The Duwa Project

Published on Jun 16, 2016

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PRESENTATION OUTLINE

The Duwa Project

Malawi, Africa

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While walking to the village following the conclusion of the Women's Project, one of the guardians called us to her home. She and a few family members were singing and dancing. My friend and I said, "what is all of this about?!" She said, "because of you, this is the first and only day I have bought tea and bread for my family." And we said, "no, no! This was because of YOU!" She and her family members continued to sing and dance, and we joined in!

In 2010, I traveled to Malawi.

This was a 2 week mission trip I took with my church. While there I completely fell in love with the people and culture.

Known as "The warm heart of Africa", Malawi is home to a welcoming, friendly population. That is exactly what I experienced while visiting for 2 weeks and felt pulled to come back for longer.

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While living in Malawi in 2011 for just under 7 months, I was set to help teach at the christian school in the village. Each day after school was over, I would play with the kids, but I would also walk around getting to know the women who are known as "guardians."

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These guardians are sisters, aunts, mothers, or grandmothers of aids orphans. Malawi is a non-adoptive country. They believe in keeping the family together, so if a child loses a parent to Aids, another family member will step in and step up to care for that child- no matter the cost.

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I was so inspired by these women that I thought people should know about them, who they are, and hear their stories. The Women's Project was born.


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Every Tuesday following bible study, a friend and I taught the women a simple skill of sewing fabric flowers. We taught one step a day per week over the course of 8 weeks. The women came together and learned from one another.

They worked on the flowers at home and after the study.

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Once the project concluded, we bought the flowers from the women. We consulted with a local regarding a fair price (not too high, not too low) and paid the women. It was an amazing day.

The overall goal is to teach the guardians a skill that can bring in income should their primary source of income (crops) be threatened.

Communication Plan

Social Media

  • Hootsuite
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Hashtag

FREE

A chance to connect to an audience for free
-Can utilize pictures
-Can ask for donations/support
-Can share women's stories
-Can connect with people all over
-Can connect with older audience
-Will be first social media tool used
Photo by n.bhupinder

Free

Another free platform for connectivity
-Simple
-attention grabbing but can lead to links
-can utilize hashtags
-connect to more diverse audience

FREE

a picture is worth a thousand words
-can utilize pictures for product sales
-pictures for women's stories
-pictures for links to twitter and facebook
-call to action
-will be used alongside other social media platforms
Photo by JAMoutinho

Productivity

-increases productivity with bulk uploading
-engages social media users
-after creating social media profiles, will implement hootsuite with daily posts
Photo by Gaelen Norman

Connectivity

Hashtags connects carious social media platforms
-can be used by anyone to spread awareness of project
-will be used on any social media post
Photo by mikecogh

In person

  • elevator speech
  • call to action
  • product display
  • women's stories

Elevator Speech

-quick pitch about project
-can be told to anyone anwhere
-will be used from the get go
Photo by stovak

Call to action

-will be apart of elevator speech
-can be put on a card or pamphlet

Product display

-can carry around product examples
-show interested people or people who are curious
-will implement with elevator speech
Photo by Muffet

Women's stories

-Connects people with women
-reminds people the women are real people with real struggles
-follows elevator speech should person ask to know more

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Assessment/Evaluation

-check hashtag trends
-followers on facebook, twitter, instagram
-check donations
-check shares, retweets, regrams
-communicate with advisory board
-if after 1 month, no increase, reassess

Questions?

Comments?

The average person doesn't know where to start to make the world a better place.

Photo by Kevin M. Gill

We have a product that does just that...

You buy a flower and it empowers women in rural Africa to run their own businesses.

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Church of the City in Middle Tennessee partnered with a local church in Malawi to respond to the aids epidemic almost 15 years ago. While the stateside church brainstorms ways to be involved, they always go through the local church who is involved with the village regularly.
In the beginning, 100 families were chosen in the local village, Kauma, the village members chose the families. Out of the 100, 23 families who were most in need were built homes by the local and US churches. These collection of homes became known as Adziwa Gardens. Over the years, the community voiced their biggest concerns for the village- education, water, medicine.
Here is a recent picture of Adziwa Christian School. Adziwa means "He knows." in their language Chichewa which is from the bible verse, Jeremiah 29:11- For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you plans to give you a hope and a future.

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In the center, there's a water tap. This is a HUGE step for Adziwa. For the past several years, the closest clean water source was miles away- which of course had to be walked to. Because some of the guardians are elderly and have children in school, they would rely on closer water sources which were filthy and thick with disease.

In 2015, the first ever medical team went to Adziwa. In 2016, they returned and did a clinic for all 400 students of Adziwa Christian School.

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The village is doing well and the children are well taken care of!

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In 2015, according to Global Finance, Malawi was the 3rd poorest country in the world.

Now, in 2016, Malawi is #1

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Photo by khym54

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