Tag: children

Photos of some sponsored children & young people

Food insecurity is getting worse. Families cannot afford to feed their children. Education is their way out of extreme poverty. Can you sponsor a child or support the feeding programme please? contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com

Sarah’s blog 2/1/24

There is a vast difference in ages of the children and young people who are fortunate to have sponsors to support them. However, two factors that are the same with all of them is that none have enough to eat and all are living in extreme poverty. Levison is working his way through the list and taking photos of them all for their sponsors.

Some of the youngest children are benefitting from receiving a monthly food parcel at their home to supplement what their parents/carers have. They are also benefitting from receiving clothes, shoes, soap and toothbrush & toothpaste.

Teenagers are receiving free education at Bright Futures Secondary School, free school lunches and free clothes. Secondary education needs to be paid for in Malawi so none of these young people would have the opportunity of secondary education without receiving financial support.

There are some young people who are supported who are not at secondary school but are learning skills and are receiving financial support, clothes etc.

All are able to access the weekly feeding programme. Five hundred children and young people come to the Foundation once a week to receive a substantial, nutritious meal….some walking for 15km to 20km to get there. No big charities are feeding children in schools in this area so your help is vital to these children and young people.

Could you be a sponsor and bring a smile to a vulnerable child’s face today? It’s only £25 per month to be a sponsor….or you could share that cost with a friend for only £12.50 p/m each. It’s not much to us but it is a huge gift for those we help to support. There are hundreds waiting to be matched with a sponsor to enable them to have a brighter future.

Or could you commit to just £5 or £10 per month to help ensure we can continue feeding the children? Food insecurity is becoming worse in Malawi, prices are rising and families cannot feed their children. Some girls are at risk of being married off because their families cannot feed them. Join our team of supporters and help us to help them. For bank details contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com or you can make a donation here https://gofund.me/d3cf8c3a . Thank you for supporting us to help these most vulnerable children and young people, Sarah x

A recap of 2023 in pictures

Please read about our successes and challenges and look at all the great photos of the children we help to support.

Sarah’s blog 31/12/23

Firstly, I would like to thank everyone who has supported us in 2023. As I always say, it’s teamwork. We couldn’t do what we do without our generous supporters. Much has happened in 2023 and we need you even more in 2024 and need to reach more supporters to ensure that the hundreds of vulnerable children we support continue to have brighter and better futures.

Here are just some of the success stories of 2023, thanks to teamwork;

  1. 75 preschool children continue to meet five times a week at nursery and are fed at each session. They each receive a bag containing; a blanket, two red t-shirts, three pairs of pants, toothbrush & toothpaste and soap. They are now also receiving two picture books as part of our School Literacy Programme. This will ensure that all homes have at least two books and that children have daily opportunities for reading and becoming confident readers.
  2. Bright Futures Secondary School opened in November 2022 with two classrooms. Classrooms 3 and 4 were constructed and ready for term starting in September 2023 thanks to fundraising and donations. Education is free to students and they receive a free school meal each day, the only meal for many of these teenagers as they don’t have food at home.
  3. A grant was received for a teachers’ accommodation block for four teachers has been built. Once plastering and painting have been done, will be ready in mid January.
  4. Two plots of land, adjacent to the current land, have been purchased. One for the teachers’ accommodation and one for future building.
  5. Over 100 more fruit tree saplings have been purchased are will be planted by young people during the next couple of weeks. Other projects promoting self-sufficiency and sustainability are being put in place too.
  6. Solar panels were bought with grant to provide electricity to the library and the classrooms and teachers’ accommodation.
  7. Clothes, shoes and books continue to be sent to provide for the hundreds of vulnerable children we help to support. This helps to reuse preloved items to gift to those who cannot afford clothes because of the dire poverty they live in.
  8. Thanks to our supporters, we sent lots of sports kit, paid for and facilitated a two week rugby festival for the local schools led by the Malawi Rugby Union sports development coach, Jack Mphande.
  9. Chambo Primary School had no clean water for drinking or washing hands. They had no toilets. Only one of their eight classrooms had desks and chairs. Thanks to two grants we applied for, they now have a girls’ latrine block, clean water for drinking and washing hands and desks and chairs for another two classrooms. We also donated exercise books and pencils and stationery for the teachers. To date, we have donated twenty boxes of books as part of our School Literacy Project. Bit by bit, life is improving for the most vulnerable children.
  10. We continue to send money for The Feeding Programme. No charities are feeding children in schools in the rural far north of Malawi. Children are being taught to grow crops which are then used to feed them at the feeding programme.

As you can see, there has been a great deal happening and much success. We are so grateful that we have been supported to achieve the above for the children and their community. 

However, the Feeding Programme has got to be our biggest ongoing challenge as, despite having asked for help from several big charities with feeding, none are helping us. Most children are suffering from malnutrition as they do not have enough to eat, the situation is getting worse. We can only afford to send money to feed 500 children once a week. Even this is getting harder as food prices continue to rise and food is scarcer. Children are walking up to 20km for this one nutritious meal of the week which includes vegetables grown by the children. We need your help to feed these children as families are really struggling. If you could commit £5 or £10 per month, it would make a huge difference to us and to them contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com or https://gofund.me/d3cf8c3a

Merry Christmas from Malawi – photos from 24/12 & 25/12

Lots of photos of hundreds of vulnerable children receiving clothes & food this Christmas.

Sarah’s blog 26/12/23

On Christmas Eve, 500 orphans and other vulnerable children of all ages came to the Foundation as they knew that they would be receiving gifts of new clothes. Many thanks to the team of volunteers for ensuring that this was able to happen. Such a lot of work, sorting clothes in advance and trying to secure enough food. Then on the days; distributing clothing, cooking ensuring that everyone was fed.

We were delighted to be able to send some great donations for these children, however it does cost £17.50 per box on the container so we really do need help with covering these costs please. When looking at the photos, have a look at some of the children’s feet. Many have broken shoes or their shoes are far too small for them. We would love donations of trainers, school shoes, flipflops and sliders please – sizes for young children to adults. Again, we need to ask for £1 per pair of shoes to cover the cost of sending them on the container. Can you help?

On Christmas Day, all the children returned to receive food for Christmas Lunch. This had been paid for by a very kind couple who are supporters of our charity. As you can see the children were very happy to receive food and enjoyed wearing the Christmas hats. It was decided that the children would actually have their party on Christmas Day as Levison has said that more and more families are struggling with food insecurity and are unable to feed their children properly. They wanted it to be a happy Christmas Day for the children. After everyone was fed, they were able to play a few games but on both days the children had to be sent home early because of heavy rain.

There are several shallow rivers that many of the children cross to reach the Foundation. There are no bridges. Every time it looks like rain is starting children have to leave either school or activities as the rivers will swell with the amount of rain and no one wants to risk children being swept away with the force of the water. Building bridges is something else on our list of things that will help this community.

We are getting more and more concerned about how food prices continuing to rise and the currency being devalued are affecting people living in extreme poverty. As well as food being scarce, people just don’t have any means to feed their families and it is only going to get worse. If you can spare £5 or £10 per month to help us continue to feed 500 children once a week then please do get in touch contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com, or could you make a one off donation? It’s got to be a team effort, and we cannot do everything on our own. Or you could donate via our fundraiser https://gofund.me/d3cf8c3a  Thank you for reading and continuing to support us and believe in us. Merry Christmas from here and Malawi, Sarah x

Advent Calendar – highlighting projects & children – 23 & 24

Our last two advent photos; 23 – clean water, 24 – decent work & economic growth. http://www.changinglivesmalawi.com

Sarah’s blog

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.

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 2023 – video – highlighting projects & children

Sarah’s blog 20/12/23

I’m thankful that I had help from someone far more skilled than me to put the advent calendar pictures together and with background music. I hope you enjoy looking at some of the many projects that are happening within the community we are supporting. Please share this video with your friends and family so more people can find out about our work.

Thank you to everyone who helps and supports us and if you can donate a few £££ to support our projects we would be very grateful. Thanks, Sarah x https://gofund.me/d3cf8c3a contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com 

Advent Calendar – highlighting projects & children – day 20

Sarah’s blog 20/12/23

20th December – today we are highlighting Life on Land – Global Sustainable Development Goal 15. Students at Bright Futures Secondary School plant crops and the younger children who come to the Foundation learn life skills like planting fruit tree saplings, weeding crops and harvesting. Agricultural classes are a core part of the curriculum in Malawi.

Despite best efforts, crops do not last long when feeding 500 vulnerable children and orphans each week. More fruit tree saplings are being planted soon for future food and a sustainable income. However, your help is needed to ensure we can keep feeding the children. With food becoming scarce and prices continuing to rise as the rainy season begins if our supporters were able to commit to £5 per month it would be a big help. No big charities are feeding children in schools in this area and we need your help. https://gofund.me/d3cf8c3a  contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com 

I have had some technical help to put together all the advent calendar pictures into a little video. I was going to leave it until 24th December to post it but, as we will have other photos from Malawi later in the week, I’m sharing it now. Hope you enjoy it. Thank you all for your continued support, Sarah x

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Advent Calendar – highlighting projects & children – day 19

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

Advent Calendar – Highlighting Projects & Children – Day 18

Sarah’s blog 18/12/23

It’s 18th December today and we are highlighting our work towards zero poverty. In the first photograph, Naomi and her baby sister, Modester, had just been orphaned and living with a grandparent. Naomi was delighted to be able to feed her baby sister at the feeding programme, despite being so young herself. They have continued to have support, receiving clothes and attending the Feeding Programme each week.

The second photo was taken just over a year ago. Modester has been attending the nursery and having food five days a week. The two sisters are growing up and doing well. This year, Naomi started at Bright Futures Secondary School and has a sponsor to support her high school education. Without help, her education would have already finished at the end of primary school. Now Naomi has a brighter future. Education is the way out of extreme poverty and young people are desperate to learn.

Can you sponsor a student like Naomi to ensure they have choices and chances for a brighter future? It’s only £25 per month to sponsor a young person. You can share that cost with a friend or a school, club or business could sponsor a young person’s education. contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com

Or could you make a one off donation towards our feeding programme or school lunches at Bright Futures Secondary School? Or could you commit £5 or £10 per month towards school lunches? Food prices are rising all the time and food is scarce now the rainy season has started https://gofund.me/d3cf8c3a 

Hundreds of orphans and vulnerable children need our help. Will you help us help them? Thanks for reading and supporting, Sarah x

Advent Calendar – highlighting projects & children – day 17

Sarah’s blog 17/12/23

17th December – The hundreds of vulnerable children who are supported by the Foundation are living in extreme poverty. Many are orphans living with extended family. None have spare money to buy clothes.

As a way of highlighting this community that we are helping to support, we started collecting preloved school uniform to send to the children. School uniform is hardwearing and there is always lots of preloved uniform as children grow so quickly.

The children and young people have loved receiving new clothes and there is always great excitement when they know that new boxes have arrived. There will be another gift day next weekend and lots of sorting into different sizes has been happening this week.

Today’s photo is just some of the schools that we have had uniform from….there have been many more. We are grateful for all the help and support with giving hundreds of children decent clothes to wear. Please note that each box costs us £17.50 to send on the container plus other costs in Malawi to collect the boxes so we really do need financial support to keep repurposing these much needed clothes to the children.

The hope is that, as with other projects, the community can become self-sufficient and the need to send clothes will reduce. However, although a group of girls have started learning to make clothes, they are a long way from being self-sufficient. When there is more money in the community then they might have money for clothes.

If you’d like to donate to this or one of our other projects, then the link is here https://gofund.me/d3cf8c3a Thank you to everyone who helps us and supports our projects…we couldn’t do what we do without you. Thanks for reading, Sarah x

Advent Calendar – highlighting projects & children – day 16

Sarah’s blog 16/12/23

Every day people like Mrs Ng’ambi and her children come to the foundation asking for help. They have no money, no food and, much of the time, are dressed in rags. It is heart breaking to see the amount of poverty that many in the community are living in. Children with their extended tummies are showing visible signs of malnutrition and are so hungry. Unfortunately, there is not enough money to help all of these vulnerable people.

Sometimes they can be given some new clothes or a small amount of food. They are able to have a shower. Sometimes they are given a small amount of money for doing some piece work like helping to weed a field. Life is so difficult, beyond what we can imagine.

Eventually, the aim is that the Foundation is self-sufficient and has enough food to feed the children. There will be more people employed meaning that more money is going back into the community. Until then, they need our help. Can you make a one off donation to support feeding malnourished children please? Or could you commit £5 or £10 per month to ensure the most vulnerable are fed despite food scarcity and prices continuing to rise?

People like Mrs Ng’ambi and her children deserve some happiness and to be healthy and to know that people care about them. If you can help please donate to https://gofund.me/d3cf8c3a contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com Together we can make a difference and continue Changing Lives Malawi. Thank you, Sarah x

Advent Calendar – highlighting projects & children – day 15

Sarah’s blog 15/12/23

On day 15 we are again highlighting the need for quality education. The children and young people we are helping to support have all had extremely difficult lives and are living in extreme poverty. Secondary education needs to be paid for in Malawi and none of the students at Bright Futures Secondary School would be able to afford to pay these fees.

We are extremely proud of Chancy Chisale who is the first sponsored young person to have passed their s4 national exams and is going on to further education. Chancy’s family had paid for some of his education but then ran out of money. Chancy was a very hard worker and a promising student so we managed to match him with a sponsor and we are glad to say that he was successful. We wish him every success for the future.

Bright Futures Secondary School has only been open for just over a year. We were absolutely delighted that the whole S2 class passed their national exams in the summer. This was an amazing achievement for them and we are very proud of them.

Class sizes will always be smaller than government run schools. However, currently, Bright Futures Secondary School is running at approximately 50% capacity. We cannot afford to support more students without sponsors to help support their education costs. The decision was made that all students at Bright Futures Secondary School will get a free school lunch each day. This, for many, is their only proper meal. For some, it is their only food each day. They cannot study and concentrate without being fed at school. But this costs money.

Can you sponsor a vulnerable young person to study at Bright Futures Secondary School please? It’s only £25 per month. You can be a sponsor as an individual, a family or two friends or even a business or a school. contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com Or can you make a one off donation towards school lunches? or commit to paying £5 or £10 per month to ensure the young people get the nutrition they need through a free school lunch each day? https://gofund.me/d3cf8c3a Together we can keep Changing Lives Malawi. Thanks so much, Sarah x