Tag: care packages

Advent Calendar – highlighting projects & children – day 2

Sarah’s blog 2/12/23

Day 2 of highlighting children and projects during advent. Yesterday’s photo was of Josephine Nyondo and her friends when they were at the nursery. They were the first children to drink clean water from the new tap.

Today’s photo is of more children in the nursery. There are between 50 and 75 pre-school children come to the nursery. It was identified as a need because vulnerable young children were hanging about all day with nowhere to go while the older children were at school. The nursery runs five days a week and the children are fed at each session as well playing and having the opportunity to use the onsite showers. #SDG3 Good Health & Wellbeing

We ensure that all children who are at nursery receive a care package. This is a bag containing; 2 red t-shirts, 3 pairs of pants, soap, toothbrush & toothpaste, a small blanket, a book and now, thanks to our supporters, a soft toy.

It had been observed that, when the first library opened, these pre-school children had no idea how to turn the pages of a book properly. They have missed out on so many opportunities for pre-literacy. As there are no books in their homes, they have missed out on looking at books and adults reading to them. So our aim, as part of the School Literacy Project, is that all the children that we help to support should have at least two books of their own at their home. We hope books become a special part of everyday life and that children become more confident readers.

However, it does cost us £12 per care package. Can you support this project or one of our other projects please this advent season? contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com https://gofund.me/d3cf8c3a Thank you for all the support we receive…it truly is teamwork. Sarah x

The Nursery

Sarah’s blog 23/04/22

As the rainy season hasn’t finished yet, there were less children at today’s nursery session. I always say that the nursery caters for 50 of the most vulnerable children. However, Levison has recently told me that there are now 75 children age between 4-6 coming to the nursery. None of these children are turned away as they are hungry and suffering from malnutrition.

As you can see, the children are in their red t-shirts that have been sent, a few are still wearing their stripy waterproofs that they were given at Christmas and one little girl, Flary, whose mum volunteers to cook for all the children, is wearing a Riverside Primary School Jumper.

Levison and I decided that when the children start nursery would be a good time to give out a care package so we know that everyone has received their gifts. As I am an Early Years Educator, I’ve got a special interest in making lives better for these children and helping them achieve their potential. We have put together the following for each child as they begin nursery; a gym bag with, two red t-shirts, two pairs of pants, toothbrush & toothpaste, soap, a blanket and a picture book. Now I know that there are 25 more children, I am collecting and putting together some more bags to send on the next container. We always need soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste, pens & pencils, children’s pants etc so if you find these cheaply while you are doing your shopping we would be very grateful if you’d donate some for the children.

We are also putting together pencil cases for each child leaving nursery and starting school, so if your child has asked for a new pencil case and their old one is still ok, could you donate it to send to the children please?

The nursery meets 3 times a week and the children play and are given something to eat. Periodically, Feed The Children Organisation bring some bags of porridge. The Foundation is grateful for this donation. These are only to be used for the nursery children. The porridge doesn’t last for many servings so the children are fed from money our charity sends and also from the crops grown at The Foundation when available.

This is one of the reasons that planting fruit tree saplings is so important, so children like these have more variety and vitamins in their diets and any extra fruit will be used as an income for The Foundation. Levison and team want a huge orchard with lots of different fruit trees. They want to keep bees too when the saplings start growing bigger. Obviously, planting hundreds of trees will be good for our planet as well as providing a sustainable future for the community. Fruit tree saplings are a way out of poverty and malnutrition for this village.

If you’d like to buy some fruit tree saplings they are £10 for 4. You can get in touch by email contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com or via the website form. Please also get in touch if you’d like to help support the nursery in any way. Thanks for reading, Sarah x