On International Women’s Day I just want to say THANK YOU to the strong women in Northern Malawi who are nurturing the hundreds of orphans and other vulnerable children. At the Foundation, women play an important role. There are women trustees, employees, volunteers, then there are the women bringing up children in poverty, women bringing up children on their own, grandmothers or aunts bringing up children or women fostering children. Thank you all. We see your strength, we see your struggles. We will continue to support you to care for the children you look after and nurture. I hope you enjoy the photos of just some of the hard working women. Thanks for reading, Sarah x
Today, a villager called Mzolewa, came to help at The Foundation. The significance of people volunteering to help is huge. Local people can see that Levison and his team are working hard and making a difference to their village and to their children. A villager coming to help shows they support The Foundation. A villager coming to help means they see that good is happening in that area and that everyone will benefit in the future.
Mzolewa helped to prepare an area for planting flowers and was staking tree saplings to protect them and help them grow. Thank you to Mzolewa and to everyone else who shows support to Levison and his team who are working long hours to change the lives of hundreds of the most vulnerable children. Your support means more than you realise. Your support brings a boost and a little bit more energy to continue supporting the most vulnerable who need a helping hand. Thank you for your support and thank you for reading, Sarah x
A villager volunteering at The FoundationA volunteer from the village helps make a flower bed at The Foundation
The maize is growing well. Some was washed away and had to be replanted but hopefully there will be a decent crop. There is a very decent crop of weeds in the fields thanks to all the rain they’ve had….so today was another chance for people to lend a hand and pick out all the weeds from amongst the maize. Look at those beautiful hills….The Mafinga Hills. The other side of those hills is Zambia….but at a glance it could be Scotland!
weeding in the maize field with the Mafinga Hills in the background…beyond them is Lwangwa National Park in Zambia.
So much rain has encouraged the weeds to grow in between the maize plants
We saw this family last week. The roof had almost totally blown off their mud house in the wind and rain. They were able to temporarily ‘borrow’ another house….the roof isn’t much better on this one but at least they have shelter.
The family had been invited to The Foundation to receive some gifts. Today they came. Here are the photos. They cried tears of joy and couldn’t believe the lovely things they had been given. Thanks to Moses and Angela now having sponsors, Levison was able to give the family a bag of maize.
They are all malnourished and extremely sad and upset by what has happened to them. They are exhausted due to lack of food. Levison has assured them that The Foundation will look after them. We will bring you more photos of them which will, hopefully, show the improvements in their health and wellbeing.
If you would like to sponsor a child to help change their life then please email contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com Thanks for reading, Sarah x
The family’s ‘new’ temporary homeThe roof of the family’s mud house has almost totally been destroyed by the wind & rain
We’ve had an Amazon wish list for a while but the wind up torches were out of stock for ages! It gets dark at 6pm all year round so children and their families are in the dark after 6pm unless they can afford to buy a candle.
I posted the link to the wish list and I’ve enjoyed receiving packages over the past few days. Thank you to everyone who has bought a gift for the children. Your kindness will make a difference to them and they will know that people care about them. Thank you. Here is the link and thank you for reading, Sarah x https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/1JZISVA9X45UF?ref_=wl_share
It had rained heavily again in Northern Malawi this morning so not as many children turned up. Only 301 orphans & vulnerable children turned up instead of the usual 500. The others will have to wait until next weekend for their next substantial meal. If we had more funds to feed them twice or three times a week it wouldn’t be so bad that they hadn’t been able to come today.
So the 301 were fed and also watched some cartoons on the tv, played with the trainset and then helped with weeding the vegetables in the fields.
We have a new way to donate. Text FEEDING to 70490 to donate £5. Hopefully, people will make use of this and help us to provide more money for food.
Hope you enjoy today’s photos. Thanks for reading, Sarah x
Sometimes things happen that can’t be helped. People’s circumstances change and, much as they’d like to keep sponsoring a child through us, sadly they aren’t able to do so. That’s what has happened in this case. Tamara’s sponsor kindly stepped up to sponsor her and pay her fees for her first year at secondary school. Unfortunately, their circumstances have changed. We thank them for what they’ve done for Tamara this year as, without them, she wouldn’t have been able to take up her place at secondary school.
So we are looking for a new sponsor to help Tamara through secondary school please. It’s £25 per month and you can share that cost with a friend if that helps. It’s less than £1 a day to us but means the world to a sponsored young person. If you can help then please contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com and if you can’t help financially then please consider sharing posts in order to help find potential sponsors. Thank you for reading, Sarah x
Tamara is in 2nd year at Chisenga Secondary SchoolTamara, in her new uniform, about to start Chisenga Secondary School last year
Manuel has had a tough life. Tougher than most of us will ever know. He has suffered the loss of his parents and another important caregiver and been malnourished and dressed in rags that were literally falling off him.
He was first sponsored 18 months ago after we had shown a photo of him in his only clothes…..full of holes. He has had new clothes, food and a football. Since his mum died, Levison organised for Manuel to live with his aunt and uncle and two cousins. A sponsor kindly came forward to sponsor Manuel’s cousin, Roda. So the family now has regular food going into their home as well as the children being gifted blankets and clothes and books etc.
Manuel’s sponsor gave some money to buy fertiliser for the uncle’s small piece of land. The photos are of Manuel & his uncle, taken yesterday, receiving the fertiliser. Compare these with the original photo of Manuel, and the one with his cousins when he had first moved in with them after his mum had died. Just look at the difference….Manuel looks happy and healthy and his smile is just amazing to see. This is the difference having a sponsor can make. Over 80 of the most vulnerable children are sponsored now. Let’s make things better for more.
Can you be a sponsor to a child like Manuel? A smile like that is all the confirmation you need that you can make a difference to a child by becoming their sponsor. We always say it’s about teamwork….we can’t help these orphans and vulnerable children without you. We need you. Children like Manuel need you. Sponsoring a child like Manuel might be one of the most important things you ever do. It will be the greatest gift you can give one of these children. Thanks to his sponsor, Manuel will now have opportunities open to him that he would have only been able to dream about. Together we can help these children realise their dreams. Together we can continue Changing Lives Malawi. It’s only £25 per month to sponsor a child. Please get in touch contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com Thanks for reading, Sarah x
You could change the life of a child like Manuel and put a smile on their face. It would be the biggest gift you could ever give to a very vulnerable child.
It’s been another busy day at Changing Lives Malawi HQ (our house) and the Logistics Manager (my ever helpful husband, Stuart) has been kept extremely busy and I’ve been busy helping him.
At 8.30am this morning we had a delivery of 22 large boxes of school uniform. Most of it is new. Very sadly, a school closed and all of this is their excess uniform. I saw a post on a fb charity site so made contact. The lady that has collected and sent all this uniform was determined that it wasn’t all going to go to landfill.
We are only about a third of the way through repacking it in stronger boxes but here are some photos of the lovely clothes and bags that will be on their way to Malawi very soon. There will be lots of very smartly dressed children who will be delighted to have the gift of brand new clothes. We will, of course, post lots of photos when things eventually arrive at The Foundation. Many thanks for your generosity. Thanks for reading, Sarah x
approximately 20 new backpacks are on their way to the children at The Foundation, jumpers, cardigans, trousers, shorts, pinafores, skorts, polo shirts, shorts, trousers and waterproofs (and that’s only the boxes we’ve opened so far….all clothes age 4 – 10 years)
A few days ago, we shared a story about a family of a (twice widowed) mother and three children. Their house had been badly damaged in the wind and rain and there was not much left of the roof. Levison helped them find temporary accommodation (which still isn’t good but better than what they had) and we appealed for sponsors for the children.
The good news is that two of the children, Moses and Angela, have now been matched with sponsors. So they will have two monthly food parcels going into that home which takes the pressure off their mum. It’s still not enough food for the whole family, as we don’t want people to be totally reliant on handouts, but at least now they can eat every day. Their mum will continue to work to provide additional food for her children. The three children will continue to be fed a nutritious, substantial meal at the feeding programme each week.
Levison is inviting the family, either today or tomorrow depending on the weather, to come to The Foundation to use the showers. The family will be given gifts of clean clothes and blankets and soap. Life will start improving for this little family because of teamwork and the kindness of our sponsors and supporters. This family will know that people care about them. Knowing people care about you makes a big difference. Together we can continue Changing Lives Malawi. If you’d like to sponsor their brother, Blessings, or another child, it’s only £25 per month. You could always split that cost with a friend if you wanted to sponsor together. contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com thank you for reading and supporting, Sarah x
When you are so poor you can’t even finish primary school as you have to try to earn some money to feed yourself as your family cannot afford to feed you….that is a level of poverty that is, for most of us, hard to comprehend.
When you don’t have enough money for food to eat every day, that is something that most of us cannot understand. This is the story of three young men who have faced hardship like that. They are living in extreme poverty but, thanks to their own initiative, and now thanks to their sponsor, there is a plan in place to improve their lives and make something of themselves.
Manase is in his early 20s. He and his brother had been pictured previously working hard labouring for the builders who were building the shower block. He has been helping out at The Foundation. Chancy (early 20s) also helps out and Levison is able to give them small amounts of money for their work.
Yesterday, Levison went to see some of the eco stoves that Manase and Chancy had made, free of charge, for people in the village. Because of their initiative, their hard work and thoughtfulness is being rewarded.
Lameck, a teenager, has been on my mind since Levison took a photo of him reading books at the Foundation Library a few months ago. He didn’t even finish primary school due to poverty and has been doing piece work to earn a pittance since, but there he was reading in the library and trying to learn. I’ve been wondering how we can support him since then and now an opportunity has arisen.
We have matched them with a sponsor who will provide some money for The Foundation to pay these three young men each month whilst they make eco stoves for those in the community who don’t yet have one.
Eco stoves are….as the name suggests….eco friendly. They are an enclosed method of cooking so are far safer for people than cooking on an open fire, especially when young children are around. They use less wood which is obviously better for the environment and they retain heat so they can give off heat when it’s colder weather. Because they use far less wood, people don’t have to spend so long searching and collecting wood, leaving them more time for work or other household chores. Along with planting lots of tree saplings, the team at The Foundation are doing their bit for a sustainable future for people and the planet.
Manase, Chancy and Lameck will work on these and also brick making. Hopefully, they will be able to make enough bricks for future buildings and, possibly, if they want to, they may be able to go to college or have a tutor come to the Foundation to teach them bricklaying and building.
Hope you enjoy looking at the photos. If you’d like to donate to one of our project or support a young person then please do get in touch contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com Thanks for reading, Sarah x
As it’s enclosed it is a far safer way of cooking and uses less wood than cooking on an open fireChancy with one of the eco stoves that he and Manase madeManase with an eco stove that he built with Chancy Lameck enjoys using the library to improve his reading and knowledge. He has just been doing piecework for a pittance. He will now be working with Chancy and Manase to build eco stoves.Gogo is the respectful name for an older person, like grandmother or grandfather
I know I’m always asking for help and support. I’m sorry… but there are so many people who are in real need and we are trying to support Levison and his team to help them out of their dire situation.
A mother, twice widowed, and her three children are homeless. The roof of their mud home has blown off in the wind and rain. Levison visited them and was able to help them find temporary accommodation. The house belongs to someone else and really doesn’t look much better than their previous home.
They are being given blankets and clothes and some food but what I am asking of you, our supporters, please is that we get at least two of these three children sponsored so they have regular food and support going into their home. The children, especially Angela, are showing signs of malnutrition. They will know someone cares about them and it will make their lives a little bit better. It costs £25 to sponsor a child. An individual can sponsor a child, or two friends can share the cost, or a family or a business. This family is desperate and I really want to help them. As I always say, it’s teamwork. We cannot help The Foundation to do what they do without help from our wonderful supporters.
Ideally, we would like to be able to rebuild or repair houses but, unfortunately, we don’t have money for that. Maybe that’s something we can look at doing in the future. Climate change isn’t going to be kind to these homes. As you can see we have a great deal to do!
So if you can find it in your heart to sponsor Moses, Blessings or little Angela then please get in touch. contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com If you can’t sponsor then please, please share our posts so that we do reach more potential sponsors. Together we can continue Changing Lives Malawi. Thanks for reading, Sarah x
The family’s house where the roof has been destroyed by wind and rainThis is their temporary accommodation, owned by someone else, and unfortunately the roof doesn’t look much betterMoses needs new clothes, food and a blanketBlessings desperately needs clothes, food and a blanketAngela is showing signs of malnutrition she needs clothes, food and a blanket
