Do You Know? The Great Journey of Rural Community Leaders Vol. 2

Easter / Travel Fee Campaign special series

Do you know how ARI participants go through the process of coming to Japan? ARI is currently running a four-part series following the participants’ journey to ARI as part of a Campaign.
The second in this series is Veh from Malawi, who came back to ARI as a Training Assistant this year.
She is a bit of a famous in her hometown of Lilongwe. This is because she is a radio personality! With her low, smooth, beautiful voice, she is in charge of an agricultural program. It was through an encounter with one of her listeners that she came to know about ARI.

[Veh, 2018 graduate from Lilongwe, Malawi]

Venitta Kaduya (Veh) is from Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi. She grew up in an urban environment, which is unusual for an ARI participant, and she never imagined that someday she would travel beyond the borders of her country. One day, while working as a radio personality for a farmers’ program, a man came to her and said, “Your program is great, but you could learn a lot more. Have you ever heard of a place called ARI?”

That was the first time she heard about ARI. She thought it was only as far as Zimbabwe or South Africa, but later learned it was in Japan. She was curious, and her radio station was supportive, but Japan was a completely unknown country for her. Also, she was hesitant to leave her family behind, especially since the youngest of her three children was only 16 months old. However, it was her family who encouraged her to go, even though their emotions were mixed. “Life has many dimensions. You need to go out and learn,” said her husband and mother, who looked after the kids while she was gone.

She was accepted as a participant in 2018 and completed the 9-month training program with a scholarship from the American friends of ARI (AFARI). Living in a far-off land for an extended period of time was not easy, but because she gained so much, she says it was absolutely worth it. ARI gave Veh not only knowledge of agriculture, but also helped her grow mentally and physically. “The institute is a place that changes people,” she says. “People at ARI change, and I changed too.” With her eyes and heart opened in this way, Veh returned home with the courage to improve her community.

Back in Malawi, the first initiative she took was to start a sanitary pad project. It is common for adolescent girls in her country to stop going to school simply because they don’t have sanitary pads. Because of this, they miss classes for a week each month during their menstrual period, fall behind, and eventually drop out. After that, there are few options open to them and some girls are forced to get married, even as young as age 14. ARI conducts a workshop on making reusable cloth sanitary pads as part of its training. Veh immediately saw how useful this could be in her community and when she got home, she approached the head teacher of a nearby primary school, to ask if she could teach this skill to the girls. “No problem. You can start,” was the immediate reply. This was kind of a shock, because topics like this can be taboo in this society. So, for the last 7 years she has been teaching the girls how to make their own pads. ¾ of the 2,300 strong student body are female, so there is no shortage of demand for this product. The school now employs a tailor to make the pads, but Veh ensures that the girls also know how to make them themselves.

Another project she started was to organize a group of women who use leftover food from the local market to make into compost, which they sell. They are turning other people’s waste into a steady income to support their families. Currently, as a Training Assistant in the FEAST (Food Education And Sustainable Table) section of ARI, Veh hopes to develop her knowledge of food preparation and preservation techniques to further improve the living skills of this group of women. In Malawi, where there are rainy and dry seasons, it is difficult to obtain vegetables stably throughout the year. So, by processing and preserving vegetables during the season when many are available, they can avoid buying vegies in the off season, when they are much more expensive. The money saved can be used for education and housing.

Veh is excited to connect with this year’s participants. They will arrive with both excitement and anxiety, and likely have the same difficulties and culture shock she faced when she was a participant. She is looking forward to helping them adjust to ARI life and get the most out of this unique learning experience.
I’m wondering what the future holds behind her calm eyes, and look forward to seeing her continue to learn and grow and work for people.