CURRENT PROJECTS

We are involved in 6 projects currently.  All of them will be ending – March 2007, these are:-

1. Senti / Chimoka / Ng’oma Project:

This was instituted in July 2005 and was for 18 months which ended in December but will officially wind down in March after the final report documenting end – results against initial objectives.  This was an $ 18,000 project which aimed at helping the Senti/ Chimoka/ Ng’oma communities acquire improved safe latrines.  This was to be achieved through 3 specific objectives

    1. Support the said communities acquire improved safe latrines by training Community Development Committees in Sanplat casting and produce 100 sanplats, which will have to be utilized in the 3 communities.
    2. Promote sharing of experiences (networking) by attending water and sanitation forums and allowing visitors come and learn from the project activities.
    3. Promote information dissemination by producing a record of project activities through production of a DVD and holding open days to spread the message to other communities.

This project benefited around 3,000 people

2. Walilanji Women Water and Sanitation Project

  
This was a $ US 10,000 (8 month) project funded by Water for people (Malawi). 
This aimed at helping the rural community of Waliranji in Mchinji access safe   drinking water through training of 17 member women committee in the production of dome slabs and casting of 50 slabs which will be marketed to the same trained committee to produce more.  This was aimed at insuring sustainability even after the project life.  The project has been a very big success as there have been enquiries from other communities around the target community.  The project minds up in March 2007, and it will benefit over 600 households (3000 people)

3. Chimundi Water and Sanitation Project

 

This project was funded by USAID’s Ambassadors special Self Help Fund to the tune of $6,600 to provide safe drinking water and safe latrines to a rural community in Dowa.  This went towards acquisition and installing of 6 shallow wells hand pumps (Malda Pumps) and training a group of 15 individuals in casting and production of Sanplats which will be marketed in the same community.  The proceeds will be ploughed back into the committee’s activities to ensure production continuation even after project closure.  This has been a successful project because most of the 6 villages have never had safe drinking water in their lives and this was a blessing in disguise for them.  This project winds up in March 2007. Over 1200 households (6000 people) will benefit from this project.

4. Water Research Fund for Southern Africa (WARFSA) Research

 

This was based on finding the relationship between access to portable water and health, the value and effectiveness of CBM approach in water supply

This project was approved in September 2003 but failed to be implemented until July 2006.  It was funded to the tune of $ 19,000 by the Water Research Fund of Southern Africa.  All the research was done and draft report produced and we are optimistic the final stakeholders meeting will be held as soon as funds are received to review the findings and write a final report.  The draft report can be found on achievements.

5. MATAMA Capacity Building Project

 

This project was funded by Water for People (USA) to the tune of $ US 12,000 and its objective was to build capacity of MATAMA’s full and part-time staff for managing community water and sanitation interventions. It had 3 components namely:-

i. Train 10 part and full time MATAMA staff and 26 Lilongwe City Assembly

Health Surveillance Assistants in Integrated Water Resources Management issues

ii. Develop MATAMA’s website for disseminating information about the

organization to the public (both locally and internationally)

iii. Develop a 5 year strategic plan to guide MATAMA activities in future.

This was a project which was supposed to be implemented between September and December 2006 but we have asked for an extension to March 2007 so as to come up with a strong strategic paper.  The other two components were done and if you are reading this, it means the website is operational.

6. Mgona and Ng’oma Water Sanitation Project

 

In February 2006, MATAMA received a delegation from Water for People (USA).  Among the things they did when they were here was to meet decision makers from USAID and Water Aid to convince them fund new projects for us.  These meetings spanned the (i) Chimundi Water and Sanitation Project and most recently the above mentioned project.  Water Aid (Malawi) has agreed to fund MATAMA to the tune $US 8324 to train 2 groups of masons in Ng’oma and Mgona casting of different types of slabs and produce (200) of them and train them again in marketing.  The marketing component came up because we discovered from the other projects, that a lot of the committees could produce but fail to market the slabs.  Again we will also train Lilongwe City Assembly Health Surveillance Assistants in Health  Education, so that they carry on their work effectively.  Finally there will be community sensitization meetings.  All this will be done between February and March 2007. Around 1,200 people will benefit from this project.

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