Our Water and Sanitation program continues to make a significant difference in the lives of students in rural Malawi. Read our latest blog to learn about how we support hygiene initiatives in primary schools in Dowa, Malawi.
The Orant Journal
2020 was a tough year for everyone. As the year wraps up, we reflect on Orant’s successes and challenges.
When people get sick, the most common advice is, “drink lots of water.” The second most common advice, especially during a pandemic, is “wash your hands.” But what about those who don’t have access to clean water? What do they do, especially now?
Orant strives to make clean water and sanitation services available for everyone in the Dowa District of Central Malawi.
In addition to drilling 14 new wells in 2020 and delivering water to over 5,395 people, Orant:
- Repaired 89 boreholes
- Built 1 girls’ latrine at a primary school
- Trained 14 community Water Point Committees in community based management of water points
To combat the coronavirus pandemic, Orant’s Water Program:
- installed handwashing stations in public centers
- delivered information to village chiefs, schools, and churches
- supplied 50 chiefs with buckets, cleaning chemicals, and sanitation instructions
School started late in Malawi this year due to Covid-19. To protect students and teachers, Orant supplied schools with face masks. Our corporate and individual donors gifted 97 students in Malawi tuition and school supplies. 93 sponsored students are girls.
One of our Education Program’s greatest challenges is keeping girl students in school. Household responsibilities and family expectations pull them away from the classroom. Many young girls hope that marriage or childbearing will lift them out of poverty. 4 of our sponsored students this year dropped out due to pregnancy. To avoid scenarios like this as much as possible, we regularly visit our students on site. We stay in touch with them after graduation.
Orant runs a static health clinic on campus in Kasese and a Mobile Outreach Clinic that travels daily to see patients in hard-to-reach rural areas. Due to Covid-19, we suspended operations of our Mobile Outreach Clinic from April to August. We have since resumed modified operations. Our clinicians distribute face masks to patients, spread information about Covid-19, and encourage social distancing practices.
The 2020 malaria season was bad this year. Luckily, it was mostly over by the time Covid-19 arrived. Around 70% of the 28,000 patients treated between January and April were for malaria. In total this year, Orant treated 53,533 patients. The breakdown per month was as follows:
Orant’s operations area is rural and agrarian. Most families maintain subsistence farms. Our Ag Programs aim to transform farming for survival into farming for business. We sponsor and manage 14 irrigation clubs and run one demonstration farm plot. Our FEM for Women Program provides local women entrepreneurs with microloans.
This year, we provided $30,000 in microloans to local farmers and entrepreneurs. We helped dozens of local farmers establish mobile bank accounts. All loans from BOMFA and our FEM for Women Program were paid back in full.
2020 was challenging, but Malawians are resilient. We are grateful for the generosity of our donors. We are grateful for the hard work, passion, and tenacity of our staff. Whatever happens in 2021, we will be ready to make positive changes. Together.
Share on:
The Orant Journal
It is always heartbreaking whenever a mother sees her child sick. For Consolatta Kazinga, the situation was worse as she watched her two children on hospital beds, suffering from sickle cell anemia and waiting to receive blood.
Many women in rural Malawi find themselves stuck in the poverty cycle due to lack of business capital. Our FEM Program works with such women, helping them transform their lives as they become independent. Learn more in our latest blog as Sophelet’s shares her story.
Students in our Education Program build relationships with the donors who sponsor them and allow them to attend secondary school in Malawi.
This week, we had an interview with Linda Phiri, our program manager for the Maternal, Neonatal, Child and Adolescent Health Services.
Apply today for the job opening Pharmacy Technician at the Kasese Health Center with Orant Charities Africa in Dowa, Malawi!
At the end of 2022 we introduced our third group of our Financial Empowering Microloan (FEM) for Women group called Takondwa. Read our latest blog, as Magret Moffat, one of the group's beneficiaries, tells a story of how the program has already transformed her life through loans and business skills training.
Apply today for the Education Support Assistant Internship with Orant Charities Africa in Dowa, Malawi!
The Orant Ulemu Scholarship helps students achieve their dreams of education at university. Steven Chiundira is one of two recipients in 2023.
Orant's Mobile Outreach Clinic diagnosed Tadala with severe malnutrition. Malnutrition in Malawi is at its worst January to March.