Considered one of the poorest countries in the world, citizens of Malawi are greatly affected by poverty and depend highly on agriculture for economic development. Nearly 80% of the population in Malawi is employed in an agricultural enterprise1. Recognizing this trend, Sr. Stivella Emily Macloud of the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary (SBVM) congregation in Malawi has used the skills she learned from SLDI to successfully fund a project that will allow her to train those experiencing poverty to grow and cultivate their own crops.
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Working in the gardens with program participants.
A nurse midwife by profession, Sr. Stivelia has served as hospital administrator in a health center in rural Malawi for over 16 years. Once she graduated from SLDI’s Finance Track in 2018 she reports that she implemented an auditing process at the health center and instituted counter measures to prevent theft and fraud. She also developed a budget for the health center which has allowed her to successfully plan for the center's future, better serving the community. All of these successes led to Sr. Stivelia being appointed as her congregation’s regional bursar and to her placement on the congregation’s project committee.
A woman program participant plants ginger.
As a member of the congregation’s project committee, Sr. Stivelia began working towards writing successful grant proposals that would allow the congregation to meet the highest priority needs of the community. In particular, it was identified that the Magareta Village in Neno district was in desperate need of assistance to pull community members out of the cycle of poverty and empower them to move out of dependency. Through this identified need, Sr. Stivelia initiated the Tiyende Limodzi Project, which currently serves seven individuals (the majority of which are widows and school drop outs) by teaching them to cultivate land and grow ginger crops. The seven participants have been able to use the congregation’s land as a demonstration garden, learning the skills to implement the crop on their own land, the proceeds of this work are then sold through the sisters’ network and given back to the program participants. It is hoped once complete the participants will continue to utilize the skills they have learned and mentor others to create a ripple effect in the community.
Sr. Stivelia feels that the most important skills sisters need to learn are those of social entrepreneurship and administration. She reports that these skills, especially those that are included in the SLDI curriculum, are vital to being able to effectively evangelize to the people. Sr. Stivelia is a shining example of the great impact the SLDI program has on its alumnae and the positive change that can result from their service.
