Thanks to generous donors that’s another project fully funded on DonorSee. These children are delighted with their bar of soap.
Sarah’s blog 25/06/24
Another one of our small projects that is on our DonorSee page has been fully funded by generous donors….thank you so much. We appealed for money to buy bars of soap for Bright Futures Nursery, Chambo Primary School and Bright Futures Secondary School. All of these now have clean water to drink and wash hands but soap is also necessary for keeping infection and germs from spreading.
Soap is also provided in the shower block. This is such a useful facility for so many children so that they are able to get clean and get rid of the dust and dirt. By taking a bar of soap home, their caregivers will be able to wash their clothes. They probably don’t have soap very often. Something we take for granted. So enjoy these photos and video of the nursery children who are delighted that they have been given a bar of soap. If you contributed – thank you for making their lives just a little bit better.
As you can see from the building behind – it needs repainting. All the sun and then heavy rain have faded the paint and it’s looking a little bit worn. The writing says ‘Emma’s Rainbow Library’ named for Emma Buchanan who was taken too soon. She loved reading and would have loved to go to Malawi on a school trip but her health prevented that. After Emma passed, a beautiful rainbow appeared. Her family helped fundraise for the library building. So painting is on the list of jobs that needs doing!
Here is the link to our DonorSee page… perhaps you’d like to make a small donation to one of our other projects? DonorSee Thanks, Sarah x
Happy nursery children with their bars of soap – thank you!Two very happy smiley boysThese children are aged between 4 and 6 years old. They start school at age 6.Holding their precious gifts up high
Thank you for the soap
58 happy children having each received a bar of soap this morning
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.
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
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.
