Tag: foundation

Advent Calendar – highlighting projects & children – day 6

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Sarah’s blog 6/12/23

For day 6 of the advent calendar we are highlighting good health and wellbeing. This is my favourite photo from a few years ago. An holistic approach is taken to supporting the children. There will be photos similar to this from all over the world. Children are relaxing, chatting, playing and having fun with their friends. You can see the enjoyment the girls are having from skipping with a piece of rope. This is what childhood should be like all the time. Things are improving for these vulnerable children but there is still so much that we need your support with. Together, as a team we can continue making a difference.

Hundreds of orphans and vulnerable children know that the Foundation is a safe place for them. They have all experienced trauma and very difficult childhoods. Until recently, they felt like they had been forgotten. All are malnourished. All do not have enough to eat. All are living in extreme poverty. Very basic mud or brick one room housing which let in water during the rainy season. All sleeping on the bare floor. If they are lucky they have a sheet or a reed mat to sleep on. None of the families have spare money for clothes or blankets so the children sleep in their clothes which are rags. Many are orphans, living with a grandparent or extended family if parents have died. Most have missed periods of school whilst they try to earn a pittance to buy some food for themselves and their families.

The Foundation is a place where they can just be children for a little while. Where their worries go away whilst they play with their friends. The Foundation is a place where adults will listen if they need to talk. It’s a place where they can have a shower to get clean. They receive new clothes from time to time. We send small blankets to be given to as many as possible. Some of our supporters have knitted hats for the children which helps to keep them warm at night.

They learn skills for life like planting & looking after vegetables, making mats, knitting & sewing and looking after the chickens and goats. The library is open to the children and young people and quite often teenagers will be seen reading fairy stories and other books for younger children….they have missed out on all of that. Team sports are an important part of life at the Foundation and most enjoy playing football, rugby and netball.

And of course, 500 children are fed a nutritious meal once a week. That number is expected to rise to 700 as food is scarce and costs keep rising. This is why we need your help please to keep this vital feeding programme going. We need your help to plant more fruit tree saplings to give future food security and an income when selling surplus fruit. This project will, of course, help the planet too. We need your help to get the pig project up and running so that piglets can be sold to bring in an income. And we need your help to feed the orphans. Please, if you can, will you help us? https://gofund.me/d3cf8c3a contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com

Activities for the Kids

Have a look at what the children have been doing today!

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Sarah’s blog 11/06/23

It’s been another busy day at the Foundation. The Feeding Programme was on today so hundreds of hungry vulnerable children flock to the Foundation to receive their one nutritious, substantial meal of the week. Some children walk up to 20km to receive this food as no big charities are feeding children in primary schools in this area. All are hungry. All are malnourished. All need our help.

Children know that the Foundation is their safe place. A place to have fun and be with their friends. In addition to being fed, children have access to the library and can choose books to read. Some children have been learning about the computers too. Others have been weeding the flowerbeds and some have been playing with building blocks.

Team sports are always high on the agenda. Football and netball matches were played too. Children of all ages can forget about their problems for a while at The Foundation and enjoy themselves as they should. The netball posts were a gift from Community Sports Leaders Africa and we are very thankful for this generous donation. We have plenty of rugby balls on the way in the container but we the children always need footballs and netballs. So if you’d like to make a donation for us to buy a ball on your behalf or to help donate towards the cost of feeding 500 children please email me: contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com

I hope you enjoy the photos and video from today. Thank you for your continued support, Sarah x

Rugby Event – Fundraiser

Volunteers work so hard to feed 500 vulnerable children once a week
Everyone queues up (youngest first) for their one proper meal of the week
Taking pride in their Foundation by weeding the flower beds
Looking after the flowers and getting rid of the weeds
Caring for the plants and weeding the gardens as part of the horticulture class
Looks like they have been busy
Having fun with building blocks
There is now a good choice of books in Emma’s Rainbow Library
Relaxing and reading stories in the library
Children of all ages are learning about computers
Learning about computers
This area has been fenced off for the plants to grow…however the children love sitting here and one boy told Levison that he likes reading his book higher up than his friends
Even the little ones love football
Feeding day is always a busy day at The Foundation
Girls enjoying playing netball
Thank you to Community Sports Leaders Africa for the generous donation of two netball hoops

Building Bright Futures Secondary School

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Sarah’s blog 25/09/22

It’s very exciting to see the work has started on the first phase of the new secondary school – Bright Futures Secondary School. This will be for the most vulnerable young people who would otherwise not go to secondary school.

Unfortunately, only primary education is free in Malawi. The nearest secondary schools are too far to travel daily so the students supported by The Foundation, and who have sponsors to pay their fees, have to board. These schools do not have enough places which is why Bright Futures Secondary School is much needed.

Everything we do is on a shoestring. We are a small charity, and we are achieving. However, there is still so much more to do. We are volunteers so you can be sure that all money that you give to our charity goes on projects. We do need your help to ensure that we can complete phase 1 of the school. We are building two classrooms and then more latrines. The staff accommodation block is almost finished but we do need more funding to complete the classrooms. Please help us? Please give the gift of education. https://gofund.me/44a92444 Together we can make a difference. Together we can continue Changing Lives Malawi. Thank you for reading and supporting us. Sarah x

Levison had a visitor

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12/5/22

Everyone is always welcome at The Foundation. Levison receives visitors every single day….people in desperate need for a variety of reasons. They know The Foundation is doing it’s best to improve lives of the most vulnerable in that community. As help in that area is very limited, people are walking long distances as they are hungry and struggling. Food is getting more expensive and crops aren’t expected to do as well this year due to the very heavy rains and storms.

Usually, Levison is able to give people some clothes from the generous donations people have given us to send. Sometimes he can spare some maize to give them, but not always. They are able to take a shower if they want to. Yesterday a woman came asking for school fees for her daughter as she could no longer afford to pay. Unfortunately, Levison was unable to help….there are so many orphans more in need of a sponsor’s helping hand.

Levison doesn’t often receive visitors from other organisations, being so far north, so it was a lovely surprise for him to have a visit from Reverend Andrews Bipa who runs a much smaller organisation, The Trevor Foundation, which is near Mzuzu. Reverend Bipa had come to find out about The Foundation and the projects that are helping the community. Levison was happy to share information, answer questions and show Reverend Bipa around. They were able to share lunch together too. Networking and sharing knowledge is great for picking up ideas and encouraging each other to keep working hard to help those most in need. Thanks for reading, Sarah x

Levison and Rev Andrews Bipa in the library

Reverend Bipa was able to observe the nursery children enjoying their session

Reverend Bipa speaking about his visit to The Foundation

Where is Ibuluma?

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Sarah’s blog 28/04/22

I’ve put together some maps so that you can see where Malawi is in Africa. The Foundation is in the far north of Malawi. In Chitipa District. Chitipa town is the biggest local town. Chisenga is where the secondary school is. Chambo is the nearest primary school to the Foundation. The Mafinga Hills look very like Scotland and The Foundation is very near the border with Zambia.

Ekwendeni, where the container goes to the Mission Hospital, near Mzuzu, is where Levison has to travel to when he collects the boxes we’ve sent via the Bananabox Trust. Because some of the roads are small, and some are full of pot holes, it takes about 5 or 6 hours to travel from Ibuluma to Mzuzu. On the map of Africa, you can see the port of Beira in Mozambique where the container gets transferred from the ship to a truck.

You will be able to google Ibuluma yourself as the coordinates are on the photos. The shower block is not yet showing….I wonder how many buildings there will be at The Foundation by the time the photo is updated? Hope you enjoy this little bit of geography. Thanks for reading, Sarah x

This was taken before the shower block was built. You can see the sports pitches and the vegetable gardens.

Chisenga is where the nearest secondary school is
The Foundation is just outside Chambo. Chambo Primary school is the nearest to The Foundation.

Emma’s Rainbow Library now has tables & chairs and even more books!

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Sarah’s blog 09/02/22

There were so many great photos taken yesterday that I thought it was best to split them in half. Yesterday’s photos were of the nursery children in their new clothes and flipflops playing with the train set that had been gifted to the nursery.

Today’s photos are of the library…named after Emma Buchanan who wanted to go to Malawi and who loved her dad reading to her whilst she was poorly. Emma is no longer here but will never be forgotten and her name lives on in Emma’s Rainbow Library. We had a donation a while ago for shelves to be built and books have been donated for the library. On the last container we managed to send some stacking chairs. This time more chairs were sent and 8 tables.

How many things do we use tables for? Preparing food, eating, writing, cutting fabric and resting the sewing machine on….the list is endless. These are the first proper tables and Levison is absolutely delighted that they have tables and chairs now. The library is looking great and, once again, we thank everyone involved in making improvements for the vulnerable children who are supported by The William Stewart Foundation. Thank you to the Bananabox Trust for facilitating the safe delivery of all the boxes, tables and chairs.

The nursery children sat at the tables in the library yesterday…probably the first time they had sat at a table. They each had a book to look at the pictures and turn the pages then their new clothes were given out whilst they were all sitting down. We hope you like looking at the photos of the children and all that is happening at The Foundation to continue Changing |Lives Malawi. Thanks for reading, Sarah x contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com

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