Day Four – Meeting with Mvano

Mvano is the Chichewa word for Guild.  Most of our links are within the community and very few through the churches, however the both the Guilds are linked.  In the past our Guild has supported the Mvano to try and develop a honey project and raise broiler chickens. Neither project has been sustainable.  Our key message for the meeting was that our Dunblane Guild would like to continue to support Mvano but we had to move more towards sustainable projects.  The Mvano women agreed that they would also like this and are going to try the broiler chickens again if funding is agreed by our Guild in Dunblane.

Part of Mvano meetings also include lots of singing and dancing  and we weren’t disappointed.  What a beautiful voices these women have!  There was one song where each of the villages is called out and the women dance. Well, even Jenni and I were called out and did our own version of a highland fling, much to the delight of Mvano!  In total, over the two hour meeting, there must have been about 35 women in attendance.  Pretty impressive!