Strart of the foundation

 My journey through East Africa:

 I have been to Africa several times and each time I was touched by the genuine friendliness and cheerfulness of the people I met. What struck me most was how heartfelt and hospitable they were, despite the fact that they live on so much less than we do. My last trip was a journey of almost two months through East Africa where I had been before. This time I travelled in an “overland truck” and slept in a tent which brought me even closer to the local people. In Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania I felt the same friendliness again and again without ever asking for anything in return.

But it was in Malawi where this feeling hit me the most. Malawi is ranked fourth as one of the poorest countries in the world. With an average annual income of only €500 and for many farmers even less, they live in conditions that are hard for us to imagine. 80% of the country consists of farmers who own a small piece of land.

This group lives a very uncertain life because the harvests fail due to the drought and on the other hand due to too much rain in the spring they can only sow late on their small piece of land which is poor and exhausted. They grow mainly for themselves and if they have anything left they barter it with neighbours or sell it along the road for clothes or soap. The very poorest gather wood from the forest and make charcoal from it, which they sell along the side of the road or at a market and which hardly yields anything.

Despite their great poverty I felt more welcome than in other East African countries. How is it possible: so many nice, social and even cheerful people and at the same time so very poor? 

 The real pearl of Africa;

Refers to the impressive Lake Malawi, which is one of the largest lakes in the world. Roughly 600x60 square kilometers and in places hundreds of meters deep. But for me the true meaning of that name lies in the pearly white teeth of the always smiling children and adults I met there. After a long drive in our truck, over bumpy roads with enormous holes and potholes in the road and therefore we could never drive faster than an average of 25 km per hour, we finally arrived at Kande Beach. It was our place to spend the night, located halfway on the west side of the lake.

The last part we drove through Mbamba Village Kande, over dirt roads that sometimes looked more like ponds than roads. Everywhere cheerful children waved at us and they ran along with our truck. Not to beg, but purely out of enthusiasm and curiosity. 

We stayed a few days in Kande Beach and walked through the village a few times where children walked with us, while their parents watched us kindly. In the Netherlands you would think: "What do they want from me?" But here they don't want anything from you, only contact. At the gates of the campsite there were sellers of wood carvings and paintings waiting for the tourists. They are not allowed on the site themselves so they wait patiently for the few tourists who still come. Tourism has declined enormously in recent years, partly due to the bad roads and partly due to the polluted water of the lake. I asked if someone could paint a photo of my son, a photo from years ago when we went on a family holiday in Tanzania. My son who is now very ill and was still healthy then. And then Rodger was called in because he could paint. Rodger is a man of about 40 years old. We talked for a whle, he told me about his children, whom he had to temporarily withdraw from school because he could no longer afford their uniforms and the food, and I told him about my daughter who is pregnant and my son who is very ill. Rodger promised to do the painting and the next morning at six o'clock he would be waiting for me at the gate with the painting.

Rodger's idea:

 At half past five there was a knock on my door, it was Rodger. Not with a painting but with an idea and whether I wanted to listen to him. He had been so taken with the story of my son Ivar that he had asked the medicine man that evening if he could make Ivar better. The medicine man had said that he might be able to do so but first he had to make a specially formulated medicine. There was only one ingredient of the medicine in the village, the others would have to be picked up on the way and luckily that was in the direction of the airport where I had to go anyway. Lovingly, sincerely and with conviction he asked if I wanted to try it. How could I say no?

I will never forget that day. At six o'clock ten boys gathered at the gate and helped me to tie my two months' worth of luggage onto the scooter. At that moment I felt weak, I had a headache for the last three days, had hardly eaten and felt feverish. I hoped that I would not really get sick because apart from that day I felt very well for the past two months. 

The medicine man joint with us as well. We set off on two motorbikes through the pouring rain. On the way we had to stop three times to refuel and collect the ingredients for the medicine man. In the meantime it started raining harder and harder and we decided to wait until it would dry up a bit. It all took a very long time and when you are not feeling well it feels like it takes even longer. We decided to continue carefully, the roads were dangerously slippery and covered with brown very slippery mud. To make matters worse, we stopped in front of a large hole in the main road of two meters deep. Everything had been washed away by the heavy rain. Nobody seemed to care and there were long lines, with mainly trucks waiting calmly. We donated 60 cents to the local people who were trying to make the road passable again with simple hand tools (pickaxes), because you can expect little from an almost bankrupt government here. 

At one point we were able to continue with the scooters but for the trucks this must have taken several days!

 We could drive on and get the magical water. That meant that we had to walk more than seven kilometers through puddles and mud and then cross the river by boat. The medicine man could finally prepare the medicine and then gave another ten minutes of explanation on how to use the medicine, he asked me to film everything. Done! No, we ended hand in hand with a long prayer for Ivar. After the ceremony we could continue towards my van that would take me to the next station. We said goodbye to each other and I folded myself up in a very small, very old van that was standing on the market square. Every time it stopped to let people in and out and every time the sliding door fell out. Luckily I was allowed to sit in the front and hoped to have more space there, but that was not the case, someone else came to sit in the front and so I was stuck for hours. A bit of driving and waiting again, after six hours of driving and waiting I was only one third of the way through the journey! And we had to drive for at least another six hours. From the small bus I changed to a slightly nicer bus, gradually the roads also got a bit better, but still very bad. I was put in the back of the bus, completely folded up on a few child seats and could hardly move between the fellow passengers and all the luggage that was piled up around you and even put on your feet. After sitting in one position for hours I was really completely exhausted. Finally I rolled into my lodge at 23:30. As a welcome there was a (cold) hamburger waiting for me. I threw myself on a dirty bed and as tired as I was I could not sleep, I did not feel well.and the images of the past 17 hours came back to my head, from motorbike to busses and holding with the medicine men.

And I felt the love, joy and selflessness that I had experienced there, which has become almost unthinkable in our world. You have to experience this to believe it. 

Even when I was back home, I kept in touch with Rodger. He regularly called to ask how my son was doing. Even the lodge's cleaning lady, whom I had only spoken so briefly, let me know she was praying for him.

Foundation 100% Malawi 

And that's how my foundation 100% Malawi was born. In a village where people have almost nothing, no beds, hardly any clothes or household goods, they still take care of each other and even strangers! They sleep under blankets that we don't even consider worthy as a cleaning cloth and the roofs leak because they can't afford the repairs. Many people go to sleep early just to avoid feeling hungry. All this together led me to ask Rodger at one point if I could do something. I actually expected them to ask for clothes, beds or houses to be repaired. But no, they really only asked for the basics: corn, soap and sugar, nothing more.

Then you realize that many people are in an even worse condition than you thought. You have to have been to Africa to understand this at all.

Action:

I immediately took action. With an initial donation of a thousand euros we were able to buy a thousand kilos of maize, plus soap and sugar. There are now five men who coordinate the distribution, including Rodger and the medicine man. They send videos of the purchases they make at the local market, so that the local community can also benefit. They show me how they organize the distribution and keep track of all expenses on a block emergency. They have even started mapping the most urgent cases, at the request of the village elders, who need help the most. It is wonderful to see how seriously Rodger takes his task and keeps sharing it with me and thus shows that it works!

And now? Now is the time to really get started with this!

In these times of: "first your own people I thought it would not be easy to get people enthusiastic about Malawi 100%. It is quickly said that it is the fault of the governments there (which is sometimes true, but what can the population do about it?) but realize that these people work hard to keep their heads above water, unemployment is high, there is hardly any paid work in that area, you have to work very hard to grow something or sell some coal. The country itself has no raw materials, many people are seriously ill with malaria, AIDS or have an aggressive virus that occurs in the water of the lake. Malawi experiences major climate peaks, they struggle with heavy rainy seasons and then very dry periods, which often causes the harvest to fail.

I still believe that we in the Netherlands have a social heart and are still prepared to give. I think what many people especially dislike is the overhead, so what sticks to the well-known bow. This can amount to tens of percent for large foundations/charities! That is why I decided that when setting up this foundation, 100 percent of the donations really go to Malawi. We ask every donor to pay €0.30 extra to cover the bank transaction costs. Every euro you donate really goes to that 100 percent because all costs that I/we make are paid by sponsors or are donated in the form of free services such as the notary, site builder etc.

This makes 100% Malawi a unique foundation where 100% of your donations really go to charity to give a village with about 1000 families a slightly more liveable existence! Only together can we make an impact. Giving and caring for a more worthy life of a fellow human being also feels good. 

The knife cuts both ways, how cool is that!