Tag: books

International Day of the Girl Child

Here are just some of the reasons why vulnerable girls in Malawi need our help today. You can also read about some of the success stories!

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Sarah’s blog 11/10/25

Whilst we are supporting both boys and girls of all ages, girls living in extreme poverty are still living in a very unequal world. International Day of the Girl Child highlights some of the inequalities they face and how we can support them.

Many of the young people we help to support are living with extended family or with one parent. In Malawi it is illegal to marry girls off when they are children. It still happens. Girls are at greater risk of dying during childbirth as well as missing out on their education.

We have matched several girls with sponsors whose families couldn’t afford to feed them. They thought it was better to give their eldest daughter away to get married at age 11 or 12 as they would get a dowry and therefore be able to feed the rest of their family. Having a sponsor means that these very vulnerable girls are still in school, receive a monthly food parcel (if at primary school) or free secondary education with free school lunches (if at Bright Futures Secondary School). The impact of education, food and having a sponsor is huge. We are highlighting these inequalities and the challenges girls face on International Day of the Girl Child, to draw attention to how difficult things are for these vulnerable girls.

If girls do not have access to sanitary towels, they are not welcome at school for one week every month whilst they have their period. Imagine the shame they must feel for having a normal bodily function. Since we sent some donated hand turn Singer sewing machines, girls have been making reusable sanitary towels which have been given out to all who need them. This gives girls and young women confidence, dignity and the same access to education as boys have.

In Chitipa District in the far north, where the community we are partnering with is situated, teenage pregnancies are very high. Thankfully, by being able to keep teenagers in education and giving them opportunities and having choices and chances they wouldn’t normally have had, at Bright Futures Secondary School there have only been two teenage pregnancies since the school opened. (the statistics are in the link below).

Why vulnerable teenagers need sponsors

In the link to another blog below, you can see we celebrated with a party for Catherine, Emily and Naomi, passing their secondary school leavers exams and also the s3 students who had passed their junior certificates of education (s2 national exams). None of them would have had this opportunity if it wasn’t for them having sponsors to support their education. We are so grateful for each and everyone of our sponsors. Thank you!

Celebrating the success of 3 girls

We have girls in S1 who are each needing a sponsor to help support the cost of their education at Bright Futures Secondary School. This is a small school which was built specifically to meet the needs of the very vulnerable teenagers in the community who can’t pay for their secondary education at local state run schools. Sponsorship helps cover; free education, free school lunches, free uniform, shoes and other clothes, school bags & water bottles and free stationery.

We have managed to match two girls in S1 with sponsors but these girls are still waiting for your help. It is still only £25 per month to sponsor a young person. You can sponsor as an individual, a family, friends sharing the cost, or your church, school, club or business could be a sponsor. Will you give the gift of education and a brighter future today? contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com Imagine the difference 5 friends could make to a girl if they each paid £5 per month to support her education. Could this be you and your friends? Thanks to everyone who supports us through sponsorship and donations. Together, on International Day of the Girl Child, we can continue Changing Lives (in) Malawi, Sarah x

We have a few small projects that we are fundraising for with our partners DonorSee DonorSee Here is one of them from which girls are benefitting. https://donorsee.com/project/28717?share=1

(I had a short video chat with the S1 class last week, thanks to their headteacher, and asked each of the students a couple of questions. I’ve written their replies under their photos. Sarah) contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com

Schollastica helps at home by sweeping the inside of her home and the surrounding area and enjoys playing netball with her friends
Lusubiro’s favourite subject is biology and she loves playing rugby
Ethel loves to read and so far at school is enjoying having school uniform and books
Tusalifye is enjoying being at Bright Futures Secondary School and lives a short distance away. She helps at home by sweeping and fetching water.
Veronica said she likes all the books at school and that they get a free school lunch each day. Her favourite sport is netball.
Susan said she really likes school so far as the uniform, shoes, bag and lunches are all for free. Her favourite subject is maths.
At home, Nellie helps with digging their small farmland and fetching water. She likes reading books and her favourite subject is geography.

Visit to Kalanga Primary School – Books & Sports Tops

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Sarah’s blog 5/4/25

Last week Levison visited Kalanga Primary School. Chambo Primary School is the nearest primary school to Bright Futures Campus and where most of the orphans we help to support attend. A few of the orphans who are supported through the feeding programme and with new clothes attend Kalanga Primary School which is further away.

As we collected so many boxes of preloved books as part of our School Literacy Project, we split the boxes between Chambo Primary and Kalanga Primary. As you will be able to see from these photos, most children are sitting on the floor at Kalanga Primary with no resources. There is no clean running water and there are no latrines. All of these students are suffering from hunger and malnutrition as they are living in extreme poverty and, although we have tried to involve big charities, there are no porridge programmes in schools in this area.

Strathblane Primary School and Balfron Primary School were renewing all their group reading scheme books so kindly donated a huge amount of books that we were able to share between Chambo Primary School and Kalanga Primary School. Lots of individuals as well as some other organisations like nurseries and an after school club also donated lots of lovely preloved books.

Levison also took sports tops that had been very kindly donated. Unfortunately, I have forgotten who donated the blue ones and there isn’t a badge on the front (if you donated these – thank you. Let me know and I will amend this text to thank the club) but the black/yellow ones were gifted by www.shoesharemalawi.org from a 10K race – thank you so much.

Here is the link to read about the visit to Chambo Primary School and to see the great pictures https://changinglivesmalawi.com/2025/03/17/school-literacy-project-chambo-primary-school/

Already, the Education Department are noticing the value of our School Literacy Project as, year on year, p8 leavers exam results at Chambo Primary School (where there have been several donations of books) are improving.

This is a low cost project with a huge impact and we are very proud to be making a difference to so many children’s education in this way. Thank you to everyone who has supported us with this ongoing project. As all the books are preloved and donated, our costs are buying strong boxes to pack and send the boxes in and £17.50 per box to cover costs on the container. There are also costs in Malawi with collecting boxes from Ekwendeni when the container arrives. However, for the amount of chidren who will benefit from this project, this is a big project with small costs.

If you would like to help to pay for a box to ensure The School Literacy Project can continue then please do email me contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com Thank you again to everyone for supporting children in rural northern Malawi, Sarah x

School Literacy Project – Chambo Primary School

We are delighted to see these photos and videos from Chambo Primary School. They have received more books as part of the School Literacy Project.

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Sarah’s blog 17/3/25

How can children learn to read without books to practice? Thanks to the help of many of our supporters, Chambo Primary School has once again received a huge donation of preloved books as part of our School Literacy Project. Thanks to so many people who have donated books and to Strathblane Primary School and Balfron Primary School who donated all of their group reading books which they were updating. There are a few other organisations local to us who also made donations. We are grateful to everyone and to those who helped us towards the cost of sending some of these boxes. Kalanga Primary School will also receive a donation of boxes of books in the near future.

As always, thanks goes to the volunteers at Bananabox Trust in Dundee who document the contents of boxes, order the container and then pack all the boxes into the container. We always say everything is teamwork and we are very grateful to all the people who help us support the children and young people who live in extreme poverty in rural northern Malawi.

Most of the orphans and other vulnerable children we help to support attend Chambo Primary School. There are eight classes in the school with approximately 600 students in total. During the rainy season, not all students are able to get to school as it is not safe for them to cross the swollen rivers.

As you can see from the photos and videos, this school is very basic. They don’t have notebooks and pencils, teachers don’t have enough chalk. There are no porridge programmes in the rural far north so all these learners are hungry and many are suffering from Malnutrition.

Thanks to the help of our supporters and grants that we have successfully applied for, so far we have helped the students at Chambo Primary in the following ways;

  1. They only had one classroom with desks and benches; a grant paid for desks & benches in two more classrooms.
  2. There was no clean water supply for drinking and washing hands. Thanks to a grant we applied for, they now have taps and a supply of clean water.
  3. Students relieved themselves in the bushes, making girls especially very vulnerable. We received a grant to build a girls’ latrine block.
  4. Girls who need reusable sanitary towels are provided with them so that they no longer have to miss one week of school each month.
  5. Exercise books and pens and chalk have previously been donated; however they need more urgently. https://donorsee.com/project/25617?share=1
  6. Many of these children attend the weekly feeding programme. It is nowhere near enough, as most don’t eat every day, but all we can afford as we try to work with the community to set up sustainable projects.
  7. Many of these children have received preloved clothes that we have sent.
  8. The students at Chambo Primary are benefitting from The School Literacy Project where we collect and send preloved books to support education. Primary 8 leavers exam results have been improving year on year since we have been supporting them.
  9. Chambo Primary has received sports kit and students have taken part in sporting events that we have supported.
  10. Chambo Primary has received fruit tree saplings, banana tubers and pine tree saplings as part of a sustainable project.
  11. We have supported a School Holiday Study School for the past few years to give p8 students revision time prior to their exams. They receive a substantial school lunch each day so that it helps them concentrate and is a great incentive for them to attend lessons during their holidays.

If you can help with purchasing new exercise books and pens/pencils for these students we would be extremely grateful. They need these to take notes ahead of their exams. https://donorsee.com/project/25617?share=1

Thank you again for all the support (and a huge amount of work went on behind the scenes too). Enjoy these photos and videos, Sarah x

Some of the staff at Chambo Primary School
You may be able to spot a few Strathblane Primary School sweatshirts
Facts & Figures from Chambo Primary School

BFSS Students Photos

Thanks to teachers at Bright Futures Secondary School for these great photos of students.

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Sarah’s blog 8/2/25

These photos that were taken yesterday at Bright Futures Secondary School are great. Thanks to the teachers who took the photos and sent them to me.

As you can see class sizes are small to give these most vulnerable teenagers the best chance of a good secondary education when everything else is stacked against them. The older the students, the harder their lives have been as they have missed big chunks of school to work for a pittance. All are living in extreme poverty and the free lunch they have at Bright Futures Secondary School is, for most, the only meal they have each day. In September we hope that we can start increasing class sizes a bit now that the school has been open for a little while. Class sizes at Bright Futures Secondary School will always remain lower than government run schools.

Because it’s the rainy season, there are often a few absences as the rivers are too swollen for children and young people to cross. So, unfortunately, if students live further away, and it has been raining for a few days, they cannot reach school. Although things are greatly improved thanks to the wonderful help we receive from our supporters, the community still faces many challenges like having no bridges.

These photos were taken in Emma’s Rainbow Library. There are shelves of books along one wall and there will soon be shelves along another wall for the additional books that have been sent for the library. There are books for all age groups and spending time in the library is a treat to read or look at the pictures in books, as well as being able to do some studying.

All of these students would not have been able to attend secondary school if it wasn’t for us being able to match them with sponsors who help pay for their education and school lunches. This is the difference that having a sponsor makes. These students now have opportunities, choices and chances that they didn’t have before.

I will be sending these photos to sponsors of these students next week. Thank you to everyone who supports them on their educational journey, Sarah x

School Literacy Project

We need help to send over 60 boxes of preloved books to children living in extreme poverty in rural northern Malawi. Give the gift of education.

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Sarah’s blog 1/9/24

Hi everyone. I thought I’d write a little bit of a personal post today. Many of you might know that Literacy in Early Years is one of my special interests, as well as communication and attachment in babies and young children. Some of the babies and children I have had in my care have had additional needs.

One baby, sitting in her highchair could communicate to me that she wanted a drink of milk as we had taught her sign language. It was thought her speech might be delayed so we wanted her to be able to express her needs. Another child who struggled to communicate, loved to laugh and laugh at the fun and rhymes in The Hairy Maclary stories by Lynley Dodd. Language and literacy can be such a wonderful shared experience and I treasure all those memories. I miss all that time spent with young children looking at wonderful story books together. Reading the same stories over and over again, anticipating the funny bits, the rhyming words, making up our own rhymes and loving the pictures whilst spending time forming positive attachments was a privilege.

As an Early Years Educator, I loved the children at nursery bringing a book to me and following the words with their fingers as we re-read a favourite story. Or a group of them shouting out the next line in the story when I paused while we all shared a book at the end of the session.

Can you imagine your child/ren starting school having never held a book. Or never looked at the pictures as they sat on an adult’s knee and pointed to their favourite characters. Can you imagine never having the opportunity to read books like The Hungry Caterpillar, Hairy Maclary, or any of the Julia Donaldson Books… hundreds of times over? All of this preliteracy matters.

This is why we are ensuring that all children at Bright Futures Nursery are read to. And we also gift them at least two books each to have at home. The headteacher at Chambo primary has already commented that children who have attended Bright Futures Nursery are ahead of the other children in their class at school.

We are gifting boxes of books to primary schools where resources are limited. This will help children become more confident readers, to open up a whole new world of stories and a love of books. Children leaving primary school have exams to sit. We are hoping that exam rates will show that these children, who live in extreme poverty, are achieving and that boxes of preloved books are making a difference. How can a child learn to read if they have no books to practice with?

We send baby clothes and baby blankets that people have kindly knitted. These are given to new mums who have just given birth. We are going to collect board books and gift a board book for mum and baby to look at to start their literacy journey together.

We have been very fortunate to have been given so many books to send which will make a huge difference. We have over 60 boxes of books for The School Literacy Project. This is amazing… we have had donations to send 10 boxes but we need your help to send the rest please.

We’ve had books from Balfron Primary, Strathblane Primary, Drymen Primary, local nurseries and Drymen library (which closed recently).

I’m asking for help from my friends and contacts and anyone reading this. As a parent, as a carer, as an educator, I’m asking you to help me please. If your children have attended any of these schools or you’ve enjoyed reading with your children or grandchildren… or if you can see the importance of this project….please help me to raise funds to give other children the same opportunities our children have enjoyed. Please make a small donation if you can. This is a relatively low cost project that will help change the lives of hundreds of children living in extreme poverty. Thank you, Sarah x

https://gofund.me/db10b863 is the link to our fundraiser.

Lots of boxes to send- please help

The boy holding the book is Timothy whom we sponsor. He lives with his grandmother and is now about to start s2 at Bright Futures Secondary School. Please let me know if you would like to sponsor a young person contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com

Lots to do before the new term

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Sarah’s blog 21/8/24

There are so many things that are happening and I am just hoping they all come together in time for the new term starting.

Everyone in Malawi is working hard on building staff accommodation and checking supplies for the new term as well as setting up income generating projects as well as planting vegetables to eat. Applications for the new teaching positions have been received and are being reviewed. This is in addition to the pastoral work that Levison does for the most vulnerable children and continuing to source supplies for the weekly feeding programme.

Here, Jackie is doing an amazing job with crunching numbers and making the donations we have received go far. There is never enough money for all the wish lists and requests that are needed to support 500+ of the most vulnerable children and young people but we are trying our best. Currently, Jackie is ensuring there is money to buy more text books as well as all the various supplies needed for the accommodation block build, wages and other monthly costs. We really are grateful for all she does.

What am I doing? Sometimes that is difficult to answer lol. Some days, caring responsibilities take over and I don’t have as much time to give as I’d like to our charity, but I can only do my best with the time I have. Other days, I am working hard from morning until evening ticking off jobs on my list as I go. I am trying to make our charity known to more people with the hope that more donations will come in over time. I’m trying to find more sponsors so young people can go to secondary school and have a brighter future. i work closely with Levison and we are a good team. I’m writing blogs, and updating social media as well as liaising with potential donors…. and (when there is time) writing new grant applications. Oh and packing boxes with my husband Stuart who does an amazing job of organising all of the boxes to be packed properly, labelled and taped up ready for the next part of the journey to Malawi.

One of the goals that we are working towards is to help the community we are supporting to be self-sufficient. We have some small projects on the site DonorSee. Here is the income generating pig project link which just needs a few more people to donate and then it will be totally funded. https://donorsee.com/project/23894?share=1

https://donorsee.com/project/23995?share=1 is the link to help us provide more textbooks for the students at Bright Futures Secondary School.

https://donorsee.com/project/24114?share=1 is the link to help provide seeds for the students at BFSS to grow their own food.

Below is a previous post with details of the students who are looking for a sponsor to help them take up their place at Bright Futures Secondary School. All of these students passed their primary school leavers exams, which is excellent, but they need your help to support them at secondary school contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com Thank you so much to everyone who helps and supports us to make lives brighter for the young people, Sarah x

5 weeks to find sponsors for 11 vulnerable students

Bright Futures Nursery Update

Could you sleep at night without a blanket or food in your tummy? Please read today’s blog to see how we are helping vulnerable preschool children.

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Sarah’s blog 22/6/24

Bright Futures Nursery is more than just a place for preschool children to meet. The nursery was first started because these young children were hanging about with nowhere to go whilst their older siblings were at school.

Of course, there are no adults at home during the day as they are either doing chores or out trying to earn some money for their family. Many of these children are orphans living with extended family and living in extreme poverty.

As well as being a place to meet with their friends and spend time, these children are fed each morning. This is making a big difference to their health and wellbeing. There aren’t so many children with stunted growth as there were and overall health has improved, although there is still a long way to go.

We give care bags to children who start nursery; that way we know everyone has received one. The bag has, a fleece blanket, two red tshirts (nursery uniform), three pairs of underwear, soap, toothbrush, toothpaste and now we are adding a soft toy/knitted teddy and two picture books. These children don’t have a soft toy of their own to cuddle so they will have either a soft toy that has been donated to us or a teddy knitted by one of several talented people who knit for us.

We added the books because when the first boxes of books were sent, the pre-school children didn’t even know how to turn the pages properly. They had never had access to books before. Imagine all the years of bedtime stories and sitting on an adults knee listening to stories they have missed out on. So we want every home to have at least two books so that children of all ages can read together with their families.

At Chambo Primary School, where most of the orphans go to school, the headteacher has already reported that they are seeing that children in primary 1 are ahead of those in previous years because they have had access to books before starting school. We are delighted to hear this and look forward to having more feedback from the school.

I am in contact with Levison Mlambya, the director and co founder, almost every day and we had a catch up phone conversation this morning. I was asking him about if he still had any supplies there to give out to the children at nursery. He has a few t-shirts but nothing else. So I will need to start trying to gather what is needed to put in the nursery bags. I mentioned the small fleece blankets we send. Levison said something that really made me very sad. He asked if, as well as sending blankets for the nursery children, could we send more for their siblings. He said children are sleeping on the floor in their huts but most don’t have blankets. He said that three children might try to share this one little blanket that we give out.

I knew children slept on mats on the floor and that they just had a sheet or blanket to cover themselves with but I did hope we were making more progress with making these children’s lives easier. In many ways we are, but if children don’t even have a blanket to cover themselves at night – and it does get cold as it’s in the hills – then this is one of their very basic needs that isn’t being met. Children are going to bed (well their space on the floor) cold and hungry. How can we expect them to get a good sleep? The fact that there are over 500 children all living in extreme poverty and needing support makes it all the more challenging and food costs are huge.

So if you can spare any money to help us continue providing food for the pre-school children and gifting each one of them a care bag full of gifts when they start nursery, that would be very much appreciated. Even if we cannot give all children a blanket, knowing that each of the preschool children have a blanket is helping them. Here are the links to our two nursery projects on DonorSee. As they say ‘Every little helps’ so please do give if you can and share news of our projects with your friends. Thanks so much, Sarah x

https://donorsee.com/project/23629?share=1

https://donorsee.com/project/23502?share=1

Care bags given to the preschool children last year; blankets, tshirts, underwear, soap, toothbrush & toothpaste, soft toys and books. Being fed every morning at nursery and these care bags are making a difference to these very vulnerable children living in extreme poverty.

Thank you for the books Balfron Primary School!

Thank you Balfron Primary School!! We need some families to help with this project too…so will you read today’s blog and make a difference please?

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Sarah’s blog 12/6/24

We are delighted as we have had a brilliant donation from Balfron Primary School of all their books from their reading programme that they are updating. Headteacher, Angus Black, brought five big boxes of books to us which are going to benefit hundreds of very vulnerable children in primary schools in rural northern Malawi through our School Literacy Project. This project is working towards UN Sustainable Development Goal 4 – Quality Education.

This is an amazing donation of books which will help so many vulnerable children to learn to read.

Most of the primary schools in the rural far north of Malawi have large class sizes and minimal resources. How can we expect children to read well if they don’t have books to practice? These books will make a huge difference to the children’s knowledge as well as helping them to be more confident readers.

So a big THANK YOU again to Balfron Primary School for supporting School Literacy amongst some of the most vulnerable children in rural northern Malawi. We will have photos to show when the books finally arrive in a few months time. We sort and repack all the books into age groups and into strong boxes and label them up to go to Dundee where they await the next container.

Although our School Literacy Project is relatively cheap as the books are all donated, it still costs us £17.50 to send every box on the container. If you can please help pay towards the transportation costs of these books then here is the link to donate on our DonorSee site https://donorsee.com/project/23626?share=1

When students leave primary school at the end of p8 they have to sit national primary school leavers exams. They cannot go to secondary school if they don’t pass these exams. We expect, through our School Literacy Project, to start to see improved exam results within the next few years as literacy levels improve.

None of the hundreds of vulnerable children we help to support can afford to go to secondary school, which has to be paid for in Malawi. So, even if they pass their primary school leavers exams, if they cannot pay for secondary school then that is their education finished.

That’s why we match students with sponsors to support their secondary education. It’s only £25 per month to sponsor a student and you can share the cost between friends and family….it’s less than £1 per day to give the gift of education. Sponsored students are given a place at Bright Futures Secondary School where they receive free education, uniform, stationery and everything else they need for school. They get a free nutritious school lunch each day. For most students, this is the only food they get every day so it is really important to enable them to study and concentrate.

Here is the link to my blog about the students who are looking for sponsors so they will be able to attend Bright Futures Secondary School in September. If you could help support the education of one of these very vulnerable young people then please do get in touch contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com

https://changinglivesmalawi.com/2024/05/23/sponsors-needed-for-p8-students/

Thanks again, Balfron Primary School for supporting our charity which is just round the corner from the school. It’s always about team work and together, with your help, we can make a difference, Sarah x

Students at Chambo Primary School where three out of eight classrooms now have desks and benches. These children were delighted when we paid for them to have new notepads and pencils in January. They are about to receive another gift of notepads and pencils thanks to our fundraising on DonorSee site.
We applied for a grant on behalf of Chambo Primary School to enable them to have a toilet block and a clean water supply.
The first 17 boxes of books gifted to Chambo Primary. After this shipment of books, we will start collecting books for another primary school in that cluster.
Children looking at the first boxes of books that were sent on the container

More great donations – thank you!

Great donations from Jordanhill Out of School Service, Balfron Primary School and Kelvinside Academy. Thank you for all the support!

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Sarah’s blog 10/06/24

Just a short blog today…Stuart and I were packing boxes this morning ready for them to go to Dundee to await the next container. It won’t go for another few months but the previous container that is on its way will arrive in Malawi very soon.

This morning we were packing up boxes of books for the School Literacy Project. The primary schools in the rural far north of Malawi have hardly any resources. Starting with Chambo Primary school, which has over 500 students in 8 classrooms (only 3 have desks and benches) we are donating boxes of preloved books to help students become confident readers and raise literacy levels.

This evening, we received more books, delivered by Angus Black, Balfron Primary School’s head teacher – I will take photos of these tomorrow – thank you so much.

Also this evening, we had some lovely books donated by Jordanhill Out of School Service. It was very kind of them to come all the way to bring them to my house and great to meet them. Thank you very much for this generous donation! They took away leaflets for the families that use their service and stickers for the children. We are very grateful when people go out of their way to support us and our projects.

Also in this morning’s boxes we packed some great donations of sports kit from Kelvinside Academy. These will be donated to one of the primary schools we support and they will be delighted to receive proper sports kits. Until recently, none of the primary schools had a matching kit. There were holes in all the sports kits too, so when we helped support the rugby tournament last year, the teams from the primary schools were so pleased to receive lovely new matching kits. We are grateful for all donations of sports kit and now this donation from Kelvinside Academy will be on its way to new students. Thank you.

Each box costs £17.50 to send on the container, so if anyone can help us pay for boxes we would be very grateful contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com . Many thanks to all our donors and supporters, Sarah x

Josie from Jordanhill Out of School Service delivering a great donation of books to Sarah
Thank you to Kelvinside Academy for this generous donation of preloved clothes

Changing Lives Malawi is (nearly) 5 years old!!

As part of our 5th birthday celebrations, we are launching an appeal for preloved books, school uniform and footwear and also asking people to sponsor the cost of sending a box on the container.

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Sarah’s blog 01/05/24

At the end of this month our charity, Changing Lives Malawi, will be 5 years old! To mark this amazing milestone, we will be sharing stories throughout the month, looking back at how things were and what has been achieved. To start the month I’m sharing our birthday appeals.

We have been fortunate that so many people have donated their preloved books to our School Literacy Appeal; individuals, adults, children, local nurseries, schools, church congregations and you all have been making a big difference to literacy levels in the far north of Malawi.

We have been able to stock the shelves in Emma’s Rainbow Library, as well as donating boxes of books to local primary schools. These schools have hardly any resources and our aim is to support children and young people to become more confident readers. How can they practice reading without any books?

The pre-school children in the nursery have missed out on years of pre-reading skills; they haven’t had the picture books to turn pages, to sit on an adult’s knee as a baby and have a favourite story read to them. This was evident when the pre-school children first encountered books that we had sent. They had no idea how to turn pages or what to do with the books. Now, thanks to the support we receive, we are ensuring each child at Bright Futures Nursery has at least two books to take home with them to keep. We want every home to have some books and families to start looking at these books together.

We are appealing for people to get involved and donate preloved books as part of our 5th birthday celebration. We are also appealing for preloved school uniform, shoes, crocs, sliders, trainers (all sizes) but they must be in very good, clean condition. If you can make a small financial donation with your books, clothes or shoes then please do as that will really help us with the costs of transportation.

We are also appealing for people to sponsor a box of books, clothes or shoes. It costs us £17.50 per box on the Bananabox Trust container plus there are additional costs of collecting the boxes in Malawi. We will write your name, name of a loved one, your business or even a funny message on a big label on your box. It would make such a difference if there were enough people covering the cost of boxes and would, therefore, make it such a team effort!

For more information, or to get involved you can email me on contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com Together, we CAN continue Changing Lives (in) Malawi. Thank you to everyone who supports us, Sarah x

Advent Calendar – highlighting projects & children – days 21 & 22

Clean water & quality education are being highlighted today. Please read today’s blog about some of our important projects that are having an impact.

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Sarah’s blog 22/12/23

Clean water and quality education are the highlights on 21st & 22nd of December. Thankfully, all the children using the Foundation have access to clean drinking water, handwashing facilities, proper showers and latrines. We have just facilitated girls’ latrines and clean drinking water at Chambo Primary School. Much still needs to be done in the community though as, when all the hundreds of vulnerable children return to their homes, they are drinking river water and have no toileting facilities and no soap.

The School Literacy Project is making a big difference to the education of hundreds, if not thousands, of vulnerable children. Primary schools in rural northern Malawi have hardly any resources. Thanks to our supporters, we have been sending boxes of preloved books (and many new books too) and gifted them to primary schools local to the foundation that we support. Initially, 17 boxes of books were donated to Chambo Primary School and other primary schools have benefitted to. It costs £17.50 to send a box of books on the container and we would love it if you would help by paying for a box of books to be transported. It is a fairly low cost project having a big impact on literacy, ensuring children become more confident readers.

We have included the 75 nursery children too. We want all pre-school children to have at least two books of their own to keep in their homes. All of these children have missed out on the stages of pre-literacy, sitting on an adult’s knee as a baby looking at the pictures in a book and hearing a story. Then as a toddler, knowing that the story would continue if you turned the page and being able to point to things in the pictures. One of the next stages of pre-literacy is pretending to read the story whilst moving a finger along the words.

The orphans and other vulnerable children have missed out on all of these stages. We are excited to see if the exam results will rise over the next few years in primary schools that have received gifts of boxes of books. Will you please make a donate this Christmas to ensure we can reach more children with the gift of books and quality education? https://gofund.me/d3cf8c3a contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com Hope you enjoy the photos and the advent calendar video that I’ve attached. Thanks everyone, Sarah x

https://videopress.com/v/vluwUEPG?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true

Advent Calendar – highlighting projects & children – day 19

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Sarah’s blog 19/12/23

19th December and today we are again highlighting Quality Education. It’s the key to a better future for the hundreds of vulnerable children we help to support who are living in extreme poverty.

The photo at the bottom right hand side shows a group of children with looking at a book from the first box of books we sent to them. They had never seen a ‘story book’ with pictures before. Even in their school there were hardly any text books, so these books have opened up a whole new world for them.

Seventeen boxes of books were donated to Chambo Primary School as part of the School Literacy Project and more will be donated later this week. Other primary schools have been receiving boxes of books too. We are hoping children become more confident readers and that literacy levels will rise.

As you can see, money was raised for a library – Emma’s Rainbow Library, in memory of Emma Buchanan – a lovely girl from my village who had cystic fibrosis. Her family helped raise money towards the library. When Emma was poorly, she loved her dad reading to her. Emma had wanted to go to Malawi with a trip from Balfron High School. Her memory lives on and is making a big difference. We have sent lots of books for the library, as well as them buying some locally. It costs £17.50 to send a box of books on the container, so if you would like to support literacy in rural northern Malawi, or any of our other projects, then please do get in touch. contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com https://gofund.me/d3cf8c3a

As well as a well stocked library that the children have access to, they are learning about computers. These are opportunities that would never have happened for these children without the help of our supporters. The children in the photo are wearing preloved uniform from Strathblane Primary School and Riverside Primary School. We sent these preloved tables and chairs too.

Quality Education will change these children’s lives for the better giving them choices and chances that they previously would not have had. Thank you for caring and helping us to support them, Sarah x

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