to prove I was there!!! (you can't really miss me among all the African faces)

Because we were graced by the presence of the Vice President the followers of the Peoples' Party of course were there singing and dancing!

and finally, the Vice President addressed the people.  I found the speech quite disappointing as it was more politics than speaking about the theme of the day!  

However, it was a colourful function - I met many friends and we laughed a lot!  By the way notice the old Malawi flag is flying!!


This coming week I have two young ladies coming to spend three weeks with me so lets hope they also have fun!

Wishing you a good week, and please don't forget to post a comment if you have enjoyed the blog!

Blessings

Diane