The Story of Milonde Community
Within Milonde, 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 rural nature of the community makes accessing any formal employment difficult, leaving people to rely on finding odd jobs in the community.
69 Children currently supported
10 Care Workers coordinated by Julianna
Basic Services Started in 2022
Hands at Work began serving in Malawi in 2008 in the rural village of Mngwere, about 15 kilometres from the central town of Dedza. Mngwere is an isolated community and is very impoverished. When local pastor Royie Nazombe encountered the Hands at Work vision to see the local church unite as Christ’s body to care for the most vulnerable children, he grasped it immediately. He left his job to concentrate full-time on mobilising local volunteer Care Workers.
Hands at Work is committed to supporting the most vulnerable children with a daily hot, nutritious meal and access to education and basic health care. When the Tima Community Based Organisation (CBO) in Mngwere first started, they were serving 33 children but over the years this has increased to 200 children. For many years, several Care Points were operating under the umbrella of the Tima CBO. The purpose of having multiple Care Points was to limit the distance that the children have to travel between their homes and the Care Point. Milonde was one of these Care Points.
In May 2022, the local Hands at Work team in Dedza, after seeing the ever-growing need in the Milonde community, decided to make Milonde its own independent Care Point and CBO, with its own leadership and team of Care Workers. A ‘Foundations’ training was delivered in Milonde, 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 Jude
Eleven-year-old Jude* stays with his mother, Asmaa*, and his three siblings in Milonde. Following Jude’s parents’ divorce in 2020, his father stopped supporting them. The family survives through finding piecework, but with Asmaa being on her own and caring for the baby of Jude’s eldest sister, these infrequent jobs do not provide enough food and other essentials that the family requires, such as clothing. In 2021, Care Worker Mary was on a Holy Home Visit to another family when she came across Jude and his siblings. Quickly identifying the vulnerability of this family, she went back to her fellow Care Workers and shared their story. They all agreed that the children should join the CBO where they now receive a hot meal every day, lifting a huge burden from this family. The love and care shown by the Care Workers has been transformational for this family, who are no longer alone in their struggles.
The local Hands at Work team in Dedza currently supports six 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 Mpata. It also gives administrative support, including helping with funding proposals, monitoring and evaluation, bookkeeping and reporting to donors.
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