Thank you!

After almost two months to deal with immediate life changes (i.e. get a job!) and to reflect, I wanted to write a final thank you about my trip to Malawi.

The kids loved to see their picture

The travelling went well (over 36 hours!), the days were long and busy, and our team experienced all sorts of new things! I think the conference and the trip was a great success and really met an area of need.

Watching a soccer game in the village together at sunset

We had a great team: our Flood San Diego members, two local Malawian human rights organizations, local churches, police and victim support units. Our team put together an educational conference. The villagers actively engaged with the conference and shared many stories of the human rights abuses that they have experienced (everything from child trafficking, forced labor, domestic violence and more) and were connected to education and resources on these areas. It was amazing to hear their stories.

Cooking lunch with my dear friend Ethel!

On a personal level, the experience was amazing. I absolutely loved the beautiful country and people of Malawi. It well deserves the title "The warm heart of Africa." This experience really helped confirm my desire to go to law school and inspired me to want to work in Africa again!

The conference was held inside the village church. 

An unexpected and amazing part of our trip was the team of Malawian college students that worked with us! They played an integral role to the conference, from speaking about their own personal experiences with human rights abuses and growing up in villages, to teaching, to translating. They quickly became good friends and great inspirations as we worked closely with them.

At the well with some of the girls. 

This combined team effort has produced a new group of people in Malawi and in San Diego that are teaming together to continue learning about and supporting human rights. Exciting grassroots projects are already developing.

Lunch in the village. No silverware!

Thank you again for all your support. This was a great area of need, and I am excited about the new developments from this trip. This trip also has meant a lot to me personally, so thank you for supporting my development, too!

Pictures from Malawi

Market time!

Bicycle taxis! Most people walk. The middle class rides bikes, and only the very upper class have cars. 

At the market

The kids were pretty camera shy :)

Denise and her entourage of delighted children :)

Cramming in the van for the bumpy 1-hour ride to the village

No caption necessary :)

My amazing friend Tionge. We taught Bible lessons to the children together. He is a gifted teacher!

Our daily meal of rice, greens, tomatoes and chicken. Everything fresh from the farm!

The foundation for a school in Kudoku village. The school was never built because the funds for it were stolen somewhere down the supply chain. Now 700 children in this village do not have access to education past 2nd-3rd grade. 

Now change the world.

I remember entering college wondering if I could make a difference in the world. Now that I'm leaving, the scary thing I've learned is that every action, word, purchase, relationship changes the world, it's just a matter of how.

Our lack of humility is not primarily from too high a view of ourselves, but too low a view of God.

What I've learned is that I matter so much more profoundly to God, every moment is more significant, and God is so much more good, amazing, beautiful, powerful, wise than I ever knew.

Lilies of the Valley

After two successful fundraisers, thanks to the support of many friends, I'm at almost 90%! About $400 left to raise, plus paying for travel immunizations (about $300). 

I never thought I would make it this far! I'm so thankful to God and the people who supported me.

This has been a crazy couple of weeks, with 3 fundraisers, 2 papers, starting finals, travel prep and research! Loving the crazy adventure :). 

Thank you!!!! 

Fundraising Fail

Selling pizza in libraries and study lounges during finals week sounds like a GREAT fundraiser, right?

Checklist:

• Paper plates
• Napkins
• A bunch of $1s and $5s for change
• Price calculation ($2/slice gives us a profit of $8/pizza)
• Time
• Location (UCSD's finals are after my fundraising deadline... had to go to SDSU instead)
• Most importantly.... pizza!

After finding parking and walking around an unfamiliar campus and study lounges, NOT ONE PERSON bought a slice. Though plenty of people had compliments on our brilliant fundraising scheme, and several people enjoyed sending us on wild goose chases to bother their friends. 

Fail. 

Well, at least we have lots of pizza to eat. 

$2200 left to fundraise in 2 weeks! 

The Dark Side of Chocolate

We watched the film The Dark Side of Chocolate this weekend.

The film is a heartbreaking story of child trafficking, slavery and labor in the Ivory Coast. The journalists follow the trafficking and slavery process from beginning to end. They interview people in the trafficking business and the anti-trafficking fight. They confront blatant lies and cover-ups and expose the tragic truth.

This little girl they intercepted in the trafficking process. She had open sores on her legs and said that her family will be disappointed that she is returning.

The film had great potential in its story telling, but an incredibly disappointing ending. After such an incredible story with great footage, the film ends with the journalists berating major chocolate companies to no avail. The last scene is broadcasting the film on a giant screen in front of a chocolate factory.

This is such an unfortunate ending to me because it provides no action steps. Addressing the chocolate industry is only a partial solution at best, and aggressive smear campaigns have not worked as well as positive reinforcement for the companies who are fair trade. The film gives no clues for consumer activism (how do I make sure to buy slave-free chocolate?) or any other viewer action step.

Ultimately, the film is like a well-designed, visually striking lamp with no light bulb.

You make everything glorious

Thank You for encouraging my heart, Lord. 

Our team had a great meeting on Sunday and hangout on Monday. It was refreshing and encouraging to my soul to hear how others struggle with fundraising like me. My team came around me and supported me, praying for me and coming up with all sorts of creative and generous ways to help me. I'm also continually thankful for Kenny, who drives me everywhere I need to be and walks every step of this journey with me.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

14%

Well, 13.75% to be exact. Today the first support letters came in! It's going to be a stretch making $1,500 by Monday, but I'm coming up with a few ideas with the help of friends.

What happens if

A dear friend asked me today, "What happens if you don't raise the funds?"

......

I don't go. 

This hit me pretty hard last night and seems to be an overwhelming possibility. It's too early to say, but I feel I will be able to raise an absolute maximum of $1,000.

I believe that God has the power and the resources to provide the money. That's never the question, is it? The question is always... will He?

Why should I believe that He will bring $4,000 to some washed up college grad on the West Coast so she can take an outrageously expensive trip to the other side of the world? Why, especially when there are so many more pressing needs around the world that are not being met?

The fact is that God does not meet every need. I have gone without certain needs many times in my life. Many, many other people in the world go without crucial basic needs- even to the point of death.

But He has promised that He will provide for everything I need to follow Him. He has promised that I can face any need and be content. He has promised I can suffer greatly and still feel joy.

I'm curious to see how that will work.

I still have many questions and heartbreaks over the possibility of failing. First of all, I am in love with Malawi and this church and my team. To not be able to give to them in person is heartbreaking.

Secondly, what a career heartbreak. My attempts to pursue this dream have been a checkerboard with some successes and some failures. This seems like an overwhelming square that will wipe out my checkerboard. The question is, will it be black or white?

Which leads me to my final question. Regardless of the color of this square, I won't give up. With all the strength left in me, I won't give up. But this seems like it could be such a devastating blow to my ability to take risks, I feel that my attempts will go from cliff diving to puddle splashing.

I will support my team, my church and this project the best that I can. If that means doing research and praying from home, I will throw my heart into it.

(Cue emo moment:)

The broken, shattered pieces of it at least.

Alternative Forms of Support

One of the biggest ways that I need support for this trip is financial support (give online on the sidebar!). However, I wanted to write a post about other ways that I would welcome support!

• Prayer support. Pray with me or for me. 
• Support references. Could you refer me to 4-5 other people who would be interested in supporting this project? Many people have a heart for human rights, this is a great chance to get involved!
• Research support. Send me articles, books, facts and news on Malawi and human rights issues in Malawi or the southern Africa region. Interact with the research that I post- ask questions, criticize, comment, compliment. Give me thoughts, counterarguments, alternatives. 
• Fundraisers. Help me host a fundraiser! 
• Come to the Mighty Waters Conference! 

Don't wait, get involved today. Time is flying by until our departure date!

Child Labor in Malawi

For my Politics of Human Rights class, I have to write a 10-page research paper. Here is the my topic and the inspiration:

BBC News In Pictures: Malawi Child Workers

"Child tobacco pickers in Malawi are being regularly exposed to extremely high levels of nicotine poisoning, according to a new report by children's organisation Plan International.

Images from Plan International

The report claims that child labourers, some as young as five years old, are suffering severe symptoms from absorbing up to 54 milligrams a day of nicotine through their skin- equivalent to smoking about 50 cigarettes.

It is estimated that more than 78,000 children work on tobacco estates across Malawi, some working 12 hours a day, many for less than 1p (1.7 US cents) an hour and without protective clothing.

Children have reported common symptoms of Green Tobacco Sickness (GTS), or nicotine poisoning, including sever headaches, abdominal pain, muscle weakness, coughing and breathlessness.

Plan is now calling upon the Malawi government to enforce existing child labour laws, plantations to provide safer, fairer working conditions and multi-national tobacco companies to scrutinise suppliers far more closely.

British American Tobacco, one of the major buyers of Malawi's tobacco, says it shares many of Plan's concerns and stresses it does not use child labour in its operations."

BBC News, August 24, 2009

Another organization to investigate: Plan International

Introduction to Malawi

I enjoyed reading about Malawi on the CIA World Factbook. Here are some interesting facts that stood out to me:

Malawi is a land-locked country in Southern Africa, one of the smaller countries in the world at about the size of Pennsylvania.

Malawi has a sub-tropical climate, and we will be going during the dry season. Lake Nyasa is the eighth largest lake in the world and shares the previous name of the country, Nyasaland.

Lake Nyasa

Malawi has a population of almost 16 million, which, considering its small geographical size, makes it one of the most densely populated countries in the world. Interestingly, despite Malawi's dense population, it remains 80% rural and 90% of the workforce is employed in agriculture. The two largest cities still have less than 900,000 people.

The capital of Malawi, Lilongwe

The population is very young, with a median age of 17, with a high population growth rate and birth rate. Life expectancy is about 51 years, the 11th worst in the world. Malawi's geographical neighbors also rank among the bottom 12 for life expectancy, worsening Malawi's situation.

Some social statistics:
- Almost 1/10 infant mortality rate
- Fertility rate: 5.43 children per woman
- HIV/AIDS adult prevalency rate 11% (9th highest in the world)
- 80% Christian, with Muslim ranking second.

Adult literacy rate is 76% for males, but only 50% for females. This highlights some of the inequality that women face. Education expectancy is 9 years, which is like 8th grade as my last school year.

A market in Lilongwe

Malawi has the 10th lowest GDP per capita in the world, at only $900 per person. More than half of the population is below the poverty line. Malawi has very poor transportation and communication networks (telephone, Internet, roadways, airports, etc.).  90% of workforce is employed in agriculture, but agriculture only makes up 33% of the gross domestic product (GDP). Still, Malawi is about in the middle in terms of inequality of income distribution as measusred by the Gini coefficient. Tobacco is one of Malawi's major exports at 53%.

Tobacco industry in Malawi

We will be in country for Malawi's 46th independence day from the UK on July 6. The two official languages of Malawi are English and Chichewa.

The government is multi-party democracy with universal adult suffrange (18+). It appears to be proportional representation, my personal favorite, like in Scandinavia, although I need to do more reading on the government and politics of Malawi.

National Anthem: "Oh God Bless Our Land Malawi"

Malawian flag

Black represents the native peoples, red the blood shed in their struggle for freedom, and green the color of nature; the sun represents Malawi's economic progress since attaining independence.

Some interesting NGOs we should look up: Council for NGOs in Malawi or CONGOMA (human rights, democracy, and development); Human Rights Consultative Committee or HRCC (human rights); Malawi Law Society (human rights and law reform); Malawi Movement for the Restoration of Democracy or MMRD (acts to restore and maintain democracy); Public Affairs Committee or PAC (promotes democracy, development, peace and unity), Partners In Health, Malawi Voice (Malawian news agency)

Jann's $60

Back in December, my dear friend from Switzerland gave me $60 for my trip to Africa. I had no definite plans for a trip at that point, it was just a distant dream from childhood that has lingered and grown.

Over the months since then, I have kept it in a hidden pocket of my wallet. Everywhere I went, every time I pulled out money to spend, I saw the $60. It was a precious reminder to me that someone believed enough in my dream to put money on it.

I am so excited to use Jann's $60 to start off this human rights trip. Thanks for believing, Jann.

Human Rights Trip Proposal

Vision

- To reduce human rights violations and increase the health of marriages in Malawi through Christ inspired education and empowerment

Mission

- To host free three day clinics in villages in Malawi in partnership with the Malawi Human Rights Resource Centre that would address the following issues: domestic violence, family desertion, child labor, marriage, child rearing, and trafficking.
- The clinics would be led by American and Malawians, but communicated in Chichewa with a small group format to allow for trust, confidentiality, relationship building and counseling.
- Each small group would be led by a representative from a local church to allow for long-term support and care.

Dates and Details

Our first clinics would take place sometime between July 2-17, 2011 in Kudoku Village and Flood Malawi Church

Goals
- Create a sustainable, long-term ministry partnership
- Build and maintain collaboration with Flood San Diego and Flood Malawi
- Develop this as part of the ongoing ministry of Flood