Origin and history
The VZW Chabwino is the continuation of all the projects that the VZW Non Profit Belgium has started since 2010 in Malawi. In addition, there is also an education project in which children from different villages are accommodated in a newly erected school building. Education is primarily aimed at social development and, if possible, literacy. This gives them the opportunity to better integrate into regular education later on.
The non-profit organization Non Profit Belgium was founded in 2007, after various teams of care facilities provided medical and psychological assistance to the victims of the tsunami in Sri Lanka.
Shortly after the tsunami in South-East Asia at the end of 2004, the LBC/ACV white-collar workers' union and the Verbond der Verzorgingsinstituut jointly took the initiative to send teams of health and welfare workers to Sri Lanka to meet the greatest health needs.
When the 6 teams returned at the end of 2007, a non-profit organization was set up to start a school in a tea plantation in Sri Lanka and to support a home for the elderly and people with a mental handicap.
In mid-2009, a call was launched through a fourth pillar forum to set up a health care project within an existing YOCE education project in the Sitima region of southern Malawi. After a thorough investigation of the region, it was determined that structural nutritional deficiencies were at the root of the manifest malnutrition of the villagers.
A team of Non-Profit Belgium with doctor Gunter De Win and nurses Jan Foubert and Karine Haerinck went to six villages in the Sitima region for research. Severe poverty, chronic malnutrition, lack of drinking water and health care were observed in a region with a lot of malaria and HIV infections.
In order to find a structural solution for chronic malnutrition, we collaborated with Toon Driesen, who, as part of his anthropology training, carried out ethnographic fieldwork for 6 months to investigate the causes of poverty and malnutrition. Based on his findings, it was decided to set up a food bank.
Karine Haerinck, founder and driving force of the project, stayed in Malawi from August 2011 to March 2012 to start up the project. It is currently being continued by the local farmers under the supervision of our non-profit organization Chabwino.
In 2017, construction of a school for pre-schoolers started in the village of Chabwera.
Every year Karine goes on a working visit to coach and steer the project.
Pierre Mahy, our former secretary and treasurer, went on a working visit in 2018 to check irrigation development and working with oxen.
Education in the school in Chabwera received a big boost when Kathleen van Lembergen did her sustainable development internship there for 3 months in 2018. Educational and didactic material was provided and a vegetable garden was laid out.
In 2019, dentist Christian Beckx and wife Lut worked for a week in the villages where they treat tooth decay and the habit of brushing teeth was started in the school.
2020: A maize mill building is erected.
The basic condition is that the total effect takes further shape and is supported by the local population. The decisions of the people on the ground are led by the local coordinator Winnedi Mangwino