First Visit to Ovaha's Hut

Angela Yu and Mark on the way to Ovaha's Hut place

My first visit to Ovaha’s Hut was heartbreaking and very powerful.  I was moved and could see the heartache and pain in the eyes of the elders.  I saw a connection with Lawrence and the villagers, a real deep connection that cant be accurately described with words.  The trip to get to Mulanje and the village is about 1.5 hours by way of mini-bus from Blantyre.  The backdrop of the Mulanje mountain range is beautiful and the people that live in it’s shadows have hearts as big as the towering mountains. 

We arrived early Saturday morning and met with 20 of the elders.  Lawrence laid out the plan to assist and visit them in the coming months.  I didn’t understand much since the conversation was in the native Chichewa tongue but I saw hearts open and ears holding attention to Lawrence’s every word for an hour.  After we talked with the elders, we greeted each of them and gave them a little bit of spending money that was donated by Ovaha supporters.  We then walked around the village, checking out the homes of the villagers.  Sad conditions but the zest for life is real there.  The villagers live hard, tough lives.  You can can see the wrinkles in the face of the elders.  Years of barely getting by and raising children with very little.  I also saw the hope, hope for the future.  Hope for Ovaha’s Hut and hope for Lawrence. 

As we headed back to Blantyre, I put in my earbuds and just sat in thought for most of the ride.  I thought about how I ended up in a village in Africa with a dear friend.  I thought about God using me to help with the blog and fundraising for Ovaha’s Hut.  I thought about being an answer to prayers in the village.  As I prayed for the villagers, I asked God to alleviate some of the problems that plague the village.  I prayed for hope, comfort and peace.  I prayed for support for the village.  I prayed for guidance and growth.  I prayed that God uses Lawrence and he is granted wisdom to help his village.  I prayed that we are able to bring an ounce of happiness and the hope of Jesus to the people.  January is going to be a big month for Ovaha’s Hut, please continue to pray for this project.

Mark Allen Barret and Mama Botha

Mark, Mama Botha and Mama Boths's inlaw

                     

Lawrence, Nina Weyman, Angela Yu and Mark Allen Barrett

By Mark Allen Barrett, From USA South Carolina,  working with Beit Cure Hospital-Malawi.

Ovaha's Hut - The Giving Hut

In his own words Lawrence Matembezi Ngwemba started Ovaha's Hut "because many children did not care about school, they were marrying young, drinking alcohol and being violent". He opened Ovaha's Hut to try and put a stop to this, as a result there are now many children in primary school. Many people doubted that he would succeed but by using his salary of 5000 Malawi Kwacha and doing piece work to pay the teachers he has turned a dream in to a success. Ovaha's hut is located in the Takhiwa and Gladstone Villages in the Mulanje District of southern Malawi. The charity organisation is based on the philosophy of giving the best to the community, aiming to develop the community with existing resources so that people can learn to support themselves. Ovaha's Hut has two projects; the first Ovaha Nursery School and the second  Ovaha Elderly Shelter.

Ovaha Nursery School.
Opened in 2008 and formally launched in 2009, the nursery school is a not-for-profit institution with the aim of educating the local children in a local school. Like many things in Malawi, Nursery School is viewed as a luxury, only affordable to the few. Ovaha Nursery School is part if the community, open to all, regardless of ability. The mission is simple; to enable all children, especially the underprivileged, to access education before commencing primary school. By providing a place of education for children from ages 2 to 7, the nursery school further aims to encourage children to learn from an early age, to want to attend primary and secondary school and to develop an ambition to be educated. Ovaha's Hut acknowledges this as a challenge - as many children who do not have the opportunity to learn before attending primary school struggle and do not take education seriously, many marry young. The teachers are all volunteers and come from the same village in which the school is situated, giving the nursery school a real sense of community. Currently gathering under a tree, Ovaha's Hut is attempting to the raise the necessary funds to build a school block.

Ovaha Elderly Shelter
Based in Takhiwa village, the Eldery Shelter provides support the elderly members of the community. The shelter gives support by providing some of the basic goods to members of the community and it also ensures that those who are sick are taken to the hospital. Ovaha's Hut chose to support the elderly as they believe the Agogo's are a bit like a walking library for the community - a wealth of knowledge and experience. Ovaha's hut bring the elderly together three times a week, they participate in a range of activities including knitting - everything that is knitted goes to the Nursery School. Their mission is simple to support the needy and to make the elderly feel needed in the village.

The newest project is to start a pig-farming project where the elderly members of the community are each given a pig to raise. They would then be able to sell the pigs and buy some more, not only making the project self-sustaining but bringing the community together. The project along with the existing ponds to keep fish will help to make many of the elderly people in the village self-reliant.
So what are the challenges?

Like any other organisation working in Malawi, Ovaha's Hut faces lots of different challenges. They are constantly on the look-out for donations of learning materials and for training materials for the volunteer teachers. They also need an increasing number of volunteers to help run the projects. Ovaha's Hut is currently in the process of raising the funds to build two shelters - one for the Nursery School and the second for the Elderly Shelter. Further challenges lie in; providing food to the children who attend the nursery school, providing medical assistance and items such as soap, salt, sugar and food supplements especially for the elderly.

What about the future?
Despite facing many challenges, Lawrence and the team at Ovaha's Hut plan to open a place for the youth in the community, a place where they can learn new skills to help them find employment. Not only is the aim to help the youth develop new skills but it’s hoped that they will become role models for the community.
Lawrence Matembezi Ngwemba is committed to the development of Ovaha’s Hut. He works hard to help the community and wants to inspire others to do likewise. He’s about as close to the ordinary Malawian as you can get, growing up in the village and now based in Blantyre, he continually works hard to do what he can for others.

Written by Alli Coyle, January 2013
About the Author
Alli Coyle is a PhD researcher based at the Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh. Having lived, worked and conducted research in Malawi, she has actually never visited Ovaha’s Hut. With a keen interest in the development of education in Malawi and the links that Malawi has with Scotland, she often contributes to projects and development initiatives which relate to education and development. Experienced as a researcher and practitioner, she is in the final stages of her PhD researching the partnership between Scotland and Malawi with a focus on Education

Ovaha's Hut is moving forward

It started in the mind of young boy, whose his background has got nothing sweet to count on, but because a vision doesnt cost any money, it just want you to have a good time alone. Now see Ovaha's Hut going under a building process in pictures.

Stumps removed from the place where Ovaha's Hut
will be settled.

He was there to make sure that everything is in its place,
 no biting time but security time.

Tea time after a heavy work, with some
 of the kids who has witness the goodness
of Ovaha's Hut.

Refreshment time

Wooooooow refreshement time, after tea its now time for soft
drinks, to make the through not to feel jealousy.

Colors of the dreams

All our dreams, want Ovaha's Hut to be like this
picture and we all know that by all means this picture will come out exactly and people will see it.


From the mind to ideas from ideas to plan from plan to reality.

This ruins was a very nice house in some 27 years ago, and this house its where the founder of Ovaha's Hut (Lawrence Matembezi Ngwemba) has been raised by his grandmother. Born from a poor background its nothing, better you have a big  heart, big mind, big thoughts with God all things shall come to reality. This pillar is here till now for future exaplanations.

Even the child was at her back, the woman worked
untill to the end, her mind was not of today but the great things to come.

Biggest support come from all the sides of directions
and women are so precious and strong.

Working hard

Lawrence Matembezi Ngwemba in black short and black T/shirt working with the community.

making life easy for the other people to join in, its good to be a leadre than to be a boss

Much work to be done; they benefited at Ovaha's Hut, now working with all courage.

Bringing something out of nothing

At the end the place is clean, next time we will show
you structures, have a good time, be blessed always.

Great sons and daughters from the U.S.

People were made to operate under different arenas and anything  that we do brings changes in one or two people. support is support no matter what time it take for you to be supported. The picture below helped Ovaha Nursery school to have international learning materials.

Thank you guys for you support, this should not be your first time to help the kids in Malawi especially in my village, we are still looking forward to see you coming to Malawi.