2008 - Malawi - Estere Mapepe

Here are some photos from Malawi - unfortunately the accompanying letter got lost.

This is - Estere Mapepe

Here is Estere with her Grandmother, her aunt, and a recently purchased goat. Action Aid often buys livestock for distribution locally in country. The recipients tend the livestock, sell the produce and can sometimes even breed the animals to increase their numbers.

The Hunger Site is a great no-cost way to help the less fortunate.Please use this link, bookmark the site, and click every day!

While you're at The Hunger Site, you will find other causes that you can help at minimal cost. These I've featured are my favourites.

Given the focus on Global Warming, who would miss out on a chance to help preserve the Amazon Rainforest?

2008 - Ethiopia - Nigussie Betata

August 2007
Dear friends
My name is Nigussie Betata. I am 21 years old and live in Obi Koji village, in southern Ethiopia. My friends at ActionAid asked me write to you about a really important project I am involved with, thanks to your support of The Next Step.

In this part of Ethiopia, traditional practices are very important to us and lots of people respect them and follow them. Some of the traditional practices are very worrying for young women, like the fear of abduction - and the forcing of early marriages. Many people in my community didn't like the way that women and girls were forced to do these things, but we didn't know how we could change the practices and get our neighbours to stop.

ActionAid and their partner Woliso Youth Development Association (WYDA) came into our community in 2006. They called a meeting and told us about human rights and particularly about people's right to safety and to have control over their own body. They showed us that some of the traditional practices that were going on in my community were violating people's rights, especially those of women.

ActionAid encouraged us to identify together as a community if we wanted to carry on with traditional practices or not. They explained that it was important for us to decide ourselves to ensure that we stuck with the decision. At the end of the meeting they asked for volunteers to join a group which would work on changing people's attitudes to harmful traditional practices and help protect the rights of women and girls. I was happy because I could finally see a way of ending the practices in my community that I disliked and I readily volunteered.

ActionAid brought us together in a group, and we began to meet every two weeks. There were similar groups in 12 other communities near here. Fifty or sixty of us would get together each time - men and women and youngsters - with a local member of the community who has been trained by ActionAid in how to lead the group. At the meetings we discuss about all kinds of issues relating to the rights of women and girls. At the end of each session we all pledge to help stop harmful practices in our community.

But when my pledge was tested, I was forced to make a very difficult decision. I came to know that a member of my community was planning to abduct a young girl in our neighbourhood and force her into an early marriage with him.

I couldn't sleep the night I found out what he was planning. But I knew that I would be responsible for that girl's abduction if I didn't speak out and stop it from happening. Early in the morning, I went to see the WYDA coordinator and told him everything. We discussed all the possibilities to stop the abduction taking place, but knew we had to make him understand the implications of what he was planning so that this didn't happen again.

We went and confronted the man and talked to him about what he was planning to do and why it was wrong. We also told him that what he was planning was illegal. This shocked him; because people around here had always done what he was planning he thought that it was ok. We convinced him to come to our group meeting so that he could learn more about how, some of our traditional practices can hurt people.

Thankfully he came along to our next meeting. Over time he came to understand about girl's rights and how we as a community need to respect them. I was so proud when he decided to take the pledge with us at the end of our meeting. It really showed me how we can change people's attitudes to harmful traditional practices for good.

It will take a long time to change attitudes but we're hopeful that we can achieve our aim. Your support of The Next Step is truly helping to make a difference. I am so proud to be part of this work, and will continue to do so for as long as I can.

Thank you so much

Nigussie Betata

2008 - Malawi - Esnart William

October 2007
Dear Friend
Hello! I am Esnart William. I live in Chinsapo slum settlement, about two kilometres from Lilongwe, the capital city of Malawi. I have been asked by Ngabaghila Chatata from ActionAid to tell you how your support of The Next Step has given my family hope for a secure future.

First, let me tell you a bit about my family and how we came to live in Chinsapo. I am married to Joseph William and we have four • sons and five daughters aged between four and twenty-seven.

Joseph and I originally lived in Makanjira-Mangochi, a village in the south of Malawi. We were small-scale farmers growing cassava and maize. But we could barely grow enough to feed ourselves, let alone any surplus to sell to buy groceries and clothes. Life was hard and getting harder. In 1981 we decided to move to Lilongwe as we had heard there were better opportunities to earn a living there.

We bought some land in Chinsapo from a traditional chief, built a small house and settled there. My husband trained in tailoring and now earns a living mending torn and worn out clothes for 189 kwachas [£0.66] a day. We thought we were on our way to a better life, but this was not to be.

Everyday, families arrive from the countryside to find a better life in the city. There are 120 households crammed into the small area where we live. We share an open-pit latrine with five other households, even passers-by, exposing my family to diseases.

There is one water point for 120 families that is only open between 6am and 9am. A bucket of water costs 43 kwachas [£0.15] and I can only afford to buy enough water to drink. For cooking and washing, I walk three kilometres to collect water from the Lilongwe River.

Because so many people try to collect fresh water from the water point every morning, there are often fights and confrontations. One day, two women started fighting each other. They broke one of the water taps and hurt one of my children.

The water department called a meeting to settle the water disputes. This is when I learned that we did not legally own our land. The official from the water department told us that the government had introduced a new land policy. They had plans to redevelop the area around Chinsapo and had taken over ownership of the land from the chief we had bought the land from. We had not been given a title deed from the chief and we did not know we needed one. Without it, I had no legal claim to the land my home sits on and faced eviction by the government.

I was very fearful when I heard this news. Although our living conditions are far from ideal - overcrowding, poor sanitation, dilapidated housing that leaks when it rains - it has been our home for 26 years and we had nowhere else to go.

The threat of eviction brought our community together. We decided to fight this forced eviction, but we did not know how. This was when I first came into contact with ActionAid. With their support, we met with staff from the local government, who explained their plans to upgrade Chinsapo from a slum to a legal settlement and improve the services, such as water, sanitation and electricity. This would involve pulling down our houses to build more permanent structures - They told us if we re-built the houses ourselves and paid a fee of 9,750 kwachas [£34] , we would receive our title deeds and avoid eviction. We are poor and struggle to survive on daily wages. How could we afford this expense?

ActionAid, in partnership with the Centre for Community Organisation and Development (CCODE) and the Malawi Homeless People's Federation (MHPF) came to our rescue. They offered us low interest loans to rebuild our houses. I never thought I would ever be able to access credit to make improvements to our living conditions. But with ActionAid's help, I could afford a loan of 9,750 kwachas [£34]. The construction will start in January and once completed I will receive my title deeds.

I am excited and relieved that my family no longer faces eviction. We can look forward to a secure future in a legal settlement, with proper services provided by the government. This is all thanks to your support of ActionAid and The Next Step. Bless you for your kindness -

Yours sincerely

PS: I have sent you some photographs to show where we live