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MANUFACTURING | MARVELS Orphans Welding in Malawi A MINNESOTA MANUFACTURING PROJECT by Brigitte Zimmerman and Fred Zimmerman A few months ago, the manufacturing community in Minnesota received a request from the manufacturing community of Malawi, a small country in East Africa. Malawi is a hospitable but quite poor nation with an annual per capita gross domestic product of $800. Malawi, about the size of Mississippi, has a population of 14 million people with an average life expectancy of 43 years. The AIDS epidemic has hit the country hard, and an estimated 14 percent of the adult population is HIV positive. A high adult mortality rate has crippled the workforce. The economic strains of losing breadwinners and caring for the sick have thrown 84 percent of Malawian families into poverty, living on less than $5 a day. The people hardest hit by the crisis are the more than 1 million orphans left behind when AIDS and other illnesses and hardships take their parents. They are aging into a society that requires them to raise siblings and earn income long before they are prepared to do so. Fifty percent of primary school students drop out of school by fourth grade, due to lack of materials, poor classroom conditions and the demands of life in the home. This figure is much higher for orphans. Given the lack of alternatives to the traditional education system, the current challenge facing Malawian communities is developing options so youth that have dropped out of school still feel motivated to invest in their future. In a country where secondary school is a lofty, an almost unreachable idea for most of the population, children still deserve the BRIGITTE ZIMMERMAN is the program director for Goods for Good, a nonprofit organization assisting children in Africa. She can be reached at bazimm@gmail.com. Students looking over the equipment. luxury of setting goals and determining their own path. Instead of repeating a cycle of subsistence farming and poverty, the Malawian government is currently prioritizing skills training, vocational schools and other programs that provide an alternative to formal education through adulthood. This is particularly true for Malawian women. Eightysix percent of Malawian women earn a living outside the home through some economic activity, but only half of the female population is literate, compared to the 75 percent literacy rate in the male population. These women desperately need the opportunity to work in a more lucrative profession, especially as more children enter FRED ZIMMERMAN is a retired professor of engineering and management at the University of St. Thomas. He can be reached at zimco@visi.com. the home when friends and family pass away. The Luzi Orphan Care Welding Project Recently, Minnesota manufacturing assistance was requested to combat the dire circumstances of the lives of orphans in Malawi. Brigitte Zimmerman, Fred Zimmerman’s youngest daughter, lived in Malawi for the past year working for a nonprofit organization. She became acquainted with Luzi Orphan Care, a community organization that provides material, educational and psycho-social support to orphans. Through Brigitte, Luzi asked Minnesota manufacturers to participate in an innovative project to set up facilities to teach some of the young adult orphans a skilled trade. In this case, the trade was welding, for which there is some considerable demand in Malawi. Miscellaneous devices, door and window frames, and makeshift car parts are often fabricated from 18 | PRECISION MANUFACTURING November | December 2008
any new or used resources that might be available, so welding is an ongoing needed skill. Approximately $3,200 was raised from several members of the Minnesota manufacturing community. It is amazing what the Luzi volunteers accomplished. Within a few weeks, they purchased the equipment, got started on the training and built the welding shop. After construction was completed, they had an opening ceremony for local chiefs, which oriented them to the program and asked them to encourage locals to patronize the shop. Most importantly, the funds set up a program to train 850 orphans in welding, more than half of whom are girls. A highly detailed formal report, with cost statistics and photographs, was submitted by the Luzi Managing Director, Elijah Kathumba Gondwe: “I, Elijah Kathumba Gondwe, director, Luzi Orphan Care, on behalf of the local community of T/A Chiseka, in Mitundu, and on my own behalf, would like to thank you very much for the offer you had sent us to boost the Income Generating Activity (IGA) for our organization which is the Welding Shop Project.” The Luzi Orphan Care Welding Project gave all of us who participated a sense of hope for the situation facing orphans in Malawi. It is inspiring to see how the community enthusiastically came together to achieve something that will help develop their country with as little as $3,200. Not only will the welding project provide employment for at-risk youth, but the store will also offer much-needed materials to the community and the economic activity of the program will develop the area. Our hats are off to them. In addition, our hats go off to the members of the Minnesota manufacturing community who supported this effort. PM New welders. Elijah Gondwe accepting the donations. Construction of the Welding Shop. November | December 2008 PRECISION MANUFACTURING | 19
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