Temwa - Sustainable Community Development, Malawi

Saturday, 20 May 2006 00:00

Temwenani has prompted a community network group to start in Usisya, the area we currently serve.

Regular meetings are now being held with members of all local CBOs (Community-Based Organisations), including those from youth groups, orphan care groups, PTAs (Parent Teacher Associations) and churches. The idea behind the network is to bring together all local organisations in Usisya to communicate to each other the programmes they are involved in, as well as discussing the funding they have or can apply for, in order to increase communication and, hopefully, the number of community projects in the area.

The group’s constitution is soon to be finalised and it will elect organisations to the positions of chair and secretary over the next 12 months. These positions rotate every three months so that all members play an equal role in maintaining the network. Everybody involved is very enthusiastic. The Usisya Network Committee is also looking at possible joint projects for the future, for example community profiling and a community newsletter. As part of these joint projects, we would be able to hold proposal writing workshops so that CBOs and other members would, in the long run, be able to write good proposals themselves.