Erik de Jong

We got up very early today so we could join the online SHANTU Project Progress Presentation for Taiwan’s Ministry of Education (MOE) together with Xinzhuang Elementary School and Chiputula Primary School. The call between the two schools was to greet and get to know each other for the first time, and propose potential future collaborations.

We stayed our weekend away from Mzuzu and had a relaxing time in a small village in Manchewe. Our hostel was located on the edge of a cliff overlooking Lake Malawi, and the view was stunning! All of us hiked around the Manchewe waterfall on Saturday for three hours through the Manchewe community, a cave,

Today we first went to a meeting at the District Health Office (DHO) but many of the team members were occupied so the meeting was postponed. Therefore, we tried to get coffee, but there was a blackout so we headed over to Chiputula Primary School to help out in the garden. The garden is really

We cancelled our original plan with the District Health Office (DHO) to verify COVID-19 immunization information because we got the news that there are planned demonstrations in the Center of Mzuzu. The demonstration was against the high cost of living in Malawi. The locals advised us to avoid the city centre because the demonstrations in

Today we started our pre-assessment questionnaire at Chiputula Primary School! The main purpose of the pre-assessment questionnaire was to understand the students’ pre-existing nutrition knowledge, so that we can plan exciting activities with new nutrition information. Between our three groups (standard 5, 6, and 7), we assessed over a thousand students! We had a lot

We started our day with an Emergency Operation Center (EOC) meeting at Mzimba North District Health Office (DHO) from 9 am. We discussed the upcoming polio vaccination campaign plan and shared updates on current preparation statuses, including service delivery, finance, monitoring and supervision, vaccines and cold chain, social mobilization, and surveillance. We will take turns

This weekend we started off with a day trip to the Butterfly Space Lodge, a beach by Lake Malawi. Despite another blackout, the restaurant and the view were stunning. By the water, there was a pool table, bar and deck area that had tables and hammocks. There were many other foreigners and locals enjoying the

The morning started very eventfully! We had our first opportunity to teach about nutrition deficiency diseases to standard 7 students. Today, two of the classes were combined so the class was even larger than normal! We had about 60 students in class, and Rena started the lesson by sharing a bit of Japanese with the