The last few weeks have marked a truly historic moment for Open Arms Infant Homes. Our Blantyre team travelled to Mangochi recently to support the final stage of transitioning all children in the Infant Home to Community-Based Care. This journey began several years ago with a brave idea and three tiny babies.
Back in 2023 in Blantyre, we trialled what we now call 'Community-Based Care' with just three babies and their extended families. These babies were referred to Blantyre Infant Home for urgent care but they had capable extended family members ready to take on their care, they just didn't have the support or resources they needed and the babies' lives were at risk. We worked closely to support these wonderful guardians to care for their children within their home by taking all of our support to them and working really closely with them.
The results were incredible and very quickly, every new referral in the Blantyre district was soon cared for within their own community. Over time, all children in temporary residential care were carefully reintegrated back with their families. We supported them at home with basic supplies and food, advice and access to medical care, providing for the baby but also the family unit as a whole, making sure that they could thrive in familiar supportive surroundings creating strong attachments that will set them up for life.
Mangochi Infant Home continued to support the children in its care until recently. It is quite a different region from Blantyre, and with our experience and insight, we knew the transition here would need its own approach. We began planning an introduction of Community-Based Care but had to suddenly adapt our ideas when two tiny girls were referred to Mangochi Infant Home for urgent care. The team discovered that they were actually triplets, with their brother and an older sibling living at home with their mum. The girls had become severely malnourished and she had sought help.
It was clear these girls belonged with their family, and after training and assessments the team quickly adapted their support and this wonderful family became the first family supported under Mangochi’s new Community-Based Care programme. The physical and social development of the girls was absolutely heart-warming to see and we knew Community-Based Care was the right approach.
Since then, every new referral into Mangochi Infant Home has joined the Community-Based Care programme and the team have done an incredible job of supporting seven young babies in their communities as well as maintaining the care of the 22 children in the Infant Home.
Reintegration is no small task, it involves staff, families, and Social Welfare working together to create individual plans and give extra support where needed. Before making any changes in the infant home, it was vital to engage with as many stakeholders as possible so the team held an open engagement meeting on 21st October.
55 people were invited to come and hear about the planned transition to community based care in Mangochi. There were members of the Mangochi District Social Welfare Department, Mangochi Ministry of Agriculture, local NGOs working in the same space at Open Arms and the local media. James Wandawanda (Open Arms Chair of Trustees) shared his vision for all children to be cared for at home and the insight gained from transitioning 28 children from Blantyre Infant Home.
"These children from a day old to 5 years are better off growing up with their close relations while we commit our support in every stage so that they develop a sense of belonging with their relations." - James Wandawanda
Mangochi District Assistant Social Welfare Officer, Harvey M'bwezo, hailed the initiative, saying that children will be given the opportunity to be raised by their family while also receiving the necessary support. They will render support in assessing homes of the children and ensure that the caregivers are aware of the children's rights.
On 22nd October, Mangochi Infant Home hosted a five-day training course for all guardians of the 22 children as well as the Mangochi care staff. There were 60 people in total who all stayed on site for the duration of the week long event. It was delivered by the local Social Welfare Department and the sessions focused on:
Our care staff took the opportunity to earn a professional childcare qualification, which will open doors to future employment. This is a huge step for many who previously lacked any formal credentials and the feedback was extremely positive.
We didn’t stop at the reintegration of children though, as it is vital that each family have the means to raise their children successfully for the long-term. So training also covered farming practices at home and in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture, guardians were shown example gardens and taught farming methods so that they could gain practical guidance of getting the most out of their own resources in the village.
Each of the families has joined our Graduation Programme, designed to help them become self-sufficient through farming. Families received enough hybrid maize seeds to plant one hectare of land, along with training on ridge building and best practices on spacing, planting and harvesting. With the right approach, each hectare can yield enough to feed the family and generate income.
Nelson, is a newly recruited member of the Mangochi team, and a former Agriculture Extension Officer in Mangochi, he is responsible for delivering this programme with 25 families carefully selected from the Mangochi district. All family gardens have been visited, inspected, advice for preparing and planting has been given. This expertise, combined with community trust and an understanding of roles and responsibilities has been well received by the whole community and excitement levels are high.
Communication is everything when working within communities and so every step of reintegration was carried out with government officials and village leaders. In communities, village chiefs are key to promoting accountability and community pride and this was evident in the way the children were welcomed back home like royalty and the way guardians have been preparing and protecting their family gardens. This is vital for a sense of shared ownership of the initiative and creating a positive ripple effect of the work.
We’re backing this up with more formal channels of safeguarding land rights for guardians and children, ensuring property can be passed down securely.
Now both Blantyre Infant Home and Mangochi Infant Home have transitioned to support children within communities, we need to take a moment to reflect on the huge shift. To be able to successfully evolve from running temporary care homes for children at risk to supporting all children to thrive within families from birth is all down to the incredible work of the Open Arms team in Malawi. Their dedication and commitment to advocating for children's rights and new models of care that set children up for a successful future has been transformational for the babies, families and communities we support.
You have also played an important role in reaching this milestone, we know the journey isn’t over and we have big ambitions to reach more children and their families who urgently need our support. From the first three babies welcomed back in 2023, we’re now supporting 70 children and their families on our Community-Based Care programme. Referrals and urgent requests continue to come to us from the Social Welfare teams and with your support we can work together to keep these children with their families and support them into long-term self-sufficiency.
If you are in a position to support this transformational work, please consider donating today.
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