Development Instructors Facilitate Change
Development Instructors (DI) program being championed by DAPP Malawi has brought numerous changes to disadvantaged and less privileged children who stay in the rural villages. Recommendations have been received from local traditional leaders and government officials that participation of DIs should be encouraged and upgraded to reach many communities.
Development Instructors are international volunteers who work to uplift the living standards of people in the rural areas in sectors of agriculture, health, education, and community development.
DIs that have been working in DAPP Projects from January to June 2017 have reached out to rural communities through establishment of vegetable gardens, establishment of pre-schools and accessibility of quality education for pupils in rural primary schools. They were also in the fore-front in ensuring that the communities they work in are food secure by teaching them how to plant crops that are adaptable to climate change.
In particular, DIs have been working to establish preschools in the communities, spearhead hygiene and sanitation in DAPP Teacher Training Colleges (TTCs) as well as Early Childhood Development centres. They also worked in communities around DAPP TTCs of Chilangoma, Amalika, Dowa and Mzimba where they facilitated fundraising of materials for the construction of preschools.
Two preschools have been constructed in Amalika, three in Dowa, three in Mzimba while in Chilangoma the DIs were overseeing 15 preschool around the TTC. Additionally, during the same period, the Development Instructors engaged in renovating preschools that had been damaged due to heavy rains and wind.
Apart from these, the volunteers started youth clubs where youth are being taught different skills like knitting and sporting activities and communities are now adopting climate adaptive practices by constructing firewood saving stoves, planting trees and practicing conservation farming.
In this period (January to June 2017) there were 12 Development Instructors in the four DAPP TTCs from Italy, Estonia, Spain, Romania, Lithuania, Portugal, Costa Rica and Colombia.
