Last year we started on an exciting journey to trial a community-based approach to supporting vulnerable babies in Malawi. What began with three carefully selected children and families has now transformed into a comprehensive three year programme supporting 26 babies at risk and their guardians / families within their own homes.
As our strategy evolves, we have had to make several changes to our team and resources to enable this. Our Blantyre site is in the process of changing into a hub to support, promote and build community-based care. 26 former care staff recently completed an intensive two-week training course in community-based care, hosted by the District Social Welfare Office.
Working to support families within communities is a highly regulated environment. The course covered crucial areas such as case management, identifying and preventing abuse, early years child development as well as focusing on children's holistic rights and needs.
The feedback from the training has been overwhelmingly positive from both course leaders and delegates. It finished with a wonderful graduation ceremony where each participant was given their certificate and congratulated on their contribution. It was a fantastic day as you can see and everyone was thrilled to be part of it.
The Open Arms leadership team took the opportunity to speak more about the new direction with local press and other stakeholders and answer their questions which was very well received.
The Ministry of Gender who also attended the ceremony has warmly welcomed our move to community-based care as it aligns with their goals for improved child welfare and provides invaluable support for families within communities as well as the local systems. They have cited Open Arms as an 'excellent example of a childcare provider'.
Building this relationship has created valuable two-way conversations, allowing us to share experiences and represent family feedback, creating a collaborative approach to addressing the challenges felt by remote communities.
The need remains overwhelming and we want to support 100 families by the end of June within their communities. With ten families currently on our waiting list we are assessing future demand to create a team and build operations to serve the communities most in need.
It costs just £4,500 over a three year period to transform the lives of a whole family. It is vital for success that we support the entire family unit and not just focus on the individual child referred to us. By doing this we are enabling guardians to become active participants in the programme and not creating a longer term dependency on aid or care.
Your support can help. You can empower families and create sustainable change in Malawi by supporting this programme today. We would love to work with you to make this happen.
To learn more or contribute, please contact us or donate here.
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