Written by: Geoffrey, Chikumbutso, Laura-Lynn & Nicole

After a wonderful welcoming dinner with the whole group meeting for the first time on Saturday night, the programme of the exchange started out with the visit by representatives from the District Offices on Sunday morning. The distinguished guests were:

Steven Chilombo – Information Officer
Christopher Sande – Journalist
McNeil Shire – District Youth Officer
Austin Kamanula – District Labour Officer
Mrs. Wane – Public Administration Officer

DC Labour Officer (Austin Kamanula) said the government is looking forward to the re-establishment of vocational centres for the youths who don’t work, because currently there are only three vocational centres. Of those centres there is only one used now. Natalia Seriakova, the German team leader and representative of JuBuK talked about the aim of exchange in brief and gave a little background on how the Germany – Malawi exchange started.

Our project made it into one of Malawi’s local newspapers. Follow the link to read the article:

http://www.svo-news.com/pages/Chikwawa-youths-challenged-to-bring-development-plans.html?fbclid=IwAR3hkqgeP5vVk189n0b21MGAUsA-DB1loJU317qNtPu54dUcElEByeEKCiM

In March and April the German group got together for two meetings, getting to know each other, answering the most burning questions and collecting ideas on how to raise the remaining 25% of funding for the project.

The second meeting started off with a very funny and promising video call with the Malawian Team. Everybody introducted himself/herself and we got to ask the remaining questions that have been keeping us awake at night :).

Here’s a glimpse of the Malawian Team:

We couldn’t wait to finally get to Malawi after having met the Malawian team online. So when we eventually touched Malawian ground and made it through the lenghty immigration procedure, we were so happy to say hi to James, Chisomo, Grace and our driver Seth who thankfully picked us up at the airport and drove us safely to our first accommodation right next to beautiful Lake Malawi.

When Natalia Seriakova, co-founder of JuBuK e.V. from Essen, met January Mvula, founder of SURCOD Malawi, at a Masterpeace Bootcamp in the Netherlands, they laid the foundation for a promising partnership.

Natalia Seriakova will tell us more about the intense planning phase herself… to be continued.

We started this blog to share with the world what our youth exchange is about. In order for us to get together, discuss and create meaningful and lasting projects, we need more than just our own participation. We need people coming on board and sharing our visions. Thanking you for showing interest in the work we do and for supporting us!