The Dalitso Project
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.
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