A water pump project marks a 50-year association between a West of Ireland family and Malawi. Lorna Siggins writes
Zikomo is the Chichewa word for "thank you" in Malawi. It is also the name of a Galway group which has bought and recently installed 100 water pumps north of Zomba, capital of the central African state.
The project marks a 50-year association between a West of Ireland family and the Malawi people. Sid Geraghty worked for 18 years as a water engineer in what was formerly Nyasaland, and he and his Galway wife, Brighid Hanley, had three of their four children there.
Two of those four, Margaret and Cathy, were among a group of 11 from Galway who travelled out this Easter to work with 12 Malawian members of the Irish non-governmental organisation, Self Help.
Malawi, lying between Zambia and Mozambique and bounded by the 365-mile-long lake Malawi, has grown from a country of three million to 12 million people in 30 years. The Geraghtys were children when the country achieved independence in 1964, and recall that while their father was building large water schemes for the towns in the 1960s, they were bringing water to the fields in rural communities. When their mother died there, they kept in contact with their cook, Edwin Mangani, who was to become an important link in the Zikomo scheme.
It was Margaret Geraghty, now a teacher in Galway, who was the prime mover. Initially, she sent emergency aid to Malawi during the 2002 famine, along with Clare O'Sullivan and Malawian Jane de Hora. The aid was distributed through church networks by her childhood friend, Mr Mangani, who was now working as a pastor.
The group received such support in Galway, through events like poetry readings and a midsummer night's celebration in Castle Ellen in Athenry, that it decided to continue, and Zikomo became firmly established. Altogether, more than €40,000 was raised. "Every cent went to Malawi, for we all paid for the trip out at Easter ourselves," Margaret Geraghty says.
The Zikomo members agreed the approach should be empowering, rather than charitable. "We decided that it was more important to find a way to help people to grow more food for themselves. The land there is so fertile that sometimes telegraph poles sprout branches," Margaret Geraghty says. "When the rains come in October, Malawians can feed themselves. When the rains fail, they can starve.Getting water to the fields not only means the difference between life and death; if properly produced, the land can produce two harvests a year."
Working with Self Help, Zikomo bought and distributed pumps among farmers' irrigation clubs, women's groups and youth groups. The 100 pumps were installed over six days and are "low-maintenance".
Using pedal power, some 500 litres of water can be circulated from nearby boreholes and rivers to the fields. As one community representative said afterwards, "now we will be able to grow crops right throughout the years".
As each community was taking care of up to 40 AIDS orphans, Zikomo also bought and supplied blankets and clothes for 1,000 children, drugs for three clinics, seed, and footballs for youth groups.
Women's groups told Zikomo their main requirement was support for income-generating activities, such as selling fish and producing extra crops. They also need literacy training, pointing out that they still used their fingerprints in the bank.
Zikomo aims to continue the association, and the Geraghtys marvel at the Malawians spirit. Margaret Geraghty quotes an old Arab proverb: "He who drinks of the waters of Africa will return thereafter to quench his thirst." She hopes the Zikomo efforts, supported by people in Galway, may help to quench the thirst of many.