Way back in 2020 our colleagues devised a method of motivating caregivers (and committee members), many unpaid, who work tirelessly at rural nurseries in Malawi known as ‘CBCCs’. They devised a competition that awards both outstanding caregivers & schools and runs for a period of several months. In this article we introduce the winners from the competition which began in April 2022, and were acknowledged in an awards ceremony held on the 16th December 2022.

The CBCC Competition
The competition itself assesses caregivers & schools in various ways including; attendance, planning, record-keeping & hygiene for caregivers. For schools the categories also include; enrolment, attendance, rate of drop-outs, community initiatives, stock management & hygiene. For the competition that began in April there were a total of 24 caregivers from 10 different CBCCs. (Chiutsandeu CBCC was not involved in this competition as they only recently joined Seibo’s school feeding programme).

The CBCC Awards
The top 3 winners in the caregiver along with the best school, best committee & best school directors were awarded prizes ranging from solar lamps, cloth wraparounds and bags for carrying books.

The CBCC Competition Results
Caregiver Category:

1st Place: Tikondane CBCC (Team of 4 Caregivers)

2nd Place: Chilingani CBCC & Chisomo CBCC (1 Caregiver each)

3rd Place: Mlambe CBCC (Team of 2 Caregivers)

Outstanding CBCC Category:

Tikondane CBCC were given a trophy to acknowledge their hard work!

Best School Committee Category:
In total there were 5 committee members honoured for their hard work from three CBCCs; Tikondane, Makapwa & Chisomo.

Best CBCC Director and…an unusual prize!

Three CBCC Directors were given an award for their hard work. Seibo also recognised the work of the only male caregiver in the competition working in a role where men are under-represented.