Description of Peace Corps Volunteer Service

PCV: Bonnie Harvey Peace Corps Malawi

After a competitive selection process stressing the applicant’s skills, adaptability, and cross-cultural sensitivity Bonnie Harvey was invited into Peace Corps service. She accepted an assignment to serve in the Southern African nation of Malawi as an HIV/AIDS Community Advisor.

Bonnie Harvey entered an intensive eight-week training program on May 29, 2009. Training included 90 hours of Chitumbuka language and cross-cultural sensitization and 63 hours of technical information. Volunteers were imparted with knowledge of social and cultural factors affecting Malawi’s struggle with HIV/AIDS. They also learned about many societal challenges including maternal death, child mortality, malnutrition and environmental conditions leading to hunger. PCV, Bonnie Harvey, was briefed on the various government initiatives in Malawi, and the roles of and services offered by non-governmental agencies throughout the country. Throughout her training, cross-culture awareness and adaptation skills were integrated into the language and technical components. At the end of training, PCV Bonnie Harvey tested Intermediate-Advanced on the American Council on Teaching of Foreign Language (ACTFL) scale and continued developing her language skills through conversations and programs at site.

Bonnie Harvey successfully completed training and was sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer on 29 July, 2009. She was posted under the Ministry of Health at Usisya in Nkhata Bay district to work with local villages and community-formed groups and to identify motivated Malawian counterparts throughout the area. Her main goal was to transfer skills and knowledge to local counterparts and village groups, and to encourage and support their efforts to better their livelihoods. Her responsibilities were to work with local peoples to assess and identify the greatest needs in the community and to develop locally appropriate projects to address those needs and improve the overall quality of living of the area in which she lived and worked.

Bonnie Harvey’s accomplishments within Malawi’s HIV/AIDS project include civic education, health care assessment, and community research. Her largest focus was working with AIDS education through a local NGO, Temwa, in helping them to create AIDS Action clubs in 30 area schools. Bonnie served as a matron to her closest club and aided in the creation of curriculum, assessment of progress and needs, and patron training for the remaining 29 schools. Through her they were also able to gather resources (such as radios, AIDS educational tools, and pamphlets) which aided the youth in self learning and teaching their local communities. In addition to her work with area schools, she also worked with a local youth CBO, Chigwirizano, to help them create an income generating activity (IGA). The money earned would then support their work with Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVCs) and Home Based Care (HBC) of People Living with HIV (PWLH) in eight area villages. The group was supplied with and trained in the process of growing and pressing groundnuts for oil production. They now work with over 20 farmers in the local area and have created a supply chain which allows for IGA for the community and the organization.

Furthermore, in the community Harvey spent many hours assessing and helping at the local ARV clinics. Through this time she was able to work with the staff to open up the clinic hours to accommodate patients and make the event a weekly instead of monthly activity. In addition, a need was found for mosquito nets and thus 200 nets were brought in through PSI Malawi to be given to patients currently on the roster for ARVs with the Usisya Health Clinic.

Outside of her village, Harvey worked with Livingstone Synod AIDS Program, and area NGO, in a month long research project on PMTCT. She traveled with a research team to three districts (Nkhata Bay, Mzimba, and Rhumpi) and worked to compile a report looking at male involvement in the continued uptake of HIV in children born to mothers living with HIV/AIDS. The report has since been published and serves as a guide to health care workers in and outside of Malawi.

In addition to her primary job responsibilities, Bonnie Harvey worked with a greater audience on secondary projects. The largest of these was in the area of water and sanitation. With this she worked with the local District Hospital to conduct a training on water and sanitation which included: hygiene, sanitation platform construction, water security, and community service. Local volunteers and Health Surveillance Assistants (HSAs) who participated in the event are now working in their local villages with knowledge gained and in IGA activities through the sale of sanitation platforms. In addition, Harvey has worked to build capacity and efforts to bring water security to the area. By holding meetings with interested parties she has laid the ground work for fixing a faulty gravity scheme with supplies water to the area, distribution of water filters for the household level, and borehole construction by both percussion drilling and mechanical means.

While most time was spent on the two before mentioned areas of health, Bonnie Harvey also worked in other areas where needs were found. These areas include: leadership trainings with area youth clubs, IT support at the local secondary school, book donations to a local library, and gender awareness training with health care workers. In addition, daily life was filled by being a part-time teacher at Usisya Day Secondary School in Biology and English Literature, and counselor at a girl’s camp (Camp GLOW) organized and run by fellow PCVs. Looking outside of her own village she worked with her local NGO, Temwa, in the distribution of an AIDS education video to all Malawi Peace Corps Volunteers. The video, created originally for local use, is now being seen country wide in schools and communities with other PCVs and communities.