The Dalitso Project
April 2020- online magazine!
4/3/2020
Well! Our new magazine including our updates is finally here!
Check it out via the link below!
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November 2019
11/25/2019
Once again thank-you to all you Dalitso team for your ongoing encouragement and support in our work in Malawi.
Thank-you for your patience with us over the last few months as we have worked on your updates and getting your report cards sorted. - These should be with you over the next couple of weeks. It has been a very busy time for us as a management team both personally and within Dalitso. At Kambilonjo, you may remember that we drilled a new borehole last year and built a solar pump and tank that allows the water to be pumped from the underground reservoir and piped to our healthcare clinic and our residence. This has been a fantastic investment and thank-you to everyone who donated to our emergency water appeal last year. This has also led us to be able to plant a small vegetable garden and grow tomatoes and some other water loving vegetables! We have also found some space next to the residence house where we have been able to plant a small orchard. We have planted mango trees, pear trees, peach trees, guava trees and avocado trees. The only other fruit trees in the area that we are aware of are some fruit trees that the local senior chief has planted in his garden, so some of these are a little bit of an experiment as we are unsure of how they will grow. I’m so excited to see how this pans out in the next few years. As the healthcare clinic at Kambilonjo has progressed it has become the epicentre of life in the local area, it also means that we have ended up coming into contact with many babies who sadly have lost their mothers giving birth in the village. Our baby rescue program has therefore expanded rapidly, and whilst it is nowhere near the scale of our program in Thyolo, it is growing rapidly. Just this month we had 4 new babies join our feeding program. All of these babies’ mothers sadly dying in either childbirth or from post- partum complications. This is a horrifyingly common situation in Malawi and one that we hope we can address partly through post partum care in our current clinic. One day perhaps, we will find the resources to build a maternity ward and provide a maternity service for the women of this region. We talk a lot in the UK about our rights, we feel upset if someone says something that we feel is offensive. What about these women? Women who have no right to healthcare, no right to give birth in a safe and clean environment, who have no right to provide for their children and see their children grow up healthily and strongly. I hope that the work of Dalitso can slowly start to change that. I hope that we can provide some level of basic human rights for the people of Malawi. The container left for Malawi last month, it took a huge amount of packing and organising and a special thanks to everyone who gave up time and energy to pack and inventory all the many items that can fit in a 40 foot high container. Thank-you to all of you who generously donated items for the container. They are greatly appreciated and will be put to very good use! . Hopefully it will arrive in time for Christmas. Our children are excitedly awaiting their Christmas presents and their Christmas party! One item that I am excited to see in use is the Oxygen concentrator that was purchased last year. As some of you may have noticed, Facebook allows you to do birthday fundraiser appeals and last January I decided to do a birthday fundraiser for the dalitso project for my birthday. I didn’t think it would make much money, but thanks to the incredible generosity of my family and friends, an incredible total of £650 was raised, which allowed the purchase of an oxygen concentrator for the clinic. This incredible wee machine takes the room air which is 16% oxygen and concentrates the oxygen to various degrees to provide higher percentage oxygen to a patient. This is vital in the management of many illnesses, partly as it takes the pressure off of the breathing system and partly because oxygen is essential for all organ function and for healing. This is something that most large government hospitals in Malawi don’t have access to, so for us to be able to provide it for our patients, it is really quite incredible! A big thanks also to Dolby the oxygen concentrator supply company who also provided lots of oxygen tubing for free! At Thyolo, our baby rescue program grows month on month. Our latest addition is Jabesi Malefula whose mother died due to post partum haemorrhaging. The extent of the baby rescue program is probably best shown by the photo below. Here is Kiri (Christina Kunsauka) our administrator with Praise and Precious, twin girls who were rescued when they were only a few days old, after their mother died in childbirth. Here they are as happy, healthy 5 year olds! At Thyolo and Kambilonjo we are working hard on the preparation of the fields ready for the planting when the rains begin in Malawi. We are hoping that these rains will come soon as it is important that we plant before the turn of the year in order to have enough time for the maize to grow well. Finally just to mention up upcoming fundraisers.
God Bless Becky July 2019
7/11/2019
Hi Supporters, Malawi has been through a significant period of unrest recently with the 5 yearly elections reputed to have been rigged. The president who was in power for the previous 5 years has been re-elected by a slim margin despite some dubiety. It has led to many protests, a high court appeal and thankfully only a handful of small scale violent demonstrations. We feel aggrieved by the poor quality and often the poor integrity of our own politicians but we can be thankful that we live in a country where for the most part we have a fair and reliable electoral system. This is obviously not an ideal situation and has been a worry for the team and for our employees and children in Malawi. Please keep Malawi in your thoughts and prayers for continued peace and stability. Malawi is now in the cold-ish, dry season, having harvested the crops from last year. As you can imagine, we were very worried about the harvest after the significant flooding that we had over the winter last year. Amazingly, our crops have survived and although they haven’t been counted yet (it takes months for the harvested maize to be shelled, dried, treated and then bagged) it looks like we won’t have too much less than last year. The team who will go out at the end of the month on the yearly trip will assess how much the rest of the village have managed to harvest and therefore how much hunger relief we may need to account for pre-emptively. It is likely that some of the areas have been more affected than our own fields. The clinic is continuing to grow with a substantial increase in use over the flooding period over February and March. Amazingly though we have never had the predicted outbreak of waterborne diseases, which given the decimation to homes and sanitation that occurred with the widespread floods, is nothing short of miraculous. The second 40 foot container to arrive in 2019 has now been fully distributed with medical equipment going to all out local hospitals. It has provided equipment to our classrooms and all our students and has been vital in the furnishing of the new Mary Spink skills centre. It also contained lots of material, which our tailors have put to good use. Here are our Thyolo cooks with the new uniforms that they made from material in the container! Whilst we are doing our best to promote good healthcare in Malawi, maternal mortality remains high. As a result of this, there seems to be no slowing down in the referrals into our baby rescue program at Thyolo from the local government hospital. Meet our latest baby- Madalitso (which mean blessing) Chipala who’s mum died when she was 12 days old because of complications from her TB. Madalitso is being looked after by her grandmother (see picture below). In boarders news, we have two new boarders at Thyolo- Alinafe Paul who is 12 years old and Esnart Lihaka who is 13 years old are two young girls who were identified by social work as being significantly at risk in their home environment because they had no close relatives living. They seem to have settled in well and I look forward to meeting them in a few weeks when we get out to Malawi this summer. Roddy Mawindo, one of the Thyolo boarders is also going for an interview for teacher training on the 12th August and so we wish him all the best for that and hope that he is accepted! Roddy has always been one to help and teach the younger boarders at Thyolo and so he should have had plenty of teaching practice! As mentioned earlier in the update, the annual summer team will leave for Malawi for 3 weeks in less than a fortnight! This means it will go a little quiet on the admin side of things but it does mean that shortly we will have lots of photos and stories to update you with (as well as the highly anticipated sponsor child letters!). With team being away it also means we will not be collecting any items for the container between 21st July and 18th August. Thanks to all who attended the Arbikie gin tasting evening and the zumba night- a total of £1,070.80 and £150 respectively was raised which is a great help to our work in Malawi. A huge thanks to Jan Stirling and her family for sponsoring the Gin Night and Chloe Leuchars for organising and running the Zumba Night. Please keep space in your diaries for our next event – A musical evening with Friends Choir and band on the 1st September at St. Andrews Church in Arbroath. Tickets are already on sale. Thanks again for all your ongoing support- have a lovely summer! Becky PS. Just a reminder that the closing date for Christmas Parcels is Sunday 1st September. Just to remind you that you should include the following: A Backpack, a pencil case (and pencils/ pens), a light blanket (that can fit in the backpack) a pack of pants and a packet of sweets 15cm by 15cm type size, pack of soap, toothbrush and toothpaste. May 2019
5/8/2019
April has been a busy month in Malawi. It has been a month of evaluating the after-effects of Cyclone Idai. First of all, a massive thanks to everyone who prayed for the situation. - Whilst the situation has been devastating, it has been much less so than expected. It appears that whilst the floodwaters have affected our crops at both Thyolo and Kambilonjo, we will still harvest a moderate crop at Kambilonjo. After the initial few days where our toilet blocks were broken down and a couple of roofs blown off, we have had no further structural damage which is also in itself a miracle. We are still housing several children who have been made homeless by the cyclone and there are still hundreds of displaced villagers who are homeless. However, as a charity, we have had no loss of life and minimal injuries and , perhaps most importantly, the fear of cholera or dysentery and other water borne diseases has been staved off in our areas, which again seems to be so fortuitous given that the floodwaters have washed away much of the sanitation infrastructure and the water systems. The 5 children who were taken into residence at Kambilonjo during the cyclone have settled in well and seem to be enjoying life at the centre. Here is young Tryness who we’ve introduced to you to before. Tryness was living with her mum, but as Mum was not coping with looking after the children and it was found that the children were not attending school, getting washed or being properly fed. Social services therefore determined that Tryness and her brother Ishmael would be better off living at the centre at Kambilonjo. Check out Tryness’ happy, healthy and smiley face! -When we first met her she didn’t know how to smile. The container also arrived on 16th April (which is incredibly quick progress, especially given the cyclone), having left Arbroath on 22nd January... see pictures below. ….and with the distribution of gifts we see lots of heart warming stories. Meet Clever Salamba who was knocked down by a car a few years ago and had to have his right leg amputated. Whilst this is devastating for any child, it has been more so for Clever as he has struggled to get a prosthetic limb ordered. Clever now has a lovely prosthetic limb and was also given a wheelchair from the container that he could use to continue to get out and about and to encourage him to maintain his independence! What an inspiration! See pictures below Upcoming events- Quiz and Chips – 12th May Gin Tasting Night – 7th June Please remember that sponsor child presents are due in at the end of May (Sunday 26th May)! The presents this year are... a shirt (smart blouse/ shirt for church etc rather than school shirt) and a pack of cards- age appropriate – playing cards/ uno/ snap etc and a small 5cm by 5 cm packet of haribos, plus of course a letter to your child! Also a big THANK YOU to those have raised their sponsorship to £15/month to help us cover the rising cost of the work in Malawi. We really appreciate your support in this. Thanks again for all your support. Love Becky March 2019
3/21/2019
To all our supporters, Thank you once again for all your support of all we are trying to achieve in Malawi. It is with a heavy heart that I have to relay the recent events in Malawi. Over the last two weeks, heavy rains have hit Malawi and much of south eastern Africa. This has caused flash flooding and extensive damage. In Malawi, President Peter Mutarika declared a state of emergency on 08/03/19 with more than 100 people confirmed dead and in excess of 750,000 people having to be evacuated as their homes have been washed away. Last week the rains subsided for a short while but the country has been hit once again this week by cyclone Idai. There are huge fears at present for the transmission of waterborne diseases through the vast amounts of water lying across the country and with the flooding of pit latrines as well as the non-existent sanitary systems for the displaced people. Our own centres have been both hit hard with the roof of one of the buildings at Thyolo being completely blown off and a toilet block collapsing. The carnage that has been caused has also meant that many of our daycare children are now homeless and many of our community are also displaced. The local churches have been opening up their buildings to let people stay within the walls of the church and we have taken in extra children on a short term support basis at our Kambilonjo centre who are currently homeless. – Yasin Saidi, Jonathon Yosafat, Yamikani Kathumba, Henry & Stella Gangata, Nisha Nyadani and Chipiliro John. This is obviously meaning that the centre is quite crowded at present but all of our staff feel that we must do everything that we can to support the people who have been affected most by these floods. As always, it is the poorest of the community who will pay the biggest price for this damage this year. This has also sadly wiped out what was shaping up to be a nice crop of maize and marks the 6th year in a row that the harvests have been incredibly poor, with late rainfalls last year, the army worm pest in 2017, the late rains in 2016, the floods of 2015 and the drought of 2014. As year on year continues to drain the reserves of the poorest in Malawi who rely wholly upon the land, it becomes harder and harder to help people to help themselves. At Dalitso, we have always tried to provide skills and strategies to our children and community rather than just simply handouts. This has worked well by providing things like fertiliser schemes, to assist people to get the most out of the land that they have and so provide for their family in that way, but when these national disasters come year on year, what chance have subsistence farmers got of working their family out of poverty? This does however, highlight the desperate need to give our young people alternative options for providing for their families, than just simply living off of the land. It highlights the importance of our education programmes whether in school scholarship, further education or vocational training. The mechanising and industrialisation of Malawi has to be the only way forward in the increasingly unpredictable climate that Malawi is experiencing. In a small attempt to end on a slightly more positive note, the Dalitso website that I and some others have been working on for approximately 18 months (I apologise and take full blame for the snail’s pace that this has moved along at) is finally ready to be launched! The website is now live and can be accessed via the URL- https://thedalitsoproject.weebly.com . Please do share the page and use it as much as possible, firstly so that we can iron out any kinks (of which I am sure there are several) with all of you- our lovely supporters! And secondly so that we can continue to spread the word of all that we are trying to do in giving opportunities to people in Malawi who have grown up knowing much less opportunities in life than we may have had. Many thanks again for your continued support. Our Pamper weekend raised £1,360, our recent race night raised over £900 and was a fantastic night enjoyed by all. We also provided massage and physiotherapy support to the Smokies Ladies 10 mile race which raised £320. Please look out for our upcoming fundraisers to support all of the rebuild work in Malawi as well as the purchase of maize for our centres to replace the crop that has been lost. Also for anyone who would like to get ahead of the game and start watching out for sales bargains for the summer and Christmas sponsor child gifts, the deadline for summer will be Sunday 26th May and we will be looking for a shirt (smart blouse/ shirt for church etc rather than school shirt) and a pack of cards- age appropriate – playing cards/ uno/ snap etc and a small 5cm by 5 cm packet of haribos. For Christmas, the deadline for the container will be the 18th August and we will be looking for a backpack, a pencil case (and pencils/ pens), a light blanket (that can fit in the backpack) a pack of pants and a packet of sweets 15cm by 15cm type size, pack of soap, toothbrush and toothpaste. We will of course be sending reminders nearer to the time so don’t worry if you’re like me and would prefer to get the presents nearer to the time! Please keep Malawi and all of the displaced families in your prayers at this time. With love Becky January 2019
1/14/2019
January is Pants! January is such an odd month of the year. There is the high of the New Year followed by the come down of going back to work in the dark and coming home in the dark. The weather is cold and the motivation low! - I think it’s fair to say that for most of us January is pants! But here at the Dalitso project, January literally is pants once again as we collect pants for our Ulemu project. Ulemu which means dignity in Chichewa is our ongoing sanitary products project. Just as in Scotland, issues have been identified with some young girls being unable to access sanitary products, in Malawi, few villagers can afford sanitary products. Our girls at both Thyolo and Kambilonjo have been making reusable ones and giving out packs with pants and soap to their classmates and even selling some at affordable prices in the community. We are so proud of the girls and the great work that they are doing at creating dignity whilst saving the planet! The container has also finally arrived! We are so thankful for its safe arrival although sad that despite its very early departure from Scotland, it made incredibly slow progress this year and didn’t make it in time for Christmas. This seems to be mostly because it was held back at customs in Mozambique. But, with a couple of days required to unpack it, we are hopeful that the children at the centres can get their Christmas party number 2 with gifts fairly soon! Thanks once again to everyone who has contributed to the container this year- it really does make a huge difference! All the children had a great time celebrating Christmas even without their gifts and it was especially exciting to see the photos from Kambilonjo where the almost finished Mary Spink Skills Centre was able to be used to allow all the many children to enjoy the Christmas party sheltered away from the heavy Christmas monsoon rains. At both Thyolo and Kambilonjo, the rains have started and have so far been the best rains in well over 5 years. Both sets of gardeners have however asked for prayer for continued good rains as the last few years of incredibly poor rains have had a devastating effect on the country as a whole. So far however, the maize is growing as it should and rising up strong and healthily. With very few sponsors ever likely to visit their sponsor child in person we thought that over the next few years we’d make a bit of an effort to do some sponsor child spotlight- giving you the opportunity to meet a sponsor child and check out their home, and even the view from their window! Meet Nelia Jamu, who is 8 and one of the standard 1 day-care pupils at Kambilonjo. She lives with her mother and 2 siblings. When I was In Kambilonjo in October, I took a wee visit to Nelia’s home on an incredibly hot day. Check out Nelia outside her home and the view she wakes up to every morning! In the background of Nelia’s home you can see her family’s goat! Once again thanks for all your support for all that the Dalitso Project aims to achieve in Malawi! Upcoming events are of course... 1. The Snowman Drive on Friday 18th December at 7.30pm in OBs on the Westport in Arbroath. 2. The AGM which will be held at OBs on the Westport in Arbroath on Friday 8th February at 7.30pm. 3. Followed by the annual Pamper Weekend from Saturday 9th –Sunday 10th February also at OBs in Arbroath. Becky. November 2018
11/3/2018
I have just returned from two weeks in Malawi last weekend. This was a very busy but very productive. It was great to see the clinic progressing and assisting so many people in the community of Kambilonjo. It was especially encouraging for me to see 3 of our health graduates from this year working with us at the Dochas Medical Centre on a postgraduate placement. Freestone Mawale, graduate clinical officer and Jean Maluwa and Emmanuel Phiri nursing graduates all wanted to give something back for the support that they have received over the last 3 years. Just before I arrived in Malawi, the clinic delivered our very first baby. A young woman had presented overnight with severe abdominal pain. The patient had not realised that she was pregnant and so unfortunately had let the labour develop for a considerable period of time. It came to light that she had not quite reached the 8th month of her pregnancy at this point and the labour was very complex. When the baby was finally delivered it was not able to breathe on its own because it was so premature. The team were able to help the baby breathe for a short while as they transferred it to the local government hospital an hour’s drive away. Unfortunately, the government hospital also does not have any ventilators and so the baby died the following day. The mother on the other hand has recovered completely physically and is now in full health. Whilst this is an incredibly traumatic story, it also illustrates the significant need for our rural healthcare facility and although we were unable to save the baby, saving the life of the mother is something which was really worthwhile. Just a week later, the team were again called into action when 5 people were poisoned whilst working in a potato field. It seemed that they had ingested the pesticide that was being used to treat the potatoes. By the time 4 of them arrived at the clinic at half 8 at night (8 hours later) they were in a very bad way. Several were seizing and foaming at the mouth and none were conscious. The staff team worked tirelessly through the night treating these men, and got the man with the most severe symptoms well enough to transfer him to the district hospital. The other 3 were well enough the following day to walk home. I was so impressed by the team’s professional and calm approach to dealing with this significant and life threatening situation. They were accurate and efficient in all they did and did a fantastic job. I was especially impressed with our new graduate nurses and clinical officer who kept cool heads and were directing the treatment even though they are still so early in their clinical experience. It was also heartening to see that despite the challenges with the water problem and the regular electricity cuts, the staff have maintained their work ethic and have worked hard to continue to provide excellent infection control measures and top quality patient care. With regards to the water issue, as most of you are aware, we have not had piped water in the clinic since June. This is because the water table in Kambilonjo is currently so low, after 3 years of poor rainfall. This has meant that both the water board and the nearby boreholes are out of water. Instead the staff have to walk 400m or further to some other boreholes to draw enough water for the whole day. As many of you are aware we crowdfunded for this on facebook back in July but unfortunately as with all things in Malawi, it took time to get a water survey done and when we eventually found a place where we believed that there was to be water, we were able to start drilling. Unfortunately the first couple of drilling attempts were unsuccessful and an extra piece of land had to be purchased to try a deeper bore in an area where the water table sits even higher. This has been a time consuming and lengthy process which has been incredibly frustrating for all involved. Finally we now have a borehole which is producing water and which will allow us to pipe water directly to the clinic and the residence. Hopefully the piping will be completed within the next week or so. It was also exciting to see the new graduate staff beginning a program of community education where they called all the villagers to meet in a local town hall and were able to teach around 70 local villagers about high blood pressure, how to identify the issue and how to manage it through lifestyle changes. A clinic testing for high blood pressure was also undertaken. This was highly useful and highly appreciated by the community. It was also heartening to see the daycare children at both Thyolo and Kambilonjo working hard and engaging really well with all of their extra lessons. We hope that this continued investment with continue to pay dividends in our students end of school results and therefore career prospects. I want to take a second to thank and encourage all of our teaching staff for all the hard work they do day to day. We have such a good group of talented and dedicated teachers who are such a blessing to our children. Once again, thank you for all your continued support. Please keep aware of the upcoming fundraisers- Saturday 10th November – Murder Mystery night – St. Andrews Church Arbroath. 6.45pm start for an evening of great entertainment and a 3 course meal- all for £14! What a bargain! Thanks Becky September 2018
9/26/2018
Thanks again to you all for all your ongoing support. Apologies for the late update! I am preparing to leave for Malawi so the September update is late. September was container month again. The container left at the start of September this year and the packing of the container was done expertly by the Dalitso container team and by a team of marines from 45 commandos Condor. We are once again extremely grateful to the marines for giving up their time and energy to help us with this. The container has left in plenty of time again this year, so all being well it should be with our centres in time for Christmas. September also brought about the results for the standard 8 exams (primary school leaving certificate). This year all of our pupils passed, which is a great achievement, however unfortunately only 4 of them were selected to a secondary school. This is because in Malawi, there are many pupils wanting to study at Secondary than there are places in Secondary school. This means that even when pupils pass their exams it does not guarantee that they can go to secondary school as they have to pass within the top cohort of their region. Unfortunately several of our students were not able to do this on this occasion and so they are going to have to repeat the year to see if they can improve upon it next year. Three of our further education students at the nursing and allied medical college have now completed their studies and passed their final exams. Jean Maluwa and Emmanuel Phiri graduated as nurses and Freeston Mawale graduated as a clinical officer which is similar to a doctors assistant. It is exciting to see them reaching the working stage of life and whilst they wait for their government posting they have all volunteered to work for us in Kambilonjo in the Dochas Centre. Jean is a 22 year old girl who has been part of our sponsor a child program since 2010. Jean’s Father died when she was a toddler and her mother has brought up Jean and Jean’s two nephews since their mother’s death in 2009. Life has been tough for Jean, but she is a hard worker and since then she has soared through primary and secondary school into nursing college where she has performed exceptionally well. Jean is now very excited to finally be ready to enter working life and begin to provide for her family. Freeston Mawale also lost his father when he was very young but his mother got a job working as a cleaner for Aquaid Lifeline our partner organisation. Since then he has been working as hard as he can to become a doctors assistant (or clinical officer as he will be known). This is something that he has wanted to do all his life! While Emmanual Phiri joined our program more recently and has also done well, there is a lot of personal excitement with the graduation of Jean and Freeston as Jean has been my own sponsror child for the last 8 years and Freeston was one of my pupils when I lived and taught in Malawi in 2008! Paul Sochera and Lovemore Kalepa who have just graduated from Secondary have also been selected to attend a welding course nearby the centre at Thyolo which will be a great opportunity for them to develop their practical skills. At Thyolo the wedding dress shop is now operational although the majority of custom so far has been from the boutique dresses and jewellery that they are also selling. It is likely that this business will take some time and advertisement to reach its full potential. Our infant rescue has also picked up a few needy children. Meet two of the cuties. The weather in Malawi is now getting progressively warmer and more humid moving towards the rainy season, so all our gardeners are getting ready to plant the maize and potatoes for the year ahead. We hope that there will be good rains for a good harvest this year. Thanks again for your continued support! Here’s a picture of some of our Thyolo children with their new school uniforms to brighten your day! Becky July 2018
7/22/2018
So as many of you know, a team of 4 were out to Malawi in June. The team had a great few weeks catching up with all of your sponsor children and checking out the clinic and centres. Some of you may have heard the big news from the clinic. Unfortunately the piped water to the clinic which has always been intermittent at the best of times, has been almost non existence as the reservoir which supplies the area of Kambilonjo is almost entirely empty. Not only that, but the local bore hole has also run dry. This means that in order to supply water for the clinic (without our staff walking a mile for each bucket of water), we will have to drill another borehole. This will cost upward of £5000 in Kambilonjo and some of you may have seen our recent facebook appeal which has generated some support. So thank-you to all of you who have so generously donated and helped us out with this appeal. Obviously the primary aim of a healthcare clinic is to be a clean and sterile place for sick patients to be treated, however currently, even this basic necessity is incredibly tough to achieve at the moment. We are planning on drilling this borehole at the earliest possible opportunity- so if you or anyone you know is interested in donating please get in touch with us as soon as possible. Other than this though the clinic has been going well, treating upwards of 25 patients each day. This may not seem like a lot, but over the course of each month, it is making a huge difference in the lives of many people in Kambilonjo who wouldn’t have been able to access healthcare previously. Caroline Farquhar who was out last month as part of the team and who has a wealth of experience in emergency healthcare (as a minor injuries nurse) did an incredible amount of work, working with the team on their policies and procedures and teaching our staff in specific areas that they had less experience in. Caroline and her amazing knowledge and experience was such a blessing for the clinic this year. Some of you may also remember the story from February of meeting a young family on the way back from inspecting the gardens at Kambilonjo. The 2 young children’s clothes were torn, ill fitting and dirty. They were also malnourished and under-developed for their size. We were able to give them new clothes from the container and take them into our programme so that they could get an education and food each day. These two children are called Tryness and Ishmael and the team who were out in Malawi were pleased to see them looking much healthier. The team did take them home one day after school and were shocked to see the size and state of their home. (Please see little round house in the centre of the picture.)Whilst most people in Malawi are incredibly poor and all of the children that we work with come from considerably impoverished backgrounds, every now and then we come across families who even fall below the normal poverty level. This family, although they have a mother and father, are some of the poorest children that we have ever come across. We hope that as we work with them we can slowly start to change the fortunes of this young family by giving them an education and the opportunity to find employment that will pay a fair wage and allow these children to provide for their own families in future. And for all those who donate clothes to the container- one of the most exciting parts of being in Malawi is playing spot the container items! I was excited to get a photo of one of the young lads sporting my old Arbroath Football Club Uniform! The next date for the container leaving for Malawi will be in mid September with the last date for collection as Sunday 2nd September. At this point, all sponsor child Christmas presents and Christmas cards should be handed in also. There will not be much room for manoeuvring this year so please do endeavour to get your presents in by August 26th at the latest. This year again we would like you all to give your sponsor child the following: 1. School backpack 2. A 160g-200g packet of haribo/maoams or other similar jelly sweets. 3. A notebook and packet of pens. 4. A toothbrush and toothpaste 5. A bottle of shower gel. 6. A bath towel 7. A pack of pants 8. A christmas card and letter Thanks again for all your support! Please look out for our upcoming fundraisers: 28th October - Soup Lunch at St Andrews Church 10th November – Murder Mystery With thanks again for being amazing! Becky |
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