Sarah’s blog 13/9/24
Please will you help Levison? Life is hard and unfair for those living in extreme poverty in Malawi. Sometimes it seems like progress is being made only for something else to happen.
First – some good news.
There have been lots of eggs being laid and put in the incubator. There are over 50 healthy chicks now and more eggs are in the incubator keeping nice and warm. This is really good news for this project. Now that the incubator, which was bought with a generous donation from Lochlie Construction, has it’s own solar power supply, there is enough energy to keep it going 24/7 so the eggs stay at a constant temperature. We look forward to seeing more progress and will bring more news.
Now for the bad news.
The truck – which is absolutely vital and used every day has broken down. It was being used to transport supplies for the teachers’ accommodation project. Also, as water levels are low because it’s the dry season, water for making bricks and cement etc has to be brought by truck from the river to the site. In the borehole, there is only enough clean water for drinking so this water is very precious.
There is a local man with ox and cart and Levison has managed to hire him to help with moving water from the river to where the builders are working.
However, the truck is also vital for fetching maize and other supplies to feed hundreds of children every week as well as many other uses. Of course, every few months there are long overnight journeys to collect all the boxes we send from the container. Ekwendeni, which is the end destination for the container, is near Mzuzu. While this is in the north of Malawi, it is still a very long way south of where the community we help to support are. Bright Futures Campus is approximately 45km from Chitipa town and many of the roads are just dirt tracks. Especially when it is the rainy season, the rural roads are hazardous and often even the truck cannot climb muddy hilly tracks!
Levison and his team need our help and support to get the truck back on the road. It needs a new altenator and two new batteries. The batteries can be bought in Chitipa town but the alternator will need to be sent from Mzuzu. Nothing is straightforward! When the truck broke down, it was carrying supplies that had been bought for Bright Futures Secondary School (which opens again on Monday) as well as equipment for the building project. Eventually, they managed to get someone to come with a truck to transport everything safely back to campus. However, this cost money. So did towing the truck back. The mechanic came yesterday to look at the problem and he was paid for his time. However, nothing else could be done because of no money and no new parts for the truck.
Will you help us get the truck back on the road please? It is essential to the smooth running of all the projects and ensuring that hundreds of orphans are fed. We need approximately £650. Thank you, Sarah x You can donate via our page on DonorSee https://donorsee.com/project/24823?share=1 contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com or sending us an email for bank details. Or you can also make a donation via the button on the home page on our website. Any donation will be very much appreciated. Thank you once again for your support, Sarah x
