What do you do when a mother of five young children tells you plainly that she cannot afford to visit her son at boarding school nor attend parents evening and in fact is struggling to find enough food to feed her family each day?

Well, I was frankly speechless; I didn’t have the solution.  The silence was broken by Yamacani humbly announcing how grateful he is for the privilege of going to secondary school, how the opportunity of a secondary education will be lifechanging for his family and he couldn’t thank us enough.  I was struggling to hold it together.  Yes, we are funding Yamacani’s education at secondary boarding school through our sponsorship scheme but on the surface we could surely do a whole lot more. Yet what is appropriate?  Although we had taken a bag of maize as a gift, providing food on an ongoing basis quickly becomes aid rather than sustainable development, and doesn’t help in the long run.  This family is not alone.  There are many like this, and things are particularly tough after the crop failure following the floods earlier in the year.

Yet there is a dignity about this young family. We looked around her very small straw roofed home, beautifully located in the hills, about a hour walk from the tar road. There are two rooms for the six of them, no furniture, just mats on the floor to sleep on.  Everything was neat and tidy, a few clothes stacked in the corner of one room and some pots and pans in another. Yamacani is the eldest of the five children, at 15 going int his third year at secondary boarding school, a bright young man who can now speak almost fluent English, and is kind hearted conscientious, and honest

Hope4Malawi now sponsor 45 students from poor families through secondary education.  If you like to know more please contact sara at info@hope4malawi.org

A great morning: Assembly with the children at St Mary’s and All Saints CofE Primary school in Beaconsfield. They have raised funds to provide school meals for 169 children at Namende for a year and given us 10 computers for our computer project. Amazing, thank you!

We had an amazing opportunity to share about how we are helping to empower girls and help them to be the best they can be through the MyGirl programme – Hannah and Sara were interviewed at the netball world cup during half time in the Malawi match #empoweringgirls #thisisnetball#malawinetball #hope4malawi #bethebestyoucanbe

We had a great morning at St John’s URC Orpington yesterday. We are so grateful for their fundraising and reaching their target to build toilets at the new secondary school at Chipwepwete.  We had an opportunity to share about our work in Malawi and Mark preached on Luke 12:32-34 about how God wants us to care for the poor whilst trusting him to provide for all our needs.  It was an awesome morning. Thank you to everybody involved

For the cost of a meal out you could provide school meals for a child in rural Malawi for a year, making a huge difference to their attendance and ability to concentrate in school. It costs £12 per year to provide a child like Noah from a poor area at Namende, 10km from the tarmac road, with school meals for a year. We’ve just set up a new campaign at virgin giving to make donating and fundraising so much easier.  Please consider doing a fundraising event so your friends can also support these fantastic children. Thank you
http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fund/Hope4MalawiNamendeFP

Welcome to our Spring newsletter. It has been another exciting few months for Hope4Malawi, starting new a new solar lamp projects, developing existing projects and opening the classroom block at Chipwepwete. We are thankful to the rural communities in Malawi for their input and hard work and are grateful for your commitment and support.  We hope you enjoy reading about the impact your support is having on children and communities in rural Malawi  Hope4Malawi Newsletter Spring 2019

It is such a delight to be able to bless these two girls at Chipwepwete. We had two bars of soap left after an afternoon MyGirl session with the teenagers so it was a pleasure to be able to give them to these two beautiful girls

You can give to the the relief and rebuilding efforts in Malawi here: https://mydonate.bt.com/events/hope4malawifloodrelief/489898. Thank you for your generosity.

Many people have asked how the cyclone has affected the area where Hope4Malawi works in Malawi.  Thank you for your concern.  We were in Malawi as the cyclone was moving it’s way across Mozambique.  It was a worrying time for everyone as the week before we had experienced torrential rain for 4 full days, which had caused widespread flooding in Malawi.

Malawi suffered the approach effects of the cyclone but was spared the additional devastation of the cyclone landfall which fell on Mozambique.

We know of several people who sadly lost their lives including a local primary education inspector and the mother and father in law of the librarian at Chipwepwete school.  Homes were destroyed or damaged and the floods have left water contaminated and crops destroyed.  Hundreds have lost their livelihoods.  In the valley south of where we work, most districts have lost their crops and thousands of people have fled their homes. There is a high risk of disease as hundreds of water points are damaged and water contaminated.

Our partner, Fisherman’s Rest, is partnering with Medecins Sans Frontieres to repair boreholes.  They started this work today.  80 water points have been identified in one region which need to be fixed.  Fisherman’s Rest will also provide maize and help communities return to their villages.  They will then help staff and people local to Fisherman’s rest to rebuild their houses.

There are several relief organisations working in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe which need our support.  However, if you would like to support the relief and rebuilding work which Fisherman’s Rest are undertaking in Malawi you can donate here through Hope4Malawi. 100% of your donation will be used for the relief and rebuilding work in Malawi.

https://mydonate.bt.com/events/hope4malawifloodrelief/489898

Thank you for your generosity.

On Friday 15th March, the whole school community at Chipwepwete including Pupils, teachers, Chiefs and education advisers joined together to celebrate the opening of the new classroom block at Chipwepwete.  Three new classrooms, complete with desks, will enable standards 4, 5 and 6 to now have lessons under cover and withe proper desks and chairs.  This is a far more conducive environment for learning than the open air classrooms with the children sitting on stones!

The school community were thrilled: there was singing and dancing, speeches, drama, poems written by three of the pupils and gratitude filled the air.

Children at Chipwepwete and Mpemba don’t have electricity at school or at home.  When they finish school in the afternoon they do chores at home including fetching water and wood, helping in the the maize fields and cooking.  There is very little time to read or study before the sun goes down at 6pm.  After that they have no light to see to read or study.

That’s why Hope4Malawi, along with our partners St Paul’s Howell Hill and Trinity School, Croydon have provided solar lamps for the school libraries so that children can borrow a lamp when they borrow a book .  The children in standard 8 were particularly excited as they have their end of school exams in May and are keen to work in the evenings.  These exams will determine whether they have a place at secondary school.