Thank you to The Clive Richards Foundation for the grant for this teachers accommodation block. We are delighted with the results.
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Sarah’s blog 13/4/24
We were so grateful to receive a grant for £11,000 from The Clive Richards Foundation to build a staff accommodation block, staff latrines, boys latrines and girls latrines. We were just waiting for the signwriter to come so that the accommodation block was totally finished to show the photos. Four male teachers are living in this accommodation. The four self-contained apartments all have their own bedroom and sitting room.
It certainly hasn’t been straightforward as currency has been devalued, prices of goods keep rising and the rainy season started before the project had been completed. But despite the issues, they’ve worked hard and succeeded and now the teachers are pleased to have these lovely new rooms.
As the area is very rural and the community is living in extreme poverty, there is no suitable accommodation in the surrounding area that teachers could rent. The Clive Richards Foundation recognised that we needed quality accommodation to attract quality teachers for Bright Futures Secondary School.
Enjoy the photos and I have attached the links to previous blogs at the start of this accommodation project. To The Clive Richards Foundation for taking a chance on us and trusting us with a grant – THANK YOU. It makes a big difference when people understand our vision and come onboard with us to help us achieve for the young people we are supporting. We are so grateful for the help we receive from individuals and organisations. Many thanks again, Sarah x
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
We were looking at the layout of the buildings at the Foundation today and I thought it would be a good time to show you again where the community is that we support and how things have changed in a few short years.
Ibuluma Villages are near Chisenga on the banks of the Chambo River right at the top of the map of Malawi. It is a very rural area. When Levison collects boxes from the container he has to travel all the way to Ekwendeni by Mzuzu.
This was the Foundation a few short years agoThis was taken from Google today and the buildings labelled
As you can see there has been a huge amount of achievement and we thank everyone who has helped make these changes happen for this rural community living in extreme poverty. They now have hope for a brighter future.
As well as the four classrooms of Bright Futures Secondary School, there is staff accommodation (the first house is already shown on the map), the second accommodation block will be completed this week and is marked in blue at the bottom of the photo along with a new latrine for the teachers. There is a shower block at the top of the photo and a library and general purpose room in the middle. There are two chicken sheds, office blocks and a kitchen and marked are two more latrine blocks that are about to be started.
The existing latrine blocks, which were build early on, sit at the left of the photos. However, early this morning something happened.
The boys’ latrines that were built a few years agoThe boys’ latrine block this morning
As you can see, sadly, the boys’ latrine block no longer exists. Due to the very heavy rains and termite activity, the ground became unstable and subsided. Thankfully, no one was hurt. Some bricks, doors and roofing sheets have been saved for use in rebuilding and the hole was filled in as a priority to make it safe. All the more recent buildings have been treated to keep the termites away.
Sometimes it feels like two steps forward and one step back when things like this happen. The heavy rains also prevent children and young people attending school as it isn’t safe for them to cross the swollen rivers. Foot bridges are on our list of improvements which sometimes feels like it’s never ending. It will, unfortunately, be a while until we get to that stage.
Thankfully, the latrine diggers and builders are on site already and we had just enough money to be building a latrine block for teachers, a boys’ latrine and a girls’ latrine. Obviously now we will have to build an additional boys’ latrine so the younger boys and older boys have separate facilities.
Although today hasn’t been good because of the boys’ latrine block being destroyed, as the second photo reminds us that, thanks to the continued support we receive, teamwork and a lot of determination, this community is changing. We are grateful to everyone who helps us. Below is a short video of the torrential rain this morning which brings everything to a standstill. We are Changing Lives (in) Malawi. Thanks, Sarah x
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
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.
Purple sky at sunset over the new classroom block at Bright Futures Secondary School
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Sarah’s blog 8/9/23
Teamwork has done it again! Thank you so much everyone who has helped to make this happen. Classrooms 3 & 4 will be completed before school starts on Monday morning. Classroom 4 will be used as a staffroom/meeting room/general purpose room for this year until it’s needed for students in year 4 next year. The current staffroom is a bit too small for the extra teachers this term. We are fortunate to have this extra space this year.
The building looks amazing and the students are delighted that they have lovely classrooms and a great learning environment. Boxes have arrived with science equipment, reference books, pens, pencils and exercise books. Lots of photos will be taken over the next couple of weeks of the students receiving the equipment they need.
We are still fundraising for more latrines for the students and for extra staff accommodation as there is nowhere suitable in the village to rent due to the level of poverty. If you would like to help us a little bit further then the donation page is https://gofund.me/ece5753a or you can get in touch for bank details contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com . We are still looking for sponsors for these very vulnerable students if anyone would like to make a real difference to one young person. Please email for more details on sponsorship. These students need a sponsor
Many thanks again to everyone who supports us to help the whole community out of poverty, Sarah x
Just look at the colour of the sky as the sun is setting at 6pm
Bright Futures Secondary School will reopen next Monday and classrooms 3 & 4 are almost ready!
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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
These are great photos that Levison has sent. Thousands of bricks are being made for classroom 3 of Bright Futures Secondary School. Also, hopefully, a toilet block and staff bedrooms if we raise enough money.
Students are excited seeing the bricks being made as they now believe an s3 classroom will be built to ensure their education continues. They had been worried they wouldn’t be able to progress to S3. So thankfully there has been enough money raised for classroom 3 – thank you to everyone who has helped make this happen. We couldn’t help these vulnerable teenagers without your support. https://gofund.me/ece5753a
Now the students need your help with providing a new toilet block please. Due to the extra numbers of students who will be starting school in September, the latrine blocks aren’t enough for the number of students. Also, as the other latrines are used by the nursery children too (with an adult waiting outside) it will be far better to have separate facilities for the different age groups.
200 people donating just £10 each will provide a new toilet block for Bright Futures Secondary School. Since yesterday’s post, 5 people have donated for which we are very thankful. So that’s £60 since yesterday’s post. Please can more people donate today? https://gofund.me/ece5753a
Every child deserves toilets which provide safety, privacy, dignity and good hygiene. Please help us ensure that happens for the orphans and other vulnerable students at Bright Futures Secondary School. https://gofund.me/ece5753a
Thank you for your continuous support. We are all a team, each doing our little bit to help some of the poorest children and young people in rural Northern Malawi. We need you on our team of supporters please.
https://gofund.me/ece5753a We really need your help to have phase 2 of Bright Futures Secondary School ready for the next intake of students. Please help?
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Sarah’s blog 15/07/23
Thousands of bricks are being made for classroom 3 of Bright Futures Secondary School. Classroom 3 needs to be completed and ready for the new term starting in September 2023. Land is starting to be prepared today. Foundations will be done for classrooms 3 and 4 but, currently, we only have enough funds for classroom 3. As long as classroom 3 is built then classroom 4 can be completed at a later date. Thank you so much to The Inverclyde Trust for their generous donation of £4,000 towards phase 2 of Bright Futures Secondary School.
We also need funds for latrines and more teachers’ accommodation, so need to raise approximately £10,000 for these to ensure there are enough toilet facilities for the extra intake of new students and also accommodation for the extra teachers that need to be employed.
Will you help us to ensure this happens please? Can your company help sponsor this? Your name can be painted on a building. Can you donate £500 or more and you can have your name (or someone else’s name) above the classroom door? or above the doors of the teachers’ accommodation? or how would you like to sponsor a toilet? contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com £10 x 200 people will pay for a toilet block…. will you donate £10 or more towards new toilets? Privacy, safety, dignity and hygiene are priceless and something every teenager deserves….especially the girls need to have safe, adequate toilet facilities. Will you help us help them? https://gofund.me/ece5753a We cannot do this on our own. We always say it takes teamwork. Will you be part of our team? Can you spare a few £££? Please? If enough people will help then we will reach our target. The students need us.
During the first year of opening it was decided that there would only be very vulnerable students who wouldn’t have to pay school fees, or for uniform, school supplies or school lunches. The majority of places at Bright Futures Secondary School will still be for these vulnerable students. However, from September 2023 there will be ten places in each year group for fee paying day students which will help towards expenses at the school. These fees still won’t be as much as other schools charge but will provide an option for those who can afford to pay to send their children to Bright Futures Secondary School if it is nearer than the other secondary schools. Bright Futures Secondary School has smaller class sizes than other secondary schools and offers computer lessons and encourages practical agricultural classes in addition to the core curriculum subjects.
Please help us to provide a brighter future for up to 120 of the most vulnerable teenagers (3 classes x 40 students). These teenagers receive a substantial and nutritious school lunch each day which is their only proper meal of the day. School lunches are helping them concentrate in school and supporting their overall development. This is a big commitment we have made to these students but they need people to believe in them. They need people to give them choices and chances. They need opportunities to thrive and to shine. Will you help us continue Changing Lives Malawi? Please email me on contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com if you’d like more information or you would like to help with ensuring Bright Futures Secondary School is ready to welcome more students and teachers in September. The link to our fundraiser is https://gofund.me/ece5753a these vulnerable teenagers really do need your help. Thanks for reading and supporting, Sarah x
some of the vulnerable students at Bright Futures Secondary School with their solar lamps enabling them to see to study at home as it is dark year round at 6pm in Malawi. (solar lamps were bought with money donated by The Souter Charitable Trust)
students at Bright Futures Secondary School planting sweet potato vines
This rugby kit was kindly donated by Merchiston Castle School, Edinburgh – students are outside the first classroom block – classrooms 1 & 2
