Indianapolis, Indiana … “I know Dick & Suzi Stephens had no idea when they named it the ‘Malawi Project’ that so many people in later years would start to use the same name. That was not the case back in 1999 when they formed this organization to help the people of Malawi,” says Scott Gordon, President of the Malawi Project.
“Things change. Other groups get interested and involved, and good names are popular. Today it can be pretty confusing”, Gordon says. “When you look for the ‘Malawi Project’ you quickly realize there are a number of organizations using the name, or referring to some program in Malawi by the same name. With it’s popularity have come a measure of confusion with some pretty high profile organizations.”
Few Could Locate Malawi
According to Richard (Dick) Stephens, one of the founders of the Malawi Project the lawyers could not find the name in use when it was registered for this group. “When we started the work in Africa few people in our part of the world knew anything about Malawi. Every time we went out to make a presentation to gain support we had to take maps along with us in order to show people where Malawi is on an African map. It’s not that way today. Because so many high profile people are going to Malawi, and some of them have such notoriety they garner the international headlines, this has made Malawi known by large numbers of people.”
The fact that today large numbers of people know about Malawi, and vast amounts of aid are pouring into the country, is not always good for the people. “Too much aid can actually do more harm than good,” Stephens continues, “We have seen cases where too much aid began to form a welfare mentality. That is counter-productive. We have tried to format our programs in such a way as to bring about incentive programs, and not ‘give-away programs’ that create a welfare mentality. Too much money too fast can just create problems. Contributors need to check carefully to know what a particular program is helping or hurting the country into which the aid is going.”
Care in Soliciting and Expending Funds
Gordon concludes, “Care as to what the aid is actually accomplishing is one of the good things about the Project. I observed this when I first started working with it. From the beginning I had been pleasantly surprised to see how Project members both sought and distributed funds. Not only did no one in the organization get paid for their work, and that is written in the by-laws (insuring an all-volunteer organization), they did not aim for the top of the grant giving community. They knew too much money, too fast, would be destructive to the people they were trying to help, and perhaps even to the organization itself. Over the years the Project has grown at a pace that is manageable, and the people in Malawi that it helps have to work along side the supporters, or the help goes in another direction. I wish everyone would subscribe to this same kind of principle. If they did much more aid would reach the people who need it, and a lot of corruption and waste would be avoided.”