Malawians Gain Self-Reliance through FHI-supported NGO

MARCH 2007 — Amini Afiki began begging when he was a young boy. Sometimes he would buy food with the meager sums he collected and give it to his family.

Disabled since he was 6, Afiki said people used to mock him. "I thought people would help me overcome my problems, but they would not attend to my needs," he said.

When he was 27 he learned that the Namwera AIDS Coordinating Committee (NACC) provided training in tinsmithing, tailoring, and carpentry, and he informed the organization of his interest. "I saw this as the only chance to be self-reliant. I felt that if I lost this chance I would be begging forever."

In 2000 Afiki enrolled in a six-month tinsmithing program where he was the oldest student. "The moment they said I was most welcome I felt as if they had given me a large sum of money and I felt really happy," he said. After Afiki completed his training, NACC gave him tools such as hammers, corrugated iron sheets and pliers. A local social welfare office gave him a small loan to start a tinsmithing business.  

NACC, an NGO established in 1996, partners with Family Health International (FHI) in southern Malawi. The organization provides care and support to home-based care (HBC) clients and orphans and other vulnerable children (OVC) and their families. FHI funds and provides technical assistance to NACC, including training in HBC and OVC issues, monitoring and evaluation, and finance and administrative procedures. 

NACC has trained 163 men and women in vocational fields, 85 of them in tinsmithing. NACC also teaches marketing and business management, and refers its vocational students to lending and microfinance institutions and social welfare offices for technical assistance and support when they finish school.

Now 37, Afiki comfortably supports his wife, mother and five children. He employs six community members on his farm, operates his tinsmithing business, and teaches at the NACC vocational school.

Afiki also has a bank account, which is noteworthy in Malawi, one of the world's least economically developed countries. He has enough money to make investments rather than live day to day.

"When you have skills and do not teach others, when you die your skills die with you. When I impart my skills to others such as orphans and other vulnerable children, I know that when I die I have contributed my skills to others so they will keep going," he said.

"From being a beggar to a service provider. I'm a very happy man indeed."

PHOTOS: (top) Amini Afiki in his garden in Namwera, Mangochi; (above) Amini Afiki poses with his mother (left), daughter, wife, and youngest daughter. Photos by Jill Lundberg, September 2005.