The Story of Chilindaukwe Community
For people living in the community of Chilindaukwe, life holds many challenges. Many of the men in the community have gone to South Africa in search of employment. Some don’t return to their families, and those who do have little to show for their efforts. With the hope of earning even a small profit so they can feed their families, people rely on finding odd jobs in the community. With little income for food, obtaining the money required for school fees is an almost impossible task, leaving children to either stay at home or roam freely in the community. Compounding these already immense challenges are the lack of a local clinic and the strong presence of alcohol in the community.
75 CHILDREN CURRENTLY SUPPORTED
10 CARE WORKERS COORDINATED BY Lumeyo
BASIC SERVICES STARTED IN 2023
26 KM FROM THE DEDZA LOCAL OFFICE
In early 2022, Royie Nazombe (African Leader, Malawi) visited Chilindaukwe on behalf of his own church in Mngwere. Though it was a personal visit, Royie saw a number of children simply roaming the community with nothing to do, which was a clear display of their vulnerability. After visiting a few times with the local Hands at Work team in Dedza, they knew that it was the right place to start serving in. When going into any new community, Hands at Work leaders meet with the local community leaders and seek out those people who have already been caring for the vulnerable. We call them the Man of Peace and the Mother Theresa. With the blessing of the community leaders to start serving, local church leaders were invited for a church mobilisation session, where again the mission and vision of Hands at Work was shared.
Out of this church mobilisation, church leaders identified men and women from their respective churches who could become the Care Workers. At this point, the Dedza team started to visit these Care Workers in their homes. In May 2023, the Dedza team facilitated a Foundations Trainings for the community and church leaders and the Care Workers, sharing the heart of Hands at Work and what it means to serve the most vulnerable. After identifying 50 of the most vulnerable children, the Chilindaukwe CBO began officially serving the children in June 2023. Since then the number of children being cared for has increased from 50 to 75 children.
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 Chilindaukwe. It also gives administrative support, including helping with funding proposals, monitoring and evaluation, bookkeeping and reporting to donors.
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