The Story of Fosa Community
Within the Fosa community in the Maonde area, life is challenging. In order to survive, many people farm, but without sufficient fertiliser and seeds, producing a good harvest is a struggle. Additionally, the community’s rural nature makes accessing formal employment difficult, leaving people to rely on finding piecework in the community.
100 Children currently supported
14 Care Workers Coordinated by BEsta
Basic Services Started in 2022
In 2008, Jonathan, a local pastor, saw the need to support his community and invited people to join him in answering God’s call to care for the most vulnerable.
In 2011, Jonathan met Hands at Work in Africa and together, they encouraged and challenged seven local churches to play an active role in supporting their community. Through their mobilisation of the local church, the Chisomo Community Based Organisation (CBO) was born in 2013. Hands at Work provided training for the Chisomo volunteers and assisted them in building up the CBO.
For many years within Maonde, two Life Centres were operating under the umbrella of the Chisomo CBO. The purpose of having multiple Life Centres was to limit the distance the children travel between their homes and the Life Centre. Fosa was one of these Life Centres.
In April 2022, the local Hands at Work team in Dedza, after seeing the ever-growing need in the Fosa community, decided to make Fosa its own independent Life Centre and CBO – with its own leadership and team of Care Workers. This change gives the Fosa CBO an even greater capacity to serve the most vulnerable children.
A ‘Foundations’ training was run in Fosa, where the Dedza team shared with the Care Workers the foundation of Hands at Work and the importance of Holy Home Visits and Relationship Groups.
Meet Harold
Today, 12-year-old Harold* lives in Fosa, but this community has not always been his home. Five years ago, his parents divorced and two of his three siblings were taken to live with other relatives, whilst Harold was brought to live in Fosa with his mother, Ellen*, and youngest brother. Longing to provide for her children, Ellen tries to find odd jobs in the community but is rarely successful in earning enough to adequately provide for them. Thankfully, there are a group of men and women in Fosa who are committed to holistically caring for children just like Harold. Although he has only been coming to the Life Centre since March 2023, Care Worker Bester has developed a positive relationship with Harold and shares that he is a well-behaved boy. Pray for Harold, that he will see the Life Centre as a second home and the Care Workers and other children as another family.
The local Hands at Work team in Lobi currently supports five Community Based Organisations, which exist to care for the most vulnerable in their communities. The office provides training, networking, and encouragement to those Community Based Organisations like Tima. It also gives administrative support, including helping with funding proposals, monitoring and evaluation, bookkeeping and reporting to donors.
MORE FROM MALAWI
