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A Year Summarized and What’s To Come

Although the past year wasn’t an easy one, we managed to continue our SMART activities. We have completed some successful projects in the past year and some changes were made in our team. In this article, we’ll look back at our year in an overview, as well as take a look at what’s next for the SMART Centre.

Changes in the team

The biggest change in our team in 2020 was the fact that Hans Kasbergen left Mzuzu and therefore his role at the SMART Centre. Though we were sad to see him go, he is currently back in Malawi and comes to say hi every now and then.

Some big changes are due this month, as Johan and Simone will leave the Centre at the end of January. They will confidently make space for the local staff to take over. James Mhango will follow in Johan his footsteps as the new Centre Manager starting this February. Andrew Kamanga will take on the communication tasks.

Calabash Training

Last year we managed to host a training while making sure all CoVID-19 preventive measurements were taken. This training consisted of constructing two 5000 liters calabash tanks for rainwater harvesting. The six day training was done in August 2020, facilitated by Clean Water – Healthy Village. There were ten participants who joined this training, divided into two groups of five. The training was very successful, the participants enjoyed their time and produced a quality calabash tank.

Project Handwashing

The year 2020 was marked by the global coronavirus pandemic, and an important measure to reduce the spread of the virus is to wash your hands frequently. We reached out to hospitals and markets in and around Mzuzu, as we understood these are gathering places where transmission levels of the virus are high. We successfully placed 50 handwashing facilities in hospitals and 100 at markets. The beneficiaries were very happy with this project and they have said it will really help stop the spread of the virus.

Take a look at the video of this project here.

What’s next

In 2021, the SMART Centre has its challenges cut out. The rising corona cases here in Malawi prevent us from planning much ahead. At the moment we are busy with handing over various tasks, to make sure the Centre will keep running smoothly with the shifts in management. There are plenty of trainings and projects in the pipeline, and we’re excited for what’s ahead. Keep an eye out on our social media accounts if you would like to stay up-to-date.

We’d like to thank our readers, donors, entrepreneurs, and everyone who has contributed to the SMART Centre in one way or another the past year. We are grateful for your continuous support.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

SimoneA Year Summarized and What’s To Come