Happy New Year to all our supporters, partners and more importantly our beneficiaries. As YONECO, we cherish your support and the fact that our masters; the youth, women and children have the trust and confidence that we will provide the essential services.
We have cherished many comments and posts that have shown us that we contribute in small ways to the protection of the youth, women and children. We have noted your concerns and encouragement on the work we are doing and most importantly, your advice on what we have not done well. Our focus has always been on improving so as to serve our constituents better. As YONECO, we are aware that arrogance is the enemy of progress and this compels us to listen to your misgivings and to value your prudent counsel.
We also want to put on record the sentiments of Honourable Dr. Patricia Kaliati on the things which YONECO needs to change and improve on. We have not taken your critical messages for granted.
We would be failing our duties as we start 2023 without giving credit to various development partners who have been giving us support in 2022. We would like to particularly acknowledge the support we got from Trocaire, UNFPA, World Education Inc, Segal Foundation, Egmont Trust, VIIV, SRHR Africa Trust (SAT), Centre for Disease Control (CDC) and NCA/DCA among others. It was exciting for us. The support and engagement you gave in 2022 was not taken for granted. We also want to appreciate all our district council partners for the fruitful collaborations which we established, strengthened and maintained in the year 2022.
The year 2023 is the second year for our new strategic plan which focuses on the sustainability of local institutions. We are aware of the wave in the west focusing on ‘Localization’. This has become a buzz word but we need to put this into practice by finding mechanisms for enhancing sustainability.
Local organizations need to refocus their attention to move away from the colonization through aid. They need to refocus their attention to ensure that there is complete change from donor dependence to independence. This means that very painful decisions have to be made, engage in more productive work and focus on organizations as opposed to just getting money. We need critical strategic aspects.
Organizations in 2023 need to plan for the change they want to see. However, for this to happen,
organizations need to develop a culture that is both productive and value based. Over the year, there have been arguments that institutions are not moving because its human resource is not motivated. It would be good for organizations to reflect on internal versus external motivation. One response that a job seeker gives when you ask why they want to join your institution is “I want to serve the organization” after 6 months or one year, the same person raises the issue of motivation.
Let us be honest that selection of people into positions for service-based organizations is the most difficult task this time around because the service is not important but our employment. We probably need to find a balance between the two. Otherwise, we spend time fighting battles that are not necessary.
Lest we forget that 15 January is Chilembwe’s Day. As we remember one of the patriotic Malawians, we need to focus and ask ourselves if we could have died for this country. The reflection should go to the corruption levels, the time we spend not working and still wanting to be paid, the abuse of power and resources, the squabbles at various levels of operation. These are posing a very high risk to the right to development as enshrined in Section 30 of the Constitution of the Republic of Malawi.
We would be naive if we do not comment on the abdication of parental responsibilities in the past 25 years in the name of human rights and democracy. The respect for parents, teachers and elders has not been there while parents have stopped talking to their children. Technology has replaced parenting in the home as children and parents will be glued to their gadgets. Children are being raised by nannies meaning that relatives have no clue how their parents behave.
We have also portrayed a bad model as parents as we have been in scandals on daily basis. It would be very important that we seriously reflect on these matters and engage the various structures and systems. Consequently, all this has resulted into bad behaviors of children and parents complaining of the same. As parents, we need to reflect on how we are losing the children. On the other hand, children need to be disciplined when they have done something wrong to shape their character.
This requires consistency and also modeling. I do hope that we can make the new year a “Positive Parenting Year.”
Once again, YONECO wishes you a peaceful and prosperous 2023.
