We are grateful to everyone who has supported us to provide clean drinking water, water for washing hands and showering and latrines for hundreds of children.
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Sarah’s blog 22/3/24
On World Water Day we just want to thank all of our supporters who have helped bring water to all the vulnerable children and young people we help to support.
We still have lots to do but, thanks to our supporters and grants we have received, children at Bright Futures Nursery, Chambo Primary School, Bright Futures Secondary School and of course the 500 children who come for a meal at the feeding programme each week, all have clean drinking water.
We would like to thank again The Kitchen Table Charities Trust for their funding to enable us to facilitate using the clean water supply at Chambo Health Centre to lay pipes and provide taps for drinking clean water at Chambo Primary School. By letting us ‘think outside the box’ we made best use of their grant. Thank you to those people who have done sponsored events to raise funds and to others who have made personal donations or shared our posts. You have all made a difference.
As well as clean water to drink, it’s also important that there is clean water & soap for washing hands, proper latrines and there is the shower block where all the young people and staff are able to wash. Thank you all for making this possible, Sarah x
I shared some photos before Christmas of the official handover of the improvements at Chambo Primary School thanks to a £6,000 grant we applied for and received from The Kitchen Table Charities Trust.
The story starts in springtime last year when we applied for a grant to KTCT on behalf of Chambo Primary School. What we were asking for wasn’t straightforward but, with a few emails back and forward and a bit of waiting, we were absolutely delighted to receive £6,000 on behalf of Chambo Primary School. This is the nearest primary school to the Foundation and where most of the orphans and other vulnerable young people we support attend. There are eight classes, each with at least 60 children.
No big charities are feeding children in schools in this area so all these children are really hungry. Many of them are suffering from malnutrition. We only have enough money to send to feed 500 children once a week and some of those children are walking up to 15km to 20km to receive this one decent meal of the week. It’s not good enough but it’s all we can afford. If anyone would like to help us provide food for the children then please do email contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com
As well as no food, the children had no clean water supply for drinking and washing their hands. Their drinking water came from the river which isn’t a clean supply. The children and their families still use the river as a water supply when they are at their homes. After liaising with and receiving permission from staff at Chambo Health Centre (which has it’s own clean water supply), we paid for a survey to check that it was possible to bring water via an underground pipe to the primary school and have taps installed outside the primary school.
We were delighted when we got the green light from the water department staff, health centre staff and, of course, The Kitchen Table Charities Trust. As you might imagine, all this took time to implement. Prices have been escalating in Malawi and this has also caused issues whilst we have been trying to stick to a budget. The headteacher at Chambo Primary, whilst being extremely thankful and pleased that the school would have clean water, rightly wanted the digging of the trench delayed by a few weeks until school holidays. No one would have wanted either children or staff tripping and falling into a hole in the playground! We also had to wait for this part of the project to finish to check costs before moving onto the next part of the project.
In addition to the clean water part of the grant, we asked for money for desks and benches. Only one classroom out of the eight classes already had desks and benches. We originally thought we would have enough money to get desks and benches made for three classrooms but unfortunately, due to price rises, we didn’t manage to do this. However, two classrooms now have new desks and benches and the students are enjoying not having to sit on the floor.
Whilst employing qualified plumbers and carpenters, part of what we wanted was the opportunity for some of the young people who are supported at the Foundation to be able to gain some experience by observing and helping with some of the more straightforward tasks. It’s been a real team effort.
We had previously gifted seventeen boxes of books to Chambo Primary School as part of our School Literacy Project. We hope to help children become more confident readers by having access to a wide range of reading material. What I hadn’t understood until recently is that all these boxes of books were being stacked and kept in the headteacher’s office. This was the only place in the school with a door that locked so poor Mr Nyondo was surrounded by boxes of books! So, with the grant money, locks were bought for the four classrooms that have doors and book shelves are being made so the books can be distributed between those four classrooms and they will be kept safely as these classrooms now have locking doors. We hope, in future, that we might have money to put doors on the remaining four classrooms.
I could keep writing about this project as I’m so pleased at how it has all worked out. I’m so thankful that The Kitchen Table Charities Trust liked our proposal and trusted us to carry out these improvements with their grant money. None of it was to benefit our charity or the Foundation we support directly, however this was a project that we could see would have huge benefits for vulnerable children we support and the community in general. It makes the hard work worthwhile when you see photos of smiling children enjoying sitting at desks, drinking clean water and reading books. We also provided buckets and cups with the grant money and our charity donated exercise books, pencils and bars of soap.
Thank you so much to everyone involved in helping us continue Changing Lives (in) Malawi. I also want to thank Levison Mlambya, the Foundation Director, whom we work with very closely on a daily basis. Levison works tirelessly for his community and always puts others above himself. As well as project managing these improvements for Chambo Primary, he has also been project managing the building of classrooms 3 & 4 of Bright Futures Secondary School and a teachers accommodation block. The carpenters were going back and forward between projects when they were needed so there was a lot to organise! 2023 was a very busy year! I hope you enjoy the photos and videos, Sarah x
Thanks to the carpenters for allowing some of the young people to assist themThe new desks being delivered to Chambo Primary School. L-R Mr Msukwa, Primary School Education Adviser, Mr Levison Mlambya, Director of The William Stewart Foundation and Mr Nyondo, Headteacher of Chambo Primary SchoolEveryone helps to bring the new desks inside
Students at Chambo Primary thanking Changing Lives Malawi for their notebooks and pencilsChildren were always keen to observe what was happening
Drinking the clean water
As you can see, the headteacher’s office was used as a storage room too as there were no doors that locked on any of the classrooms. Now four out of the eight classrooms have book shelves and locks on their doors. Mr Nyondo will get his office back!
Teachers at Chambo Primary having received stationery and chalk from Changing Lives Malawi. Mr Nyondo, headteacher, is thanking The Kitchen Table Charities Trust, The William Stewart Foundation and Changing Lives Malawi for enabling the changes at the school.Mr Msukwa, Primary Education Adviser drinking water from one of the new taps.The students at Chambo Primary are delighted to have clean water. It’s been a day to celebrate.Everyone wants a turn to fill their cups with clean drinking water.Washing hands with clean water and with soap that we donated.The Primary School Education Adviser, Mr Msukwa, with Levison Mlambya, Director of The William Stewart Foundation. Changing Lives Malawi donated soap to Chambo Primary School.
Washing hands is so important in helping keep the children healthy.The first 17 boxes of books that were gifted to Chambo Primary as part of our School Literacy Project. They have received a few more boxes since then and we have since started donating books to other primary schools.
Please read about our successes and challenges and look at all the great photos of the children we help to support.
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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;
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.
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.
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.
Two plots of land, adjacent to the current land, have been purchased. One for the teachers’ accommodation and one for future building.
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.
Solar panels were bought with grant to provide electricity to the library and the classrooms and teachers’ accommodation.
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.
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.
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.
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
Thanks to all who helped change lives for the students at Chambo Primary and Bright Futures Secondary School…some amazing photos!
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Sarah’s blog 23/12/23
Levison has had such a busy week this last week as both primary schools and secondary schools have been doing exams recently so visits to the schools had to wait until the students had finished their exams.
I am going to do a proper post on these visits after Christmas as I don’t have enough time today to write them up in detail.
Firstly Chambo Primary School. It’s a government run primary school with approximately 500 students over 8 classes. There are hardly any resources. Only classroom 8 had desks – the rest of the students sit on the floor. No big charities are feeding children in schools in this area. Many children are malnourished. There was no clean water and no latrines. This is the primary school where many of the orphans and vulnerable children that the Foundation supports attend. We had already donated boxes of books through our School Literacy Project, given clothes to students but we knew they needed more.
We were thankful to get a grant for £1,000 from The Eleanor Rathbone Trust to build a girls’ latrine, ensuring that girls have dignity, privacy and safety.
Thinking outside the box with the £6,000 grant we gratefully received from The Kitchen Table Charity Trust, we facilitated clean water being piped from Chambo Health Centre water supply after Changing Lives Malawi paying for a survey to ensure that this was possible. They are now taps outside Chambo Primary School with clean water for drinking and handwashing. Buckets and cups were also bought with the grant money and we provided soap for students and teachers.
Some of the grant money from The Kitchen Table Charity Trust was used for making desks for two of the classrooms, so there are now three classrooms with desks to sit at. A few of the young people that the Foundation supports helped the carpenters with making these desks and therefore were able to earn some money and learn some basic skills. The carpenters still have four bookshelves to make when they are finished working on a project at The Foundation. We provided exercise books and pencils for the students, and for the teachers we provided exercise books, clipboards, pens and boxes of chalk. Everyone was delighted and very thankful. Lots more information and photos will follow next week.
At Bright Futures Secondary School yesterday, students were tasked with writing essays in the morning about what they like about Bright Futures Secondary School and their hopes for 2024. In the afternoon they were given toothbrushes, toothpaste and soap supplied by Changing Lives Malawi. They were also gifted polo shirts from Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh. We are grateful for lots of preloved sports kit they have gifted to us.
Via, Tony Phillips at Replay Sport Scotland charity in Stirling, we were gifted t-shirts and jackets from Scottish Swimming and also grey trousers from The Queen’s baton relay. We are very pleased to have been able to pass on these clothes to vulnerable teenagers and you can see how happy they are to have these gifts of new clothes. Thank you Tony for gifting these to us.
So as you can see from these photos there are lots of happy children and, with the help of our supporters, we are Changing Lives (in) Malawi. Thank you so much everyone who helps us…. it’s teamwork! Thank you Levison for project managing all the work and taking all the photos. Happy Christmas everyone, Sarah x
It’s December already! This year has gone so quickly! As we approach Christmas Day, I am going to take this opportunity to highlight some of the projects we are supporting and also some of the vulnerable children and young people who are benefitting from our support.
Of course, we can’t do what we do without your support – it’s teamwork! Thank you so much to everyone who helps and supports our charity. Together we can continue to change lives and help the young people have a brighter future. So, if you are able, we would appreciate, if you could spare a few ££ to help us continue feeding 500 children once a week and also supporting the start up of some sustainable projects. All our projects have The Sustainable Development Goals in mind.
Today, on 1st December we are highlighting the need for clean water. Children at the Foundation have clean water to drink and wash their hands. Also Chambo Primary School now have clean water on site, thanks to a recent grant we applied for. In this photo which is one of my favourites and a couple of years old now, Josephine Nyondo and her nursery friends, tried the new tap for the first time. It was such a special moment for them being able to drink clean water straight from the tap and wash their hands. #SDG6 Clean Water & Sanitation
Did you know it was World Toilet Day? Imagine a day to be thankful for having a toilet! A toilet is just one of the things we take for granted. Every home has at least one toilet. And a sink to wash your hands with running water and soap. When we go out, we know where there is a toilet available for use, again with water to wash our hands.
The children and young people in Malawi do not have the luxury of toilets. They have to go in the nearby bushes. There is no clean water or soap to wash their hands. Disease can spread quickly because of lack of sanitation. Also, imagine being a teenage girl with no proper toilet facilities. No dignity, no privacy and also the worry of being vulnerable to attack on your own in the bushes.
We are trying our best to improve their situation. There are latrine blocks at The Foundation, they were one of the first things to be built. Plus a teachers’ latrine block was added. With the help of our supporters, we have some money raised for more latrine blocks for teenagers at Bright Futures Secondary School. However, because of constant rising costs in Malawi, we do not yet have enough money to complete these latrines.
On World Toilet Day, please think about how fortunate we are and how we take so much for granted. If you could spare £10 to help build another toilet block, we would be so grateful. https://gofund.me/e5ba79fe or email for our bank details contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com Your continued support is gratefully received both here and in Malawi.
We have been supporting Chambo Primary School, where most of the younger children attend, through two grants we successfully applied for. Hopefully, all will be finished next week and there will be lots of photos.
One of the grants was from The Eleanor Rathbone Trust for £1,000 which has built a latrine block at Chambo Primary School. The other grant was from The Kitchen Table Charities Trust for £6,000, part of which has been used to bring clean water for drinking and washing hands to Chambo Primary School. At school; clean drinking water, the privacy, dignity and hygiene of a toilet block , and clean water and soap to wash their hands. Life is changing for the better for these very vulnerable children. We will continue, with your help, Changing Lives (in) Malawi. Thanks so much and please do help if you can, Sarah x https://gofund.me/e5ba79fe
The new toilet block at Chambo Primary School is almost finished. Thanks to The Eleanor Rathbone Trust for the grant of £1,000.
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
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
