Malawi

Although Malawi is a newly established democracy, its gains in political and individual freedom are tempered by continuing concerns about disease, drought, hunger, and environmental degradation. Malawi has one of the highest HIV/AIDS infection rates in the world. More than one million Malawians are infected with HIV/AIDS, with an estimated infection rate of 30 percent among urban adults between the ages of 14 and 45. These statistics, along with growing demands for education and environmental rehabilitation, reinforce the important role that Peace Corps Volunteers play in the country's development.

Health and HIV/AIDS

Volunteers work in rural communities as educators and counselors, teaching HIV/AIDS prevention strategies and counseling techniques to Malawian counterparts, patients, students, and community groups. Volunteers help communities translate the knowledge they already have about HIV/AIDS into behavioral change.

Environment

Malawi is one of the most densely populated countries in southern Africa. Ninety percent of the population, are partly or wholly dependent on forests for food, fuel, and building materials. In a dozen national parks and reserves around the country, Volunteers are serving as environmental educators and community coordinators. They work with residents of communities that surround national parks, forest reserves and neighboring protected areas to relieve human pressures on the natural environment, to develop sustainable plans for the utilization of the resources available, to increase food security, and to create income-generating activities.

Education

The government has implemented a free primary education policy that has swelled the ranks of schools and seriously strained the country's resources. Volunteers provide quality education to secondary school students, promote teacher-to-teacher interactions and collaboration, and encourage the exchange of experience and knowledge to improve methods of teaching. Volunteers have worked with their counterparts in sharing lesson plans, discussing strategies for teaching, evaluating students, and preparing exams. By establishing and organizing science laboratories, Volunteers have helped schools improve resources and administer national examinations in physical science and biology.

In addition to classroom teaching, Volunteers have helped to develop other resources. Volunteers, working with their counterparts and Ministry of Education officials, have developed teaching guides for English and physical science.

Last updated Sep 28 2008