Bright Futures Secondary School will reopen next Monday and classrooms 3 & 4 are almost ready!
Sarah’s blog 04/09/23
I can’t believe it’s been a whole week since I last wrote a blog. It has been so busy and we’ve been working hard behind the scenes to try to get things ready for school starting back in Malawi next Monday.
Tomorrow is registration day. All students who have been given a place at Bright Futures Secondary School will be coming to register and have their photos taken. There will be some who will be looking for sponsors to help support their education. If you would be interested in being a sponsor it’s £25 p/m (or two friends can split this cost). contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com
As there will be three classes this year, extra teachers have been employed. Money has been sent from a generous donation of £500 for the carpenter to build more desks. We’ve also sent money for some text books to be bought and for exercise books for all the students. Unfortunately, we don’t have enough money yet to buy all the text books we need, so if anyone could help with that we would be very grateful.
Also, we are still raising money for more latrines and we would be delighted if you could spare a few £££. Money for text books and latrines can be added to our school fundraiser https://gofund.me/ece5753a .
Have a look at these photos to see how hard the builders have been working! Let’s build a school! Bright Futures Secondary School now has four classrooms! Classroom 4 will be used for a combination of agricultural classes, sewing classes, a meeting room and study space until it is needed next year for the next intake of students. Thank you so much everyone for your continued support, Sarah x
Let’s build a school – Bright Futures Secondary School is changing lives for some of the most vulnerable students in Malawi. http://www.changinglivesmalawi.com
Sarah’s blog 23/8/23
Bright Futures Secondary School is a big project and, because of costs, we have had to divide it into phases. We were asked to support this project due to lack of places available at the nearest secondary school and the fact that the vulnerable young people we help to support couldn’t afford to pay for secondary school.
In November 22 phase 1 opened with two classrooms. Numbers of students in each class were smaller during last year as we couldn’t offer a full school year because the classrooms weren’t finished for the school year starting in September. However, small class sizes have obviously been of huge benefit to the very vulnerable students who were in our first intake. All students in s2 passed their national exams which is an amazing achievement. Two news outlets in Malawi have picked up on this good news. In the news!100% exam pass rate S2 BFSS
We knew that another classroom would be needed for term starting September 23. However, we didn’t know whether we would be able to achieve this. Prices have kept going up in Malawi so any quotes we got for work were soon out of date and we did wonder if s3 classes would have to be held in the library until we had raised more money.
Thankfully, once again, people have helped us. We have had a few successful grant applications and generous donations. We have had people raising money for us. On behalf of the students (and future students) of Bright Futures Secondary School we thank everyone so very much. We are pleased to report that we have enough money for the next classroom block. The decision was taken to build classrooms 3 and 4 together as this was more cost effective. Classroom 4 will be able to be used for meetings, study and also sewing classes this year until it is needed for teaching an s4 class next year. It seemed like an impossible task a few weeks ago but it is happening for the students!
What we do still need, as we have to employ more teachers for the extra class, is more accommodation for the teachers. We also need to build more latrines and buy more textbooks. We can do this but need your continued help and support. Together we are making a difference and changing lives and giving these vulnerable young people the chance of a brighter future. They deserve investment in their education as this is their way out of the extreme poverty in which they are living. Education will have and impact on them, their families and their whole community. Will you help us again please?
https://gofund.me/ece5753a is our fundraiser where you can donate to help us provide staff accommodation in order to attract good teachers. We also need to build another latrine block for the students.
Could you help us by sponsoring a vulnerable student for £25 p/m? Students receive school uniform and other clothes, a free school lunch each day and all the equipment they need for school.
Or could you commit to £5 or £10 p/m towards a nutritious school lunch each day for all the students at Bright Futures Secondary School. For many, this is their only meal of the day. contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com Let’s build a school!
Here is a photo dump and videos to show how hard the builders have been working over the past few weeks to ensure that the fantastic s2 pupils who all passed their exams have a classroom to continue their secondary education. There will also be a new class of needy children who have just left primary school to come to Bright Futures Secondary School, as well as last year’s s1 class moving up to s2. What has been achieved is fantastic and it’s thanks to your support and teamwork. Thank you, Sarah x
Grateful to the student who made these short videos for us.
Sarah’s blog 27/4/23
We always knew that, if we were to help to build a school in Malawi, it would have to be done a bit at a time as, unfortunately, there is no big pot of money either here or in Malawi. But, time and again, thanks to hard work and our very generous supporters, we manage against the odds.
It is a struggle when there are hundreds of malnourished children who need feeding too, but we cannot spend all the donations on food or there would be nothing in place for their futures. Crops are planted to help provide vegetables. The fruit trees that were planted a couple of years ago are starting to produce fruit. No children are being fed in primary schools in the rural far north of Malawi. Everyone is hungry and malnourished. If you would like to support the feeding programme which feeds 500 children a substantial meal once a week then please do email contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com
We are a very small charity, run by volunteers who are passionate about helping to improve things for the most vulnerable children and young people in rural northern Malawi. As we are volunteers, we have no salaries or admin costs so 100% of all donations go to the projects we help to support.
Phase 1 of Bright Futures Secondary School opened in November 2022 and the vulnerable students have been benefitting from free uniforms, school supplies food and education. Secondary education usually has to be paid for in Malawi which means that it is usually out of reach for the young people we support.
The Form 1 and Form 2 classrooms were built, along with some staff accommodation. There were already latrines, a clean water supply, a shower block and a library that had been previously built, thanks to generous donations. Now we need to start thinking about phase 2 of Bright Futures Secondary School. The rainy season is almost over so it is the ideal time to start building in preparation for the new term in September.
Two more classrooms are needed for Forms 3 & 4. The Form 3 classroom is essential for September when everyone moves up a year and the new students start Form 1. More latrines are needed, more staff accommodation and hopefully a dormitory for these most vulnerable girls who have the furthest to walk. Will you help us please? These young people deserve our help. They deserve chances and choices. They deserve a brighter future.
Can you do a sponsored event for us? Will you host an event for your friends in aid of our charity? Could you invite us to speak at your club or church? Anyone who donates £500 or over can have their name, company name or the name of a loved one painted over a classroom door. Or how would you like to have a whole building named after your family or business? Or something painted on the roof of one of the buildings? As a team, we can do this together. Do you have a jar or coins that you’ve never got round to counting? We’d love to have them….every little helps.
I’m delighted to have another short video to share with you, made by the student who has been using his skills to help us. We’d be grateful if you were to share this with your friends and contacts on social media. I look forward to hearing from anyone with any ideas of how to raise some funds for phase 2. Thanks for your continued support, Sarah x
Yesterday was a day for good news. To be honest, I haven’t stopped smiling every time I think about this.
Yesterday our small team of volunteers finished the challenge to travel the same number of kilometres as the boxes we send to Malawi on a container ship. If you’d like to donate to help us build phase 2 of Bright Futures Secondary School then the link is here https://gofund.me/ece5753a and here is the link to yesterday’s story From here to Malawi – The challenge is complete! – Changing Lives Malawi we would be so grateful for any donations.
As part of trying to raise funds for our charity, I am regularly applying for grants. I’m not just thinking about The Foundation but about the whole community so when I saw a grant that the criteria was for a primary school, I thought of Chambo. However, lots of other charities are applying for the same grants so it isn’t often that good news comes back from an application. Thankfully this time the answer was ‘YES’.
Chambo Primary School, which is nearest to The Foundation we help to support, has only one classroom with desks and chairs. The children sit on the floor in the other classrooms. There are not many resources. We have already provided 17 boxes of books to help the students become more confident readers.
Lots of these children are orphans and make up the 500 children and young people we help to feed every weekend. This is the only substantial meal many of them get each week as no big charities are feeding children in primary schools in this area. At Chambo Primary School there is no water supply. There are no toilets.
We have secured a grant of £6,000 from The Kitchen Table Charities Trust, a small charity set up by John Humphries, to help the students at Chambo Primary School. This grant will provide them with a clean water supply and also two more classrooms will have desks and stools. We are so delighted as having clean water to drink will help their concentration and they will also be able to wash their hands. Thank you so much to The Kitchen Table Charities Trust for enabling us to help the hundreds of vulnerable children at Chambo Primary School.
I will keep everyone updated as this project progresses and there will be lots of photos coming regularly from Malawi. The headteacher, staff and students at the school haven’t even been told about this yet….Levison is looking forward to sharing this wonderful news on Monday morning.
So thank you again to The Kitchen Table Charities Trust for trusting us and helping make a difference to very vulnerable children in rural northern Malawi. There is still much to be done but, bit by bit, we are Changing Lives Malawi. Thanks for reading and supporting, Sarah x
Students in p8 at Chambo Primary School. We paid their teachers to run a study school during the Easter holidays to prepare them for their national leavers exams. We also ensured they were fed each lunchtime. Children at Chambo Primary looking at some of the books we sent to help them become confident readers.The 17 boxes of books we gifted to Chambo Primary School. Many of these were preloved books donated by our supporters. We are now supplying other primary schools with boxes of books.The Health Centre which is near to Chambo Primary School. They have a clean water supply and have kindly allowed this to be used to pipe water to Chambo Primary School.A water tower at the Health Centre. We paid for a survey to be done to ensure that this project was feasible. Staff at the health centre are delighted that the clean water can be shared.Students at Bright Futures Secondary School. These two classrooms were built as part of phase 1. We are now fundraising for phase 2.Feeding the 500 orphans and other vulnerable children are fed a substantial meal once a week
Thanks to everyone who supported our very successful fundraiser for the next phase of Bright Futures Secondary School.
Sarah’s blog 25/2/23
Thank you to everyone who came along last night….it looked like everyone was having a brilliant time! The quiz that Douglas did for us was great fun! He’d put in a lot of work to prepare it and present it – so thank you so much Douglas!
There were so many raffle prizes that had been donated – thanks so much to everyone. We are very grateful to the following businesses; West Group Technical Services Ltd who donated a firepit made by Foldaway Fires, a cycling jacket from Endura, a hamper from Endrick Trading Ltd, vouchers from Tir na nog Holistic Centre, Milk & Honey Artisan Ice Cream, The Woodhouse, The Kitchen Window, Briarlands Farm, Wellsfield Farm, Ticketyboo Hair Design Buchlyvie and Exceptionail Buchlyvie. We had some wonderful prizes!
There was also a bottle of single malt whisky donated by one of our trustees, David Bell, to use as a prize for throwing £1 coins at….the nearest coin wins the bottle. There were so many coins being thrown and someone’s coin touched the bottle whilst lots of people were still waiting for a turn. So David, very kindly offered to buy a second bottle of whisky so everyone else got a turn to throw their £1 coins… this and the amount of raffle tickets that were purchased made a lot of money for our charity.
Then there is a huge thank you to local band, Acoustic Station, who gave their time and talents free of charge. Stuart, the drummer, is one of our trustees (and my husband) so I am slightly biased but they were amazing and people were up dancing all night!
After a very late night, I counted all the money this morning and added what was already paid directly into the charity bank account. £1,503 is the grand total! An amazing start to our fundraising for phase 2 of Bright Futures Secondary School. Thank you for buying tickets, raffle tickets, donating raffle prizes and being so supportive of what we, as a small group of volunteers, are trying to do. 100% of the money will go towards building the next phase of Bright Futures Secondary School. Thank you so much to those who helped set up and tidy up and, as always, it’s been amazing teamwork.
We are absolutely delighted with Phase 1 of Bright Futures Secondary School – as are the students, their families and the community. Thanks to your help, staff accommodation, a staff latrine and two classrooms were built to ensure that the most vulnerable teenagers are able to attend secondary school without having to pay fees which they cannot afford. Now they have chances and choices for the future. They will each have a brighter future.
So we are now thinking about classrooms 3 and 4 for September 2023 when the new academic term starts. We need to start raising funds so that building work can begin after the rains stop and in plenty of time for the new term in September.
So this is where we need your support again to help us help the vulnerable young people. Education is their way out of poverty and malnutrition. Please help? We need £25,000 to build two classrooms and more latrines as phase 2 of Bright Futures Secondary School. These vulnerable children need a team around them, giving them the support they need. Can you be part of their team?
This is the link to the new fundraiser for classrooms 3 & 4. https://gofund.me/ece5753a The other fundraiser is still open, so if you’ve got the link to that it’s ok, just that we will be able to monitor funds easier by having a new fundraiser for each phase of building Bright Futures Secondary School.
We are looking for donations, big and small, and also for people to raise funds on our behalf. Can you help the children? Can you take part in a sponsored event? Can you have a bake sale? Can you organise a fundraiser for us?
If you or your company donate £500 or more, then you can have your name put above a classroom door or on a building. We can advertise your company if you want to sponsor desks, uniforms, free school lunches for a week….or anything else. So please do get in touch and together we can continue Changing Lives Malawi. Thanks for reading and all your support, Sarah x contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com
We were able to send school uniform for the studentsMerchiston Castle School generously donated rugby kit and rugby ballsscience classexam time
Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas. I just wanted to post a few videos celebrating how wonderful we think the children in Ibuluma are. There are hundreds of them who are malnourished and have suffered varying amounts of trauma but, despite all that they are doing well. They now know that people care about them.
If you have helped us then we thank you. Here are ways you can support us to continue Changing Lives Malawi.
1. Donate to help us build phase 2 of Bright Futures Secondary School (classrooms 3 & 4) https://GoFund.me/44a92444
2. commit a monthly amount of £5 or £10 to support one of our feeding programmes; the nursery, secondary or weekly feeding programme for 500 children.
3. Sponsor a vulnerable child or young person for £25 per month which supports their education and provides a monthly food parcel. contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com
Thanks for reading and hope you enjoy the videos. I’d be grateful if you could share with others as we try to grow our audience. Thanks, Sarah x
Rugby coaching
no guitar? no problem! let’s make one!
An update from Catherine
Getting used to the new computers in the library. Children are wearing clothes from Strathblane Primary and Riverside Primary Schools in the Stirling area of Scotland.
Food, fun and dancing at the Christmas Party
Chancy thanking his sponsors and telling them he passed his exams
one of the football matches…everyone loves team sports
Trying out the new clippers we sent
Let’s dance!
Laston, one of the sponsored children, asking for a new school. He is doing well now after missing a great deal of school to help a farmer look after his cows for the equivalent of £1.50 per month.
The teenage boys and girls have been working with the new science equipment that was bought at the weekend when Levison was in Mzuzu.
With the money that was available, he was only able to buy the bare minimum but it is a start. We do need to find funds for more expensive items like microscopes so if anyone would like to contribute towards buying more science equipment then it would be very much appreciated or if you are local to me and have a microscope that is no longer needed then please let me know contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com
I have put the links in to our Christmas fundraising – there are still some calendars available to purchase at £10 each plus £2 p&p, we have alternative gift cards as well as cards and paintings to purchase. Why not put a loved one’s name on one of the buildings at The Foundation as a Christmas gift? Any donation over £500 can do this….. a unique gift!
We must keep our fundraising efforts going to ensure that phase 2 of Bright Futures Secondary School will be built next year. So if you can help then please either email me of donate here https://gofund.me/44a92444 One classroom costs approximately £10,000 to build, so it’s a big ask but we know that together we can make this happen for the children. Thanks for your support and enjoy these photos of the boys and girls at Bright Futures Secondary School, Sarah x
These are the photos we are very excited to show you. Now that the boxes, tables & chairs have arrived safely from the container, we have lots of photos that have been taken this morning.
Students at Bright Futures Secondary School are starting class exams today and these will continue over the next few days. Malawi is 2 hours ahead of us and the young people were delighted to be met with gifts of new uniform before school started for the day. The classrooms are looking brilliant with the addition of the new desks in one classroom, tables in the other classroom (that will be replaced by individual desks) and new chairs in both classrooms.
These young people do have Brighter Futures at Bright Futures Secondary School. This school was only a dream this time last year and look what has been achieved with your help. Thank you so much to all involved in helping this to happen for these children. We need to keep looking ahead and are still fundraising for classrooms 3 & 4 so if you can help us, it would be very much appreciated. https://gofund.me/ece5753a or email contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com I keep saying that it is always about teamwork and these vulnerable children need us as the team around them to ensure their futures are brighter and that we continue to be able to change their lives.
To all the students – we are very proud of you. Good luck in your exams and try your best. You can achieve and you will achieve, and you will have chances and choices open to you.
Thank you for reading and supporting us to help the vulnerable children. Hope you enjoy the photos, Sarah x
We couldn’t help the hundreds of orphans and other vulnerable children we support without the help of our wonderful supporters. We always say it’s about teamwork and we each have our own skills and ways that we can make a difference. That might be volunteering your time, your talents, sponsoring a child or making a one off or regular monitory donation. We need each and every one of you. The children need you. They now have hope and a brighter future because of you. Thank you.
We have been overwhelmed with the support we have received when fundraising to build phase 1 of Bright Futures Secondary School. We said that if anyone donated £500 or over towards the building of the school, they could name a classroom if they wanted to. The two classrooms have been named; Form 1 is named after a girl called Shona and Form 2 is named after Professor Derek Knottenbelt. Thank you very much for your support and help with enabling phase 1 of Bright Futures Secondary School to be built so quickly.
We currently have a new latrine block that needs sponsoring….would you like your company advertised on the wall? And the staff house needs to be named after someone or a business… as the house is split in two, there are two opportunities to have your name painted on one of the walls. If you would like to donate £500 or more, we would be very grateful, and you can let us know what name you would like to be displayed on your behalf. contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com
The fundraiser for phase 2 of Bright Futures Secondary School is open and we would welcome any donations https://gofund.me/44a92444
Thank you for reading and for all your support. It really is a team effort, and we couldn’t help so many vulnerable children without you. As there are no admin costs or salaries in our charity, 100% of what you give goes to the projects we support. Therefore, despite always being on a shoestring, we make the most of what money we have. That’s why your support is vital and very much appreciated. Thanks, Sarah x
It’s been another busy day for Levison. In preparation for the long journey to collect the boxes from the next container, which will hopefully be arriving very soon, Levison took the truck to get two new batteries today.
He also called in at the carpenter who is making some desks for one of the classrooms. We were delighted to have received a donation towards these desks and, as always, we are very grateful for the support. The carpenter agreed to make the desks for £20 each and they will be ready for collection on Tuesday. If anyone would like to purchase a desk for the other classroom, then please do let me know. contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com 130 chairs are in the container that is arriving very soon, so the school is really taking shape and pupils will have more uniform and school bags.
There is still a lot to buy and also continuous costs for Bright Futures Secondary School, so here is the link for our fundraiser https://gofund.me/44a92444 if you would like to make a donation. We are hoping that the builder will be back at The Foundation this week to start measuring out the area for the next classroom block.
Here is the link to the post about our fundraising gifts and cards. We still have some of our lovely calendars for sale and they would make a great gift at only £10 plus £2 p&p with all money going to the school project. Christmas Cards & Gifts – Changing Lives Malawi I hope everyone is having a good weekend and thank you again for supporting us to help the vulnerable children in Malawi. Thanks, Sarah x
Wow! The building of phase 1 of Bright Futures Secondary School is complete. Thank you to each of you who have helped and supported us and the team in Malawi. It’s an amazing achievement and so exciting.
At times we thought this dream was just too big and that we were going to have to wait until next year for it to be a reality. However, the fact that there aren’t enough places in the nearest secondary schools spurred us on. Even though children were passing their primary school leavers exams, if they didn’t get picked for a place at secondary school then they couldn’t go. Education is the way out of poverty for these children and a chance of a brighter future. We had to keep going. So here is an update on where we are with the project.
phase 1 – Two classrooms have been built. The steps and ramp will be started now the actual building is finished. Some teachers’ accommodation has been built. Due to the very rural location this is a necessity. A latrine block for adults will be completed in the next few days. The school is called Bright Futures Secondary School, in memory of a special lady and the school will offer the most vulnerable teenagers a brighter future.
The class sizes will be far smaller than other secondary schools, 45 children per class maximum. In other schools it can be up to 90. There will be a full class of S1 and S2 students. Until we are able to raise more funds for more classrooms the S3 students will be using the library as their learning space or alternating with the other classes when they are accessing the library.
We are by no means finished and must raise more funds to ensure Bright Futures Secondary School is a success. We had a generous grant from The Souter Charitable Trust for £3,250 which was for textbooks. However, we do still need to spend approximately £1,000 on more textbooks. Unfortunately, because of the poverty in Malawi there are never second-hand textbooks for sale so we will have to buy new ones. With your help we can do this. https://gofund.me/44a92444
130 chairs and 8 tables are on the container that will arrive within the next month. We need your help with building desks. There are school jumpers, school bags, filled pencil cases, dictionaries, small windup torches, and other supplies for the students who will be starting at Bright Futures Secondary School. We will need to buy notebooks for the students too. We also need to provide a snack for each student to ensure that everyone has eaten something every day. Teachers are being interviewed and it won’t be long before the school doors are open for learning to begin! Bright Futures and Changing Lives! https://gofund.me/44a92444
All of this would not be possible without the wonderful support we’ve had. Thank you to each and every one of you who has contributed. Going forward, in years to come, thousands of children will benefit from this new school project and benefit from your help. So, on behalf of each and every one of them a HUGE THANK YOU. You have made a difference.
phase 2 – we are fundraising for the next phase of the school already so please do donate if you can. We intend to add; two new classrooms, two new latrine blocks, and a staffroom in phase 2. Each classroom in phase 1 build has cost £10,000 so we have another big challenge ahead. With your help we can continue changing lives.
phase 3 and 4 – this involves more classrooms, dedicated computer and science classrooms and hopefully dormitories for the most vulnerable who have nowhere else to stay or live too far away.
Kilometre Challenge – We are trying to race against the container ship that is on it’s way to Malawi with our boxes. I’ll find out the exact location for an update tomorrow. We are asking people to add their kilometres to our total…you don’t need to be sponsored….just get in touch and tell us how many kilometres you’ve been walking to and from school, walking the dog, cycling, or running…whatever it is that you’ve been doing everyday….take an average and let us know and we will add it to our total. We have now collectively completed 6,612.701 kilometres which works out at 50.31% Woohoo!!! We’ve reached the halfway mark!! Very well done everyone. Email me please with your kilometres and I’ll do another post about this challenge tomorrow. It would be fantastic to have more kilometres to add to the total before then! contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com
Thank you again to each of you. Thank you for being on this journey with us. Thank you for trusting us. Now we need to keep going to ensure that the school keeps growing. https://gofund.me/44a92444 to donate and make a big difference to the lives of the most vulnerable children in rural northern Malawi.
Here are more photos of the school build and it won’t be long until we are showing photos of the students and teachers! Every donation of £500 or over will be able to name a classroom, every donation of £100 or over will be able to have their name on a wall. If you’d like to make a corporate donation or donate in memory of a loved one, then please do get in touch. Or why not give a Christmas Gift to your family of having a name written on the wall or a classroom named after them? Enjoy the photos, Sarah x
