A girl, maybe 12 years old, appears at the door of the office. She knocks tentatively and takes a timid step forward each of the four times she is encouraged to come in. It is my first day as an intern at Link Community Development in Mulanje, a small town in the south of Malawi. The girl is wearing an oversized pink satin dress. She kneels down and speaks quietly in conversation with Michael Mulenga, LCD Mulanje’s project manager. He hesitantly gives her some money, she turns to me and waves, and then she leaves.
“That girl, she was saying she’s looking for employment. I asked her why she was not in school and told her that dress, the one she was wearing, it costs more than a school uniform. You see, her parents are divorced and she lives with her mum. I said, does your mother endorse you going around like this and not at school? She was saying she has no food, that’s why I gave her the MKW50. But she’ll go around and some man, he will give her MKW200 and she will end up impregnated. You see what we deal with? It’s lack of parental guidance.”
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The focus of my research, here in Malawi, is on the type and range of mental health and well-being provision for children and young people. By focusing on this I am not disregarding the many factors that contribute to a vulnerable child’s well-being- such as food, clothing and shelter. Rather, my aim is to examine the extent to which emotional needs are met and perceived alongside these basic, material needs.
Through my research so far, I have come across a variety of interpretations and understandings of emotional well-being. In many areas I have been assured that it is extremely important to meet the emotional needs of, for example, orphans and, more specifically, those in foster families who have little time or resources to offer their newly acquired sons and daughters.
When probing further into the type of support or activities they consider suitable to meet such needs, the answers range from prayers and reading the Bible to games and dance. Those who have received training talk of ‘memory books’ and the ‘Tree of Life’. These activities encourage children to look back over their life and the troubles they have faced. The focus is then on the positive, highlighting the ways in which they have dealt with these difficulties, to become aware of their inner strength and to share these experiences for other children to learn from. In the ‘Tree of Life’ children are encouraged to think about what they would like to achieve in the future and plan ways in which they can accomplish this.
The future is a strong feature of these activities. As one woman told me, it is the future that is often the biggest cause of stress for these children. They worry about how they will provide for themselves and for their siblings; the future to them can look very bleak and this in turn leads to mental health issues, such as suicidal thoughts or substance abuse.
Travelling through the country I have also discovered a movement of mental health professionals. In particular, there are more and more people training to support and advocate for those with learning disabilities. In the north of Malawi, in a town called Mzuzu, there is a centre called St John of God. Here they have a service for children with learning disabilities. Not only do they provide specialist education for them, they also work in the local community raising awareness on these issues and offer extensive support and advice for the families of such children.
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This is my third day at Link Community Development and so far I have learnt a lot about the work of Mother’s Groups in providing counselling and encouragement to vulnerable children. Tomorrow I will be visiting a local Special Needs resource centre and will meet a specialist teacher there. Although capacity is low, the will to instil change is high. I look forward to assisting this movement in the future.
Rosie Bacon, MSc student in Malawi
