Tag: newspaper

Bright Futures Secondary School is in the news!

Sarah’s blog 22/11/22

Word has spread about the new secondary school in Ibuluma. A local radio station and The Malawi Guardian have contacted Levison for more information on Bright Futures Secondary School. It is amazing what has been achieved in a short period of time and we couldn’t have supported this project without the wonderful people who have helped us. It’s been a real team effort.

The school is being built in phases, due to the fact that it requires a huge amount of money to complete. Teachers’ accommodation, latrines and two classrooms have been built as phase 1 of Bright Futures Secondary School. Work is about to start on the foundations for classrooms 3 and 4 and it is hoped that these classrooms will be finished after the rainy season. We have sent 130 chairs for the school on The Bananabox Trust container that is due to arrive in Ekwendeni very soon.

We are still needing to raise money for desks and more textbooks. If you are able to help support the young people with this, please donate at https://gofund.me/44a92444 Once desks and more textbooks have been supplied, fundraising will start for phase 2 of Bright Futures Secondary School. If anyone is able to contribute £500 or more, then they can name a classroom (after an individual or a business). contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com

Class sizes are deliberately small to ensure that these vulnerable children get the best chance to succeed. Currently S1 and S2 have 35 students each. S3 has 10 students who are using the library as their classroom. The school won’t be taking on any additional students until more resources are in place.

I have attached the link to the Malawi Guardian post and thank them for their article. I have also put links to some recent articles on Bright Futures Secondary School in case people haven’t had chance to read them. There has certainly been a lot going on and it is wonderful to be playing a very small part in the team that are helping to change the lives of these most vulnerable children and help them towards a brighter future. Thank you for reading and enjoy the articles, photos and videos, Sarah x

First Day of Bright Futures Secondary School 07/11/22 – Changing Lives Malawi

Reviewing the first week of Bright Futures Secondary School – Changing Lives Malawi

International Children’s Day – Changing Lives Malawi

Sports at Bright Futures Secondary School – Changing Lives Malawi

Link to the news article: The William Stewart Foundation establish a… – The Malawi Guardian | Facebook

Copy of the news article in The Malawi Guardian: “In order to help less privilege students, the William Stewart Foundation an organization based in Chitipa has established a secondary school with support from a UK based Charity Changing Lives Malawi. According to the cofounder of the organization Levison Mlambya who is also a secondary school teacher said the secondary school has been established to target needy and orphaned secondary school going students who cannot afford to pay fees in other schools.

The secondary school has been established to give hope and bright future to less privileged students hence the name Bright Futures Secondary School. So far the school has enrolled about 35 students in forms one and two. The school has also provided job to cooks, watchmen, six teachers with degrees and diplomas.

“We have opened a secondary school targeting the needy students who can’t afford to pay their fees in other schools. They are learning for free and also given free food and teaching learning resources”.

“We are appealing for support from well-wishers from Malawi and all over the world to support us with teaching and learning resources like desks, food stuffs, books, pens so that we continue supporting these students”.

The school is opening in phases, this year we have started with junior school next year we will be opening the senior secondary. We are now working on the school registration processes so that the school is duly registered with the ministry of education,” he said. He added that they are targeting over 160 learners to be helped. The school is located in Ibuluma Village, in TA Wenya in Chitipa District.”

Team Mackay made the news!

Sarah’s blog 10/09/22

Because of the news that our Queen Elizabeth 11 had passed away on Thursday afternoon, we decided not to post anything yesterday. Our thoughts are with the Royal Family at this sad and difficult time.

We are very grateful to The Stirling Observer for featuring Team Mackay in yesterday’s edition of the newspaper. Team Mackay aka Jackie, Ewan, Ben and Adam are some of our supporters who have been working hard collecting kilometres for us in our effort to raise awareness and money for the new school we are building in rural Northern Malawi. https://gofund.me/44a92444

‘It is especially vital to support the charity as they are about to make a significant breakthrough. Changing Lives Malawi is supporting building a secondary school called Bright Futures Secondary School at Ibuluma, a four/five-year project – initially building two classrooms, extra latrines and teachers’ accommodation to allow education to start this October. There is already a library and other facilities at the Foundation. Then additional classrooms would be built over the further three/four years for the subsequent intakes of pupils until the full four years of education were available at the school’.

Jackie Mackay

We are following one of the routes that the boxes take from here to Malawi which is over 13,000km and have been asking people to take part and donate their kilometres to us whether it is from walking the dog, walking round the shops or on the running or rowing machine at the gym…it all counts so please do get in touch and donate your kilometres to help us on our journey. As the saying goes….every little helps!! Over 30% of the journey has been completed already which is brilliant! You can read my blogs on the website to see what people have been doing to add to the total kilometres.

Please donate a few £££ to show your support and to help us build the first phase of Bright Futures Secondary School. Without this school so many of the most vulnerable young people supported by The Foundation will not have a secondary education. Only primary education is free in Malawi. Education is the way out of extreme poverty for these young people and they are desperate to go to school. Can you spare a few £££ to help us give the gift of education? Here is the link to donate: https://gofund.me/44a92444 or you can get in touch for the charity bank details contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com Any amount will make a difference to our total so please, please help us.

Here is the link to the press release: Malawi Release[11125].docx

To take part here is the link: https://forms.gle/twQYfx7LRRrtvdhx9 or you can email your kilometres too. Let’s build this school!!

We are very grateful to all those who have donated so far. If you donate £500 or over then you can name a room, £100 or over means your name or that of a loved one will go on the supporter’s wall. You can help us build this school. We can’t do it without you….it’s always about teamwork. Can you be part of our team? Thank you for reading and supporting, Sarah x

The wonderful Team Mackay. l-r Ben, Adam, Jackie and Ewan have been collecting kilometres to raise funds for Bright Futures Secondary School
Team Mackay ;Ben, Adam, Jackie and Ewan, with their bikes, have been collecting kilometres to help us build a school
Jackie and her eldest son Ben