Tag: chambo primary

Reflecting on a difficult week

There’s been lots to reflect on this week. Please read today’s blog to catch up on what I have been writing about today.

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Sarah’s blog 16/11/25

For a few different reasons, it has been a difficult week. I’m feeling the weight of responsibility heavy on my shoulders with family and with the charity. Here are a few of my ramblings and what I have been reflecting on and thinking about.

Our friend and colleague, Alan Laverock, who organised (with other volunteers) the sending of containers of vital aid to Malawi, sadly passed away this week. I have been thinking about him and reading the tributes and condolences from so many people. Also, I have been reflecting on a life well lived. Alan made a difference. You can read more about Alan here Alan James Laverock: a tribute | Scotland Malawi Partnership

One consequence, and obviously this is of secondary importance, of Alan’s passing is that the Bananabox Trust containers have stopped. Currently, we have no means of sending any boxes to Malawi.

We realise that many people in Malawi are extremely concerned about this and hope that, in time, that someone else may take this on. Medical and dental equipment gets shipped regularly along with shoes, clothes and sports equipment to name but a few.

I am particularly reflecting on our School Literacy Project. Thanks to the support of Alan and his team at Bananabox Trust, we have been able to make a big difference to children’s reading by sending over 100 boxes of books.

The first 17 boxes of books that were donated to Chambo Primary School

Bright Futures Secondary School has benefited from fiction books as well as text books and bibles. Emma’s Rainbow Library (named after the late Emma Buchanan of Balfron whose family helped raise funds for the library) is well stocked. It has floor to ceiling shelves of books for all age groups.

Bright Futures Nursery has been able to give at least two books per child to take home to read and look at the pictures with their families. This is ensuring all those households have access to books of their own and looking at books together is a special everyday activity.

Chambo Primary School and then Kalanga Primary School have benefited from the gift of many boxes of books. Boxes of both factual and fiction books have been sent for different age groups. These schools have hardly any resources and p8 leavers exam pass rates were well below the national average.

Since we, with the help of our supporters, started putting books into these primary schools, the pass rate for primary school leavers certificates has gone up by 19%. This is a huge achievement for these young people. We are so proud of them and proud of the part we and our supporters have made to their literacy levels, reading comprehension and helping young people pass their exams. Without passing these primary school leavers exams, students are not allowed to attend secondary school.

We hope there will be a way to continue sending books (and other boxes of aid) as other primary schools are asking and waiting to be included in The School Literacy Project.

The rains have started in Malawi and some school buildings in Chitipa District have been damaged (thankfully, not ours). Families are also suffering because their homes are so fragile and open to the elements.

A food crisis has been declared for the whole of Malawi. I don’t think any of us realise just how dire the situation is. Prices continue to rise. There is a continued fuel shortage, meaning many goods aren’t available to purchase rurally. Levison has told me that people are suffering more than usual and it will get worse.

I have been thinking about this over the past few days and wondering how we can make a difference and protect the most vulnerable from the worst of this crisis.

I know I put appeals on social media to which people kindly donate, however we need to be doing something bigger and bolder to get a good amount of money to the hundreds of children and their families to prevent further suffering. https://donorsee.com/project/28717?share=1 This is the link to donate or you can email me for our bank details contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com or make a donation on the website. Donate money and gifts to Changing Lives Malawi

What can we do? What can we do differently? There are projects helping to support sustainability in the future, however, these are for the future and people also need help now. All the fruit tree saplings will make a big difference in a few years time, and we will continue planting more, but they won’t help now.

What can we do now? Instead of sending Christmas cards ( or as many Christmas cards as usual) could you make a donation to help us buy food?

Could you organise a coffee morning or event for your friends on our behalf? Or could you organise a bonus ball competition before Christmas?

Could you purchase an alternative gift for the person in your life who has everything? Or an alternative gift for a teacher who doesn’t really need another mug. Let me know if you’d like to help or if you’ve any good ideas contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com

Levison had a funeral to attend earlier last week. He took a photo of Bright Futures Campus from near where the funeral was taking place. It’s a great photo. You can see the Mafinga Hills in the background and beyond that is Zambia.

Once there was nothing where these buildings now stand. Now there is Bright Futures Campus with a secondary school, a nursery, a library, offices and a staffroom and accommodation for teaching staff. Vulnerable children know this is their safe place where they can receive support, where they can play. Where there is someone to listen. There are fruit tree saplings growing and crops have been planted….nowhere near enough but it is a start. There is hope for a brighter future.

This has all been achieved with a lot of hard work and determination to ensure that the most vulnerable children have a better and brighter future. They have choices and chances that they wouldn’t previously have had. Thanks to our supporters, we are Changing Lives (in) Malawi. However, there is a great deal more to do. Will you help? Thank you for reading my ramblings. I hope you can feel the love and concern I have for the people we are supporting and how, together we can give them a helping hand until they can have a sustainable future. Thank you, Sarah x

Bright Futures Campus with The Mafinga Hills in the background. Beyond the hills is Zambia.

World Food Day – Are you hungry?

Today’s blog looks at the ways in which we are trying to improve hunger and malnutrition in Malawi

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Sarah’s blog 16/10/25

Today is World Food Day – are you hungry? What happens if you are hungry? Do you have food in your cupboards? Are you able to go to the shops? Most of us are fortunate enough to be able to eat every day. We might not be rich, but we have enough to be able to eat at least once every day. This World Food Day – are you hungry?

Many of the children and young people we are helping to support DO NOT have enough to eat. Many DO NOT eat every day. How can we expect them to learn and concentrate at school if they are hungry? if they are malnourished? If they cannot sleep at night because of pains in their tummies? How can we expect them to grow properly if their bodies don’t have enough nutrients? How can we expect them to thrive when their basic needs aren’t being met?

WE NEED YOUR HELP to support a community, living in extreme poverty, in rural northern Malawi, towards sustainability and self-sufficiency. Please do keep reading to see how we are helping and what you can do.

  1. We are sending enough money to run a feeding programme once a week. It’s not enough but all we can afford whilst we are supporting a better and brighter future. We keep trying to get bigger charities involved but, unfortunately, they aren’t working with children that far north. Up to 500 children, some walking miles, some carrying younger siblings, come every week for their one substantial meal of the week. Could you spare £5 or £10 per month to support the weekly feeding programme please? contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com
  2. Bright Futures Nursery is for up to 70 vulnerable preschool children who are fed at every session. This is making a big difference to their health. Again, it’s not much, but it is better than nothing. You could make a difference by making a one off donation or gifting a small monthly amount to support this project.
  3. During sporting events, we ensure that everyone taking part receives a substantial meal and drink so they have enough energy to take part and the food and drink is part of the excitement of the day. Would you like to make a donation towards providing food at a sporting event? Which sport would you choose?
  4. Students at Bright Futures Secondary School, which was built for vulnerable teenagers who cannot afford secondary school fees, are matched with a sponsor to help pay for their education which includes having a free school meal each day. For many of the students, this is their only meal each day. Their families can share the small amount of food they have in their homes between the rest of the family, knowing that their teenager has eaten at school. It is still only £25 per month to sponsor a young person. You could sponsor as an individual, a group of friends, a club or a business. We have new students at school waiting to be matched with a sponsor. Could this be you? Younger children, not yet at secondary school, who have a sponsor are given a monthly food parcel which helps to supplement the small amount of food they have at home. contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com
  5. How about helping with feeding the children & young people at Christmas? We have already had one donation towards this. Would you like to ensure everyone has a great Christmas party with plenty of food? contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com
  6. We have raised funds to plant fruit tree saplings & banana plants on Bright Futures Campus and at Chambo Primary School. These will provide future food and a source of income. However, as there are hundreds of children in need, we need to keep planting more. This is another project you could support with a donation.
  7. Students at Bright Futures Secondary School are growing their own vegetables which they are able to eat as part of their school lunches. However, the vegetables don’t last as part of many meals, and far more need to be planted. We are raising funds to buy polytunnels to extend the growing season and the types of plants that can be grown. Is this a sustainable project you’d like to help with? you could donate via this link or email for bank details. https://donorsee.com/project/29095?share=1
  8. We are supporting vulnerable people to set up Agribusiness Groups. Through hard work, small groups of people are able to grow crops and sell them and reinvest their money into their business. There are three groups already and we would like to set up another two groups. Again, you can give via this link https://donorsee.com/project/27241?share=1 or by emailing for bank details.

Those are eight ways we are working in partnership with the people we are supporting. It’s better than nothing. It’s better than it was. But it is still not enough. With your help, with your £5 or £10 or sponsorship of a young person, we can and will keep Changing Lives (in) Malawi.

So, on World Food Day, are you hungry? What are you having for your dinner? Can you spare a thought and a small amount of money for the hundreds of children living in extreme poverty for whom we are trying to support to have a brighter future? You can make a difference to a child that you don’t know and will never meet by supporting one of our projects. As we are volunteers, you know every penny goes to the projects you support.

This World Food Day, let’s share with those who need our help. Thank you, Sarah x

To sponsor a teenage girl please click here International Day of the Girl Child there are also a few boys waiting for support with their education.

Some of the younger children being fed at the weekly feeding programme
Some of the happy children at a Christmas Party
One of the agribusiness groups working hard in their field
Children waiting in the rain to be fed
Planting bananas at Chambo Primary School
Students at Bright Futures Secondary School planting sweet potato vines as part of their Agriculture lesson, providing them with education, food and skills for life.

Rugby – Day 2 – primary school visits

Day 2 of the Chisenga Zone Schools Rugby Initiative. Jack Mphande has been busy visiting local primary schools. Thanks to Arnold Clark cars for supporting the event.

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Sarah’s blog 14/10/24

Jack Mphande, Malawi Rugby Development Officer has had an extremely busy second day of the Chisenga Zone Schools Rugby Initiative. He has visited 4 different rural primary schools, delivering rugby training sessions and supporting the teachers from each of those primary schools with their new coaching skills from yesterday’s session. Thank you Jack for encouraging and inspiring everyone.

Tomorrow is a school holiday in Malawi – it’s Mothers’ Day. Teams from each school will come with their teachers to take part in a day of rugby matches and tournaments. Children will receive a nutritious meal and a drink which will be a great treat for each of them. No big charities are feeding children in schools in the far north of Malawi. So many are malnourished, all are hungry. We cannot expect them to take part in a day of sport without feeding them so we are very grateful to Arnold Clark cars for supporting us financially with this rugby event.

Here is the link to yesterday’s rugby session for teachers.

Rugby Day 1 – theory & practical for teachers

And here is the link to our fundraiser to try to raise money for a football tournament to happen (similar set up to the rugby) https://donorsee.com/project/24384?share=1 and we would be really grateful if you could help make this happen. The young people would be even more delighted! Thank you for reading and supporting, Sarah x

Some photos and videos from today…

Chambo Primary School

https://videopress.com/v/mynq0sMN?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true


Kaylizi Primary School

Kalanga Primary School

Chisenga Primary School

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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

S2 Exams & Successful Grants

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Sarah’s blog 3/6/24

The Malawi National Junior Certificate of Education exams start tomorrow. These are formal exams taken at the end of S2. Here are some of the S2 students at Bright Futures Secondary School. They’ve been to register and get their IDs today and Levison has given out more school uniform as they have 6 full days of exams to do and each student only had one white shirt.

They are thankful for their new water bottles and stationery they were given last week all of which will be very useful for them as they do their exams. I had bought a batch of water bottles, pens, pencils, erasers & sharpeners plus small bars of soap and toothbrushes and toothpaste. Each water bottle was filled with these gifts and Levison gave them out recently. As you can see, there were lots of happy students. Small gifts like these help to keep them motivated and let them know we are thinking about them. Good luck to the S2 students in their exams.

Almost every week I am writing grant applications in the hope of getting money that hundreds of other small charities are also applying for. Lots don’t reply. Some reply to say ‘sorry’ they have a large number of applicants etc etc. but this week has been an extremely good week as there have been three successful responses. Very many thanks to the following for supporting us to help support the orphans and vulnerable children in rural northern Malawi;

  1. The Gilchrist Trust gave £1,000 towards text books for the new S4 class at Bright Futures Secondary School that will be needed in September.
  2. CB & HH Taylor Trust donated £1,000 towards purchasing fruit tree saplings for a new School Orchard Project.
  3. The Souter Charitable Trust sent a cheque today for £3,000 for a solar panel kit for one of the new buildings and also solar lamps for students.

We are so grateful to individuals who support us and also organisations like the above who support our work and the work happening in Malawi.

We have also joined DonorSee where we are trying to reach out to a new audience. So far we have had three small projects fully funded which we are delighted about. There are some more projects that we have uploaded so, if you’d like to donate a small amount please create an account and login to donate. If you could leave us a review that would really help others to see and trust us. Thank you. https://donorsee.com/project/23641?share=1 is the link for the Chicken Project and the link to view all of the small projects we have on DonorSee just now is DonorSee .

We are still looking for sponsors to support these students who have just finished p8 at Chambo Primary. Unless they have someone to help pay for their secondary education, they will need to look for jobs in the fields as that is their education over. Will you be a sponsor please? It’s only £25 per month contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com . Here is the link to a recent post with photos of all the students who need your help for a brighter future. Please help if you can. We always say it’s teamwork and we couldn’t do what we do without you. Thank you so much, Sarah x

Sponsors needed for p8 students

Easter Study School

The first day of Easter Study School – some of the students are enjoying a break to have their lunch and chat with their friends.

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Sarah’s blog 02/04/24

Schools in Malawi have two weeks of Easter holidays like they do here in Scotland. However, as some of the teachers at Bright Futures Secondary School were staying on campus rather than travelling home for the holidays, they were happy to run a holiday study school for four days this week and four days next week.

We enabled this to happen last year too and it was a great success and we provided a cooked lunch for the students and teachers from p8 at Chambo primary too. Primary 8 students have national exams to take on leaving primary school. If they don’t pass then they don’t get chance to go to secondary school. Even if they do pass, unless they have a sponsor to pay for their secondary education then they still don’t get to have a secondary education. Sponsoring a young person only costs £25 per month and they get a cooked lunch each day at school, uniform and the stationery they need. If you could make a difference to a young person and become a sponsor then please email contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com

S2 students also have national exams and this study school will really help them. S3 students asked if they could take part too. So a full timetable has been worked out to accommodate S2 and S3 students to ensure they make best use of time and teachers available. We are really grateful to the teachers for their enthusiasm and hard work and dedication to the young people.

There are no big charities feeding children in primary schools in the far north. Most are malnourished and all are hungry. Most don’t get a proper meal each day. So we are ensuring all the Chambo p8 students (approx 70 of them) and the Bright Futures Secondary School students all get a cooked school lunch each lunchtime during these two weeks. All students and BFSS get a cooked school lunch every day. How can we expect young people to study when they are hungry, tired and unable to concentrate?

So, as you can see from these photos, some of the students were happily chatting with their friends at lunchtime and enjoying their lunch. It’s small things like this that make a big difference to them. Whilst BFSS students all have the exercise books and stationery they need, the last time we gave the students at Chambo Primary exercise books and pencils was in January….they need more otherwise they are just listening to their teachers and not able to write anything down.

Can you help us provide lunch, exercise books and pencils for 70 students in p8 at Chambo Primary please? contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com Thanks for reading and supporting us to support the students, Sarah x

Clean Water to Drink

Something we take for granted – this is the joy that having clean water can bring http://www.changinglivesmalawi.com

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Sarah’s blog 26/04/23

These two photos show the importance of clean water. The first photo was taken at the weekend. The second photo was taken on the day the tap was first connected to the clean water supply at The Foundation. The nursery children in that photo were the first ones to drink from it – actually the little girl, Josephine, was first.

So it’s the same tap with photos taken a few years apart but they are almost identical. A group of young children who are able to turn on a tap and delight when fresh, clean water flows out. (I altered both photos to black and white as it is easier to see the water droplets.)

These children attend Chambo Primary School where there is no water. We want to be able to replicate these scenes at Chambo Primary School. Clean drinking water should be available to all children. Thanks to a grant we have received from The Kitchen Table Charities Trust, soon there will be a tap just like this outside Chambo Primary School. We know that something we take for granted will bring those children great joy. We look forward to sharing those joyful photos with you.

WILL YOU HELP US? We are still hoping for more support with feeding these vulnerable children. If you can spare £5 per month towards our Feeding Programme you can either text FEEDING to 70480 or contact me for bank details to commit to a monthly amount. contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com . Thank you for helping us continue to help these malnourished children, Sarah x

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