Another day with the Outreach Team

Morning I was asked to be ready for 9.00am to go to court with the Child Protection Officer from the Outreach Team to observe a case and support the family. This was a defilement case. I asked the CPO what is the difference between defilement and rape? Apparently if the child is under-age it is defilement, over-18 and it is rape. Penalties are higher for defilement. A 13 year old was abused by a family friend who visited the house. She told no-one but school picked up that something was wrong and that is the route of referral to MTCC and the Child Protection Officer. This happened 8 months ago and the child is now pregnant. A case has been brought against the perpetrator. The child and her mother have testified in court and a judge has decided that there is a case for the accused to answer. He is on remand in a local prison. Today is the day for him to appear in court. I went to MTCC reception to meet the team and wait for transport to court at 8.50am. The CPO joined me after about half an hour and explained the case, and about 20 mins after that transport arrived. On this occasion it was a small bus which had just completed its daily run to bring pupils to the Primary and Secondary Schools. We shared it with a Primary School child and his mother. The child had been running along the outside of a building and had run full tilt into the sharp corner of an open window and had a small but jagged head wound. We dropped them off at Chilomoni Clinic on the way. There was also another Beehive staff member on a separate job and a driver. We arrived around 10.00am to find the child, her father and a sleeping younger sister perched on the wall outside. They had gone to considerable effort to get there, travelling some distance from their village to Blantyre, with all three of them on a motorbike. This would have been a significant expense for them. We joined them on the wall and waited, watching others going in and out of court, including 6 young men handcuffed together in pairs. After nearly an hour the prosecuting policeman came to the CPO and informed him that the Lady Magistrate was not able to be present so the court sitting was cancelled, so we should all go home. We will be informed of the next date. What a disappointment for everyone but especially difficult for the child. Afternoon We visited the Feeding Centre at St James’ church in the centre of Chilomoni. This is the church that Beehive built for the local people as one of its first projects. The feeding centre has been running for 24 years and one man has been volunteering and run it for all of that time. It used to be only three days a week but since Beehive has been running it, I think about 4 years, it happens every school day. Children of the poorest families are recommended to the Centre. Currently they have 55 children who they are feeding for 5 days a week. Today 52 attended. Children come from a number of local schools and range in age from 6 years to 18 years. Today the meal was nsima, cabbage and small local fish. We arrived as the children were helping with the clearing and washing up. Chores finished, they welcomed us. There were prayers, singing and dancing. The children lined up in four groups, boys and girls separately, and Primary and Secondary pupils separately. I was there with two CC staff members. They led a session with all 52 children together which talked about good and bad behaviour. The children were divided into groups of ten, ages and genders mixed this time, and each group had a sheet of flip chart paper and a pen. They had to list five good and five bad behaviours. A spokesperson was selected from each group to present what they had written. Four out of 5 spokespeople were boys. There were fewer boys present than girls. The staff drew out the learning points for the children. The lesson was mostly in Chichewa so I didn’t follow it all in detail but they did translate the main points for my benefit. Then I was invited to lead some games. Help! I could have done with a bit of warning for this but fortunately I have played games at recent staff training events so I mostly picked things I had done in the last few weeks. We played Spiral and Knots and although at first they moved too quickly and kept breaking hands, they got the hang of it really quickly and worked together cooperatively. Then we played ‘Round and Round the Village’ which is a singing game. This was brave of me because I am among the world’s worst singers, but fortunately one staff member picked it up quickly and supported me. One has to skip and dance as well as sing, so very quickly I was breathless, hot and very red in the face! They loved it though. It is an old game. I remember playing it in about 1960 and it was old-fashioned then. It doesn’t go down very well in the UK today but, as I have said before, in Malawi they are inhibited by different things, and singing and dancing is no problem.