Church of God in Ntcheu - Part 3

Revised List of Needs

The list of needs was reduced to nine categories which summarised the other main ones and omitted ones we felt were entirely outside our remit such as electricity.

These needs are grouped under 4 headings – Health, Agriculture and Nutrition, Water and Education.

· Difficult to get to clinic
· Lot of malaria in area
· Not enough food
· No variety of food (for good nutrition)
· Water too far away
· Water not available all year round
· School too far away
· Lack of resources at school
· Adults cannot read and write

These were presented to the assembly and they felt this summarised their main needs.

Each need was then given a score from 0 -3 for how serious it was, how widespread a problem and how suitable for joint action. This was done pictorially using 0-3 skulls and crossbones for seriousness, 0-3 sad faces for widespread and 0-3 ticks for how suitable for joint action. The suitability for joint action was determined based on what ideas they had of things that could be done and by discussing some of the possible solutions the research had shown to have been effective elsewhere. The church was able to give feedback on whether they thought these would work in their local area.

Water
This was not perceived as an urgent priority for them as they mostly had access to water during the year, even if they had to walk further for it. It was, moreover, only a problem for some. They have already tried to deepen the existing well and hit rock. The same problem occurred when they attempted to dig other wells. Given the distance that would have to be drilled to reach a reliable supply, they felt able to do little about this situation. Stored rainwater would not last long and they had nowhere to keep it. One person suggested an oxcart for transportation of water from source to point of use in groups, but others pointed out that those with large families would still need to go more often and that the ox would have to be kept in food and drink. Other things were felt to be more urgent.

Health
Although malaria was the most common disease and had a significant effect each year upon the number of men available for work, it was felt that it was seasonal, treatable and not generally fatal. By comparison, the distance to the health clinic affected everybody at some point and was felt to be more serious as there were quite often cases when people died on the way. They themselves suggested that the community could be organised to improve environmental prevention by draining stagnant water, etc. and that this would make some impact on the problem of malaria. They also suggested the distribution of bed nets. If doctors and drugs were available, they were prepared to construct a clinic building. A vehicle ambulance was mentioned. They had not heard of bicycle ambulances. When this concept was explained to them, they felt that this would reduce the journey time from that taken by walking with stretchers, but that it would still take a long time. They would be prepared to undertake road improvements on the difficult stretch belonging to the village.

Education
Although the local primary school only extended to Standard six and some children had to walk two hours to attend Standards seven and eight, they seemed to feel that at least the children had access to some education. There did not seem much that could be done about it. Again, they were prepared to construct the buildings for a full primary school but recognised this was a long and complicated project. The problem that affected every family, however near to the school they lived, was that there was not access to the basic materials required by each child to learn at school once they got there. These include exercise books and textbooks, stationery, etc. School uniforms and shoes and clothing were also needed by most. They said that this affects everybody because what affects children affects the whole family. Children came home late, tired and hungry as there was not food available at school. However, they suggested that if food production in the village were to be improved, then children would be sent to school with food and this particular problem would be solved. It was recognised that lack of literacy amongst adults was an equally serious problem because of restricted access to the Bible, community information and potential misunderstandings . It was felt that there were realistic things that could be done about it in terms of those who could already read being trained to teach others and the project could assist with the purchase of teaching materials. Discussion tended to focus on the education of children as this affected every family and not just those women who could not read. Nevertheless, these women, however, attached importance to it. It was commented that people would be too busy with farming during the peak agricultural seasons, but that a class running from March to September would be best.

Agriculture
The problem that was felt to be the most serious was that insufficient food was grown in the area. This not only made them hungry, but had serious health implications. Solving this problem would also help children with their educational difficulties in that they would have strength for their journey to school and would not be too hungry to learn when they got there. They felt that this was also the problem that affected the greatest number of people since they had all been affected by it regularly. Finally, it emerged as the problem with the greatest potential for effective joint action. They were farmers, clearly prepared to work hard. Given the right resources and increased knowledge of more efficient practice, yields could increase as they had land to cultivate. There was enthusiasm for training . It was also recognised that the little teaching four of the farmers had already undertaken had increased their yield. All saw the value in this. Whilst they did not attach as much importance as we did to increasing the variety of the foodstuffs grown in the area from a nutritional point of view, they were clear that it was an extremely widespread problem and that the proposed agricultural training and financial support could improve the situation dramatically.

Priority
The ranking exercise formed the basis for deciding the area of need that was the priority to be addressed in the first project in Ntcheu (subject to FRF approval).

From this it was decided that the initial project ideally would tackle the problem of not enough food. This would deal with their biggest need and ideally also tackle one of the other big needs of lack of variety of food. This would be a good project for joint action as everyone is a farmer and has some existing knowledge and skills to build on as well as owning land.