SATEMWA BUILDS THE GUARDIAN SHELTER FOR THYOLO HOSPITAL USING FAIR TRADE PREMIUM FUNDS

As per our last post, Guardians for patients at the biggest referral hospital in Thyolo were having a night mare.
Either there was no place to sleep or prepare food for the patients.
Having been approached by hte community, assembly and hospital administration, Satemwa came to their rescue by agreeing to use  the Fair trade funds to construct a guardian shelter.
The building has been constructed at the cost of +$65,000 and is at completion stage.
The Managing Director and the General Manager for Satemwa went to inspect the project to ensure quality before handing it over to the hospital. (Photo below).

Mr. C. Kay (MD) and Mr. R.G.Emmott (GM)
(sharing ideas after the inspection of the building)

The photos below are the current guardian shelter with women busy preparing supper for their relatives in hospital and the photo to the right is the Satemwa built Guardian shelter where guardians will be sleeping and preparing food. The building has 2 cooking apartiments with 8 cooking places and sleeping rooms.

Front view of the New Guardian Shelter

                                                                                              

Patient Guardians seen at the old Shelter.

This is a typical example of life before Fair trade.

Without Fair trade it might have been difficult to

assist these people with a decent structure as the one above. 

Indeed Fair Trade does change peoples' lives and livelihoods.

for more visit: www.satemwa.com  

Satemwa Workers Joint Body trip to Kibena Tea Estate, Tanzania

16 members of the Satemwa Tea Estate Workers Joint Body arrived at Kibena Tea Estate, Mbeya Province after a long journey from Thyolo in Southern Malawi.  Kibena is one of three estates forming the Mufindi Tea Group.

The first surprise for the group was to find that during peak season, the workforce is just 400 (compared to around 2,500 at Satemwa), due to plucking being mechanised and requiring only two people to operate the machinery. 

The group became Fairtrade certified in 1998 and the joint body has spent close to US$2million (about MWK9.2M ) on projects around the estate and in the community, focusing on education, health, water, social and entertainment.  Similarly to Satemwa, they pay school fees for some of the children of workers and have built teachers houses.  In addition, they have been able to provide one of their schools with computers.


The JB could sympathise with some of the challenges faced by the host joint body such as the need to make sure that the strict fairtrade standards are always adhered to as well as the high expectations of workers and communities despite lower premiums being received.  It was also noted that Kibena had a good working relationship with the surrounding communities and that the big projects they had worked on (social halls, 8 bore holes) had had a great impact, with many beneficiaries.  They were interested to hear about our solar projects and experiences since fairtrade certification.

The Kibena Joint body members have promised to visit Satemwa and all of the JB members agreed that the visit was extremely valuable and had opened their eyes to some new ideas for the day-to-day running of the JB.

We would also like to thank the Satemwa Management for  allowing the JB members time away from the estate during this trip. 
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Joint Body set off on International Visit to Mufindi, Tanzania

The Satemwa Workers Joint Body delegation set off from Satemwa Tea Estate early this morning on their much anticipated visit to Mufindi Tea Company in Tanzania.  The visit has taken a lot of planning and is aimed at sharing experiences with a neighbouring Joint Body Committee.

The five day trip will see the Joint Body travel the length of Malawi into Southern Tanzania before being shown around some of the projects that the Mufindi Joint Body have been working on.

It is hoped that the visit will enable both Joint Bodies to share ideas and methods for managing projects and overcoming problems they may have experienced along the way.

Hopefully, we'll be able to host them ourselves next time!


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Latest Distribution of Solar Panels from Satemwa Fair trade Workers Joint Body

The latest distribution of solar panels to the workers on Satemwa Tea Estate took place this week, with 398 panels being handed out to the workers' local communities.  Each worker receives a solar panel, light bulb and rechargeable batteries and the kits can be used to charge mobile phones, light homes and listen to radios. 

Smart Stima, Joint Body Secretary said "The panels have been specially designed and made from materials, which are easy to source locally.  This means that they are easy to repair if they stop working and provides more people with jobs."

"This has been one of our most popular projects and it seems that we can't hand them out quick enough!"

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Thyolo Hospital Receives Maize Donation From Satemwa Fairtrade Workers Joint Body

Today, Thyolo District Hospital took delivery of 57 bags of Maize donated by the Satemwa Tea Estates' Fairtrade Workers Joint Body.   The bags were part of the this years Maize Distribution following the success of the Joint Body Maize Distribution programme in 2009 to alleviate hunger due to the Maize shortage experienced last year.

Mr Rabson Kalowa, Joint Body Chairman said "At the time, 2,500 bags (approximately 125,000kg) of Maize were purchased by the JB and sold to workers at a heavily subsidised price (about 50% of the purchase price) - 1 bag of maize for each of the 2443 workers and their families.



"It was suggested by some of the workers that the remaining 57 bags should be donated to the local, Thyolo District hospital.  This suggestion was unanimously agreed by the Joint Body committee and we are pleased that we can help the wider community in this small way."

The presentation was attended by Thyolo District Commissioner, Mr Mandere, Mr Tindwa of the Tea Association of Malawi and Thyolo District Medical Officer, Dr Jame, who said "The hospital faces many challenges in supporting the Thyolo community and the support provided through these Fairtrade initiatives is greatly appreciated.  We are very grateful to the Satemwa Fairtrade Workers Joint Body for this donation"


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Now even easier to keep up to date with the Satemwa Tea Estate Fair Trade Workers Joint Body

We have found time between the many projects our members are working on to make it even easier for you to keep up to date with the activities of the Satemwa Joint Body committee.

To get updates emailed sent straight to your inbox, simply enter your email address into the "Subscribe" box in the sidebar (or just click here) and enter the confirmation code on the next screen.

Alternatively, you can subscribe to an RSS feed for the latest news.

Either way, we hope you will now find it easier to enjoy learning more about the projects we are involved in.

New Water Supply for Chizinja Village

Work is underway to provide a new water supply to Chizinja village on Satemwa Tea Estate. A new borehole has been dug, with a pump house and storage tank to follow soon. The works have been financed by the Satemwa Workers Committee Joint Body, through Fairtrade Premium funds. This work represents the culmination of a larger project to build improved Teachers housing in the village.

The borehole will supply clean water to Satemwa School and the new Teacher's housing in Chizinja village. The Joint Body have employed local contractors based in Blantyre to oversee the works and look forward to the completion of this project.

Satemwa Fairtrade Joint Body Distributes Mosquito nets

This week saw the Satemwa Workers Committee Joint Body distribute the first instalment of mosquito nets to workers. The Thyolo District has a high prevalence of Malaria all year round and the project aims to help reduce the burden on both the Privately-funded Satemwa Clinic and Thyolo District Hospital. With many worker's families affected by malaria, this was a very popular project to undertake.

All members of the Satemwa workforce were entitled to receive mosquito nets and the joint body has arranged for each worker to receive two nets, which have been purchased through money generated by the fairtrade premium. In addition to the borehole projects and education initiatives, the Satemwa joint Body is actively playing its part in improving the community's general health.

Satemwa Fairtrade Joint Body Bus Arrives!

Satema Fair Trade Workers Joint Body Bus










The Satemwa Fair Trade Joint Body are the proud recipients of the new Workers' Fair Trade Bus, which will be put to work ferrying workers up and down the Estate's 7km Dirt Road.




 
Up until now, workers have had to walk or cycle the undulating estate road on the side of Thyolo Mountain. The bus will be available to all workers on the estate for a nominal fee, which will be used to support the maintenance and running costs of the bus.



 



Satemwa Fairtrade Joint Body Chairman, Rabson Kalowa said "The bus is great news for all of the workers as it will help everyone get to and from the factory and fields more easily and safely.

The bus will also be used to help transport the sports teams that the Joint Body supports"

THYOLO DISTRICT HOSPITAL NEEDS A GUARDIAN SHELTER

"It does not rain it pours". This is the state of affairs at the magnificent Thyolo Government Hospital located in a Tea growing district of Thyolo.
Rainy days are regarded as hell to those patient guardians as there is nowhere to prepare meals and sleep hence guardians are forced to sleep in wards. Imagine if a guardian has a baby and what that means to such babies.
The community saw this as a great need requiring cooperation in order to be addressed.
Having heard news about the Satemwa Fairtrade Joint Body's potential to assist with community based projects they approached us with their proposal for the construction of the Guardian Shelter and a kitchen. Currently discussions are underway to see how best this can be put into reality. We have attended one meeting which was also attended by local chiefs and the Parliamentarian for the area




Photo: A Guardian Shelter and Kitchen currently in use at Thyolo Hospital

For more visit: http://www.satemwa.com/

MSUWADZI ASSOCIATION GETS A VSO VOLUNTEER

Finally Smallholder Tea growers have been given permission to engage a VSO Volunteer thanks to the hard-working spirit of Mr. Kasitomu - Association President. It took him courage and time to travel up and down to Lilongwe trying to convince those concerned.

When the first volunteer couple (Mike and Penny) left without prospects for their replacement, life became uncertain as to how the Smallholder Tea Farmers were going to manage the Fairtrade Premium and their projects.

Matthew Strickland (VSO) is now settling in and we strongly hope the Msuwadzi Association will now have the capacity to manage its projects as well as having the ability to link up with other agents in order to leverage their financial base.

In addition, he will also be assisting the Satemwa Joint Body in areas of project identification and management as this happens to be his area of specialisation.

For more log onto: www.satemwa.com

FAIRTRADE MEDIA PROJECT CO-ORDINATOR VISITS SATEMWA ESTATE

On Wenesday 27th January 2010, we received visitors from the Fairtrade Foundation who were on a fact finding mission with regards to the Fairtrade Media Project.

Annette Muller (Video and Digital Project Co-ordinator and team leader) was accompanied by Richard.

They met with Smallholder Tea growers and Joint Body members.

Among other issues, they advised us of the objective behind the project - To do stories and or capture clips that will give fairtrade consumers out there a true picture of the impact fairtrde is making towards changing people's lives.

Annette and Richard were stunned to note that Satemwa Joint Body is a step ahead in terms of communicating with the customers and other interested parties - by way of a blog onto which stories are posted.

They promised to link this blog with the Fairtrade facebook .

Photo: Annete Muller demonstrating to JB women members

on how to take video clips using a cellphone

For more info, visitthe website: www.satemwa.com