A busy week!

Rachel was dressed smart, but not this smart…read below for details!

This week has been great. All change from the slow start of the last couple of weeks. Both Rach and I have been in and out of external meetings, in the car getting out to people, getting decisions made and getting things done.

I am working on a funding proposal for waste and composting collection in the township, where there is currently no waste collection at all. I had a very encouraging meeting with a very high heid yin representative of the City Assembly who was excited by our proposals and even suggested we could hook up with a bloke making ‘biofuels’…of course I’m fully aware of the controversies of biofuels, so I will have to thoroughly check that it is being sustainable produced, but it’s a good indication of the level of deep support I hope we can expect from this representative of the City Assembly. Incidentally, I got smartened up in the ‘office’ clothes I bought at the market the other day. This is the first time I’ve been in smarts since March, and it felt a bit odd – but perhaps that was down to the cheap Chinese made shoes (already falling apart) and new cheap trousers. However, I’m reliably informed that I looked smart, so that’s all good.

Since then I have also had really exciting meetings with a local Environmental Youth group and the Executive Director of AYISE, who has been in the office an unusual amount this week. We have 2 or 3 new avenues of funding applications to make so we have been brainstorming for ideas for new projects. Additionally, in my spare moments I’ve been crafting a new Environmental Policy for the organisation, writing up a process for the compost operation, reading up on ‘Group formation and dynamics’ to assist me in the creation of an Environmental Youth Group to run the Compost project, and finalising the budget for the Compost project

One of the funding streams we are investigating is for Human Rights – and so the area that springs immediately to mind is the treatment of homosexuals by the judicial system. However , the E.D. , although recognising and agreeing that this is a significant issue of human rights abuse in Malawi, was cautious against this area because it would alienate us from all areas of Malawian support and political leverage (which we regularly rely upon for lobbying meetings on other topics) and the level of funding was not sufficient. He suggested the analogy of a battle, and stated we would not have enough resources to be able to safely complete the battle – we would therefore be sacrificing the organisation on the battlefield. It’s a tough moral call, but there you go – it’s his organisation, I can only give him my opinion.

Rachel has been out hand delivering begging letters for materials (such as building supplies and paints) for the volunteer projects she is organising. She had to hand deliver them as post takes around 2 weeks to get just 15 minutes down the road here! She also had a meeting today (for which she also got dressed up smart – maybe I should have got photos of these outfits…) with the National Youth Council of Malawi where she presented ideas to them on strategic development, and was applauded afterwards! Tonight she hopes to head off to Lilongwe to meet the National Secretary for UNESCO among other esteemed individuals. On top of all of this she is juggling various logistical arrangements for the (very fast approaching) work camps she is organising, along with fielding a host of questions and queries from interested parties – with some explanations being frustratingly lost in translation, and having to be repeated and repeated…

Anyway, this is just a quick note (while I wait to be summoned for another meeting) to say that this week has been really satisfyingly productive and we hope for many more like this!