SKIP Glasgow - Malawi

SKIP Glasgow work with children at the Chikondi and Mphatso Orphan Care Centre in Lilongwe, Malawi. Through simple health and educational interventions we aim to improve the standard of living for children in this community and help children reach their full potential in life.

History

In July 2006 a group of healthcare students from SKIP Glasgow embarked on a 3 week research trip to investigate the need for a SKIP project within different communities in Malawi. The group chose to establish a project in Area 25, Lilongwe, Malawi with a local NGO that runs Chikondi and Mphatso Orphan Care Centre. SKIP Glasgow volunteers assist the staff at the centre every year.

The Chikondi and Mphatso centre is a non-residential community centre supporting orphans and vulnerable children who cannot be cared for by families in the surrounding area. It also acts as the focal point and organiser for several community groups.

The pilot project in 2007 had 50 volunteers over a nine week project. In 2008 we expanded to run for 17 weeks from May to September with 43 volunteers. For 2009 we ran a 13 week project with 42 volunteers, and in 2010 we sent 32 volunteers for another 13 week project. In 2011 we sent out 36 volunteers as well as carrying out a needs assessment to identify any other potential projects SKIP Glasgow could become part of in the future

This year SKIP Glasgow is aiming to wind down operations at Chikondi and Mphatso, with the focus being on making each and every one of our interventions as sustainable as possible. This year’s wave of volunteers will probably be the last to visit the orphanage as we are now trying to concentrate setting up an entirely new project.

What does our project do?

The main aims of SKIP Glasgow are:

• To improve the health, welfare and education of some of the world’s most deprived children
• To provide these children with the love, care and attention they deserve
• To give healthcare students the opportunity to volunteer overseas, aiding in their personal and professional development.

We achieve this through health promotion; topics include HIV/AIDS and Malaria, which have been highlighted by the Malawian Government as priority health concerns. We have also established, and continue to develop, specfic health interventions such as a hand washing programme and supervised tooth brushing. Our long term aim is to make these interventions sustainable in the Chikondi and Mphatso Orphan Care Centre without our help.

We also run a peer partnership scheme with the Kamuzu College of Nursing (KCN), and we hope this will enable us to extend our work out into the community.

We work closely with many organisations both in Scotland and Malawi, including the Scottish Malawi Partnership (SMP), the Network of International Development Organisations in Scotland (NIDOS), and Concern Worldwide.

This project offers many opportunities for students, including the chance to visit a new country and have a valuable contribution to the community we work in. We aim to meet local health needs and challenges, as well as ensuring our activities are in-line with Malawi’s long term development goals and our capabilities as a small student run organisation.

Our Main interventions include:

• Play and classroom assistance to pre-school children
• Hand washing programme and provision of hand washing facilities
• Health education and promotion in youth groups and women’s groups
• Child registration and health surveillance at the Orphan Centre, including height, weight and visual acuity assessment.
• Supervised tooth brushing scheme and provision of dental checks in conjunction with the district dental officer and local dental therapist.
• Peer partnership scheme, running joint health promotion sessions with students from KCN.
• Participation in recreational activities – play, games and sport with the children
• “Health Days” – educating the entire local community about important health issues and basic hygiene.
• Setting up a Social intervention – whereby the centre is able to generate it’s own income in order to provide supplies for itself.
• Working in conjunction with our NGO to train staff to carry out these interventions when SKIP is not in the country

What are our goals?

Our goals for the future include:

• Promotion of SKIP and making it better known in the University of Glasgow and local community.
• Improving the health of the community we work within
• Making our interventions sustainable in the long-term without our involvement
• Creating confident healthcare professionals of the future with an interest in international development work

How do we raise money?

We have had a number of different fundraising events throughout the last few years, including:

• Street collections
• Bag Packing in our local supermarkets
• Sponsored pyjamathon, ending in a pyjama party
• Comedy Nights at local comedy clubs
• Club nights in conjunction with Medsin
• Bake sales
• Carol singing
• Annual dinner parties, held by a popular University teacher

We received funding from the Scottish Government’s International Development Fund in 2007, and in 2008, 2009 and 2010 we received £5000 from the University of Glasgow Chancellor’s Fund.

The future

Our project has been running for a number of years and we feel we are reaching a natural end. Our plans are to withdraw from Chikondi and Mphatso Orphan Care Centre in 2012, with a new project starting up in 2013. We plan to leave all our interventions with a means of being sustainable so that our input into the centre continues to benefit the children who attend. We conducting a feasibility study in the summer of 2011, which looked at a number of centres that we could consider supporting after we leave Chikondi and Mphatso. This will be built upon in 2012, before we decide on the site of our new project.

Volunteering with us could give you a chance to have your say on where SKIP should be in the next five years

Contact us

For more information about SKIP Glasgow or our project please contact us at skipglasgow@googlemail.com.

SKIP is a registered charity in Scotland; No. SC040556