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Young people spearhead effort to build new hut for elderly neighbor
Youth Teach Village a Lesson in Charity
Photo: MTTA
Members of Kavuula Mphamvu Kwa Achinyamata (Power to the Youth) club built Bingalala Botha’s new home.
Kennedy Nyirenda, the primary education advisor for Kavuula zone, said, “It is amazing that the community has been united in supporting this club. This would not have been possible before. The youths have turned this community around.”
Bingalala Botha lives about three kilometers (about 1.8 miles) east of Kavuula Teacher Development Center in Saimon Kumwenda Village. In recent years, his entire family has passed away, leaving him lonely and vulnerable. Due to old age, infirmity, poverty and lack of support, he lived in a dilapidated hut without a proper door, using poles and straw to shut off the entrance to the hut, and struggled to find food, clothes and bedding.
The USAID-supported Kavuula Mphamvu Kwa Achinyamata (Power to the Youth) club in Mzimba South equips youth with leadership skills using training and mentoring activities organized by the Malawi Teachers Training Activity (MTTA). The club identified Bingalala as someone to support by building him a new home with the resources they had available.
Using the knowledge and skills obtained in the club’s Constitution and Activities Handbook, club members constructed a better hut for Bingalala with one bedroom and a proper door.
The team of youth started building the hut with parents from the community assisting club members with construction skills and materials. Two weeks later, they had finished constructing the hut. In addition, the club gave Bingalala a pail of flour, vegetables and four tablets of soap.
Bingalala is now a very happy man. His living standards have improved significantly and the local leaders also appreciate the efforts made by the club to assist him.
The primary education advisor for Kavuula zone, Kennedy Nyirenda, said, “It is amazing that the community has been united in supporting this club. This would not have been possible before. The youths have turned this community around. We never imagined that Bingalala Botha could have his living standards improved! We took it as a given fact that Botha’s hut was that kraal [an animal enclosure] of a hut, but these youths have taught us a powerful lesson in charity.”
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