Summary of project status and achievements:
This month was mostly spent planning in the Women’s Centre. Savings circles continued as usual. The Road 44 Savings Circle will most probably start again in February, when the women are more available to attend. Though attendance has diminished in past months, due to rains and cultivation schedules, the women are confident that attendance rates will return to normal in the coming months. There were no outreach workshops or SGBV four-day workshops this month, due to budget cuts.
Doreen, the UNHCR Assistant Protection Officer, stopped by the Women’s Centre several times this month to ask questions about the activities the women are doing.
Future activities and projections:
In the coming month, the Women’s Centre will start a 6-8 week Outreach Workshop in Block C, beginning February 2nd. The workshop will be using materials that were brought to Meheba some time ago, and will be combining knitting instruction with topics on SGBV, Reproductive Health, and Childcare and Nutrition. Ten women are currently registered. On February 9th, a four-day SGBV workshop will begin. This workshop will also be held at Road 26. The women are still registering participants and are hoping to enroll 20-30 community members. The curriculum is geared towards a younger population, potentially made up of recent graduates who are around waiting for their results to come out. Fliers were posted throughout the camp.
Indicators and statistics:
Substantial problems or issues:
We may need to temporarily take on additional staff members for the coming month(s). Jacqui, the project coordinator, had her baby almost one month earlier than expected, so she is now on maternity leave. Florinda, our part-time employee, has been in Lusaka since early January due to significant health problems. We are therefore left only with Annita, who is working half-time, to run all 5 savings circles and 2 workshops simultaneously. I propose that we push Annita back up to full-time (which will happen when the budget returns to normal next month anyway) and temporarily re-hire Dyness at half-time for one month (February). Otherwise, we will almost certainly have to cut programming this month.
Wishes or requests:
See above.
