Just a short post from me today as I’ve got an issue with my laptop that will hopefully be sorted by tomorrow. It’s times like this that I realise that technology isn’t my forte… but thank goodness for friends who can help.
Douglas & Lynda delivered another load of boxes to Dundee yesterday. Stuart & I spent a couple of hours yesterday packing boxes. The Bananabox Trust shed in Dundee will soon be full again and then they will book another container. It won’t be long until the current one arrives at it’s destination .
Hopefully, I’ll have an update on the kilometre challenge for you tomorrow with some photos too.
So I want to take this opportunity to say ‘thank you’ again to everyone who supports us. We really do appreciate you.
I love this photo from The Foundation Christmas Party where younger children were all given a rain jacket, a pencil and a lolly. Smiles like this are so good to see.
Our website is having visitors from all over the world which is brilliant! This week some of the countries from which people have viewed our website are; Thailand, Spain, U.K., USA, UAE, Canada, Israel, China, Netherlands, Malawi, Ireland, Peru, Zimbabwe, Libya, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, Antigua and France.
You can keep up to date with the most recent news by signing up to receive my blog. Thanks for reading, Sarah x
Running a Foundation is a huge responsibility and the rural location of The Foundation adds to the pressure that Levison is under.
There are no big agencies feeding children in schools in the far north of Malawi. The responsibility has fallen to The Foundation to feed 500+ children once a week. Children are walking from up to 20km away to have that one substantial meal each week.
This is all we can afford at the moment. There are so many calls on finances as we try our best to support a community back to self-sufficiency.
The Foundation teaches life skills to the children and young people. Growing crops is part of the skills the children learn. Unfortunately the crop of maize was affected by the flooding earlier this year and part of the crop was washed away. This year’s crop will only feed the children for two months.
The price of buying maize fluctuates throughout the year depending on availability and time of year.
The Malawian Kwacha was devalued a few months ago and all prices have gone up. However, maize is more than double the price it was this time last year.
Thank you to the few people who have given £5 per month towards the feeding programme as we have been grateful for this to top up the money we send each month to feed the children.
We know that we are asking for a lot of help but the more people who know about our charity and The Foundation, the more we can spread the help we need across more supporters. So I urge you to please share our posts and also tell your friends about us and the help we need.
All of us in the U.K. are volunteers and no money is spent on admin costs as we donate our time, petrol for transporting boxes to Dundee etc. So you can be sure if you donate money for feeding children, that’s where it will go.
Please, please can you donate £5 per month towards our feeding programme? I need 20 people to commit to £5 per month to enable the children to still be fed a substantial meal each week at The Foundation.
Please, if you can, donate £5 p/m by emailing contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com for bank details. The children have come to rely on that one substantial meal each week…we can’t let them down.
Please help us continue helping the children by donating £5 per month for food. contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com to help feed the 500+ vulnerable children today. Thank you for reading and supporting, Sarah x
Some of the children having their one nutritious meal of the week.
Just a quick update on the brickmaking for stage 1 of Bright Futures Secondary School. Levison has sent some photos today and everyone involved in the making of bricks has been working hard. There has now been approximately 16,000 bricks made. They are left to dry in the sun and then will be built into a kiln and baked. There will still need to be more bricks made but at least building work will be able to start once this first lot of bricks are ready.
We are really needing your support to help us fund this school so that all children have access to education. Please help https://gofund.me/44a92444 and if you’d like to get involved in our kilometre challenge here is the link to all the information you need. https://forms.gle/twQYfx7LRRrtvdhx9 Please help give the gift of education. Thanks for reading, Sarah x
working hard mixing water into the earthwater being mixed with the earth to make bricksbricks drying in the sun
Every child, no matter where they are in the world, deserves an education. Let’s build a school! We need you on our team.
Here is the link with the information you need to join in our challenge! https://forms.gle/twQYfx7LRRrtvdhx9 It is a huge challenge for our team to travel the 13,144 km that is one of the routes the container travels. It also includes the journey from here (Balfron, Scotland) to Dundee to the Bananabox Trust warehouse and in Malawi the distance from Ekwendeni which is the final destination of the container back to Chitipa that Levison will make. We have used Chitipa as the nearest destination on all maps to The Foundation.
So we are looking for families to join in as well as serious athletes and gentle walkers. Oh and bored teenagers who would like to keep their fitness up over the school holidays – we’d love to hear from you too! Maybe you could have an element of competition with your friends? Do you need to learn something new for your Duke of Edinburgh Award? Or do some volunteering? This challenge could be used for either of those.
The more people who help us, the quicker we can do this challenge. The more people that take part and are sponsored, the more money we raise. The more people who share our posts then the wider the audience so we aren’t always asking the same people. We would absolutely love people right across the world to take part in our challenge. This is a challenge to raise funds to build a secondary school for some of the most vulnerable children in Northern Malawi. It would be fantastic to have people from our global community taking part and raising funds to build a school and give the gift of education.
The challenge starts tomorrow, 1st July, and you can do as many or as few kms as you want. Please ask your friends to join in and please ask people to sponsor you. Together we can keep Changing Lives Malawi. Together we can build a school. Land clearing has already started and bricks are being made. Thanks so much for your continued support and let me know if you have any questions, thank you, Sarah x
It’s time to harvest the ground nuts. It’s not a huge crop but enough to be used at the feeding programme once a week for 3 months. Ground nuts are what we call peanuts. They grind them into a paste which is then used for cooking with. These nuts are a great source of protein and good fats for the children.
Levison is quite concerned about possible food shortages as some of the maize crop had been washed away in the heavy rains a few months ago and prices of buying more maize, cooking oil and prices in general keep rising. The Malawian kwatcha (currency) has been devalued too. It’s a huge responsibility to try to source and buy enough food for hundreds of malnourished children. There are also people coming to the Foundation each day, in desperate need, asking for help. Unfortunately, resources are finite. When there are no other agencies that far north feeding children, the responsibility weighs heavy on Levison’s shoulders.
We are always looking for ways that people can join us to support a specific project, like the feeding programme, or to sponsor a child, or raise funds in general. If you can help us continue to support Levison and his team then please email contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com thanks for reading, Sarah x
Exciting times! Levison and his trustees have named the new school Bright Futures Secondary School! An excellent name as this new school will make hundreds, if not thousands, of children’s lives brighter and give them hope for the future.
Levison says that having a name for the school before even the first brick has been laid is important and the way things are done ahead of meetings with officials.
I’m very excited by this project but also slightly anxious as it’s my job, and our charity’s job, to raise the funds for this project as The Foundation has no funds of it’s own for such projects. Obviously, in time they will be self-sufficient and building a school is certainly providing employment opportunities for clearing ground and making bricks… and that’s just to start with.
Clearing the ground
Thank you to everyone who has given generously already but if you can donate a few ££££ please get in touch contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com for bank details or my fundraiser is still open https://GoFund.me/ca9c1629 thanks so much for helping us continue Changing Lives Malawi and providing Brighter Futures through Brighter Futures Secondary School, Sarah x
Clearing the groundBreaking up the ground to make bricksBricks being made and left to dry Bricks are being made at two sites..at the Foundation and at a site about 1km awayAdding lots of water to the soil
It’s Father’s Day in the U.K. today. A day for celebration for some, a day for reflection for others and a bittersweet day for others as they remember the fathers who are no longer here.
I’m not going to do a long post today as I’ve been writing quite a lot recently but I just wanted to ask you to spare a thought for the orphans and fatherless children in Malawi who need our help and support.
If anyone of you could help a child, we would be so grateful. £25 a month will give a monthly food parcel, a blanket, clothes, welfare checks and education. That’s only 85p per day. If you cannot afford £25, could you and a friend sponsor a child between you? £12.50 a month each for two people to sponsor a child will change their life. contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com
I’ll share Mercy’s appeal again in the hope generous sponsors come forward for her and her brother. Thank you, Sarah x
Mercy has had to drop out of school due to lack of funds. She needs someone to sponsor her so she can complete her last two years of school.
Mercy’s mum is on her own with two children. Her son is disabled. Please could someone sponsor him to make their lives just a little bit easier?
It seems ages ago that I was eating rice and vegetables to represent how little to eat the children in Malawi have. I was also cycling on my exercise bike to represent how far the children have to walk to school each day. Because of your generosity, we have already sent £1,400 to Malawi for them to begin making the bricks for the new school. We obviously need more money than this but it is a very good start. My fundraiser is still open if anyone else would still like to donate then here is the link https://gofund.me/ca9c1629 Let’s build a school!
There are currently not enough spaces in the local secondary school. If you don’t get picked to go to secondary school then you don’t go. That’s not fair. Life is very hard for these children. Lots of the children are orphans, others are also very vulnerable. All have experienced loss and trauma. The Foundation is taking an holistic approach to try to give these children a better future. To try to change their lives. Let’s build a school!
We also hope to bring news of a team event soon that everyone can join in if they want and be sponsored! Let’s build a school!!
130 chairs are going on the container to Malawi this time, as well as boxes and a few tables. If anyone knows of any adult size school tables that are being updated and no longer needed then please let me know. contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com . Let’s build a school!
We were very fortunate to receive a grant last week from The Souter Charitable Trust for 10 full sets of text books for each of the 4 years of secondary school. These will make a big difference to the young people to have a higher ratio of books per student during lessons and for homework and studying. The cheque was for £3,250 so we are very, very grateful. Let’s build this school and improve the lives of vulnerable young people. Education is their way out of poverty. Every child deserves an education. https://gofund.me/ca9c1629 . Thanks for reading and helping us to help The Foundation support hundreds of very vulnerable children, Sarah x Let’s build a school!
Photos of primary and nursery children who are sponsored. Thank you so much to their sponsors for changing their lives.
Sarah’s blog 11/6/22
**There are just a few children missing from this…once Levison gets their photos this week I will add them here ** Also, a few children’s ages were out slightly…it’s much harder to keep proper records there and occasionally children have got their ages wrong…these details have all been taken from school records. For example little Brighton who was helped last weekend said he was 7. He’s not quite 7 yet…so hopefully that explains any discrepancies. Any information I post is in good faith but I apologise if I get anything incorrect. Anyway….enjoy these photos and I’ll add the others very soon.
The schools are on holiday for two weeks so we thought it was a good opportunity to take photos of those who haven’t had their photos taken for a while. Unfortunately, Levison’s motorbike broke down yesterday (only a small part that needs fixing) but that took him away from his plans to get the rest of the children’s photos.
I want to take this opportunity to thank each and every sponsor who is making a difference to these children’s lives. All of the photos are of sponsored children at primary or nursery….apart from Rodrick. He was there when his big sisters were getting their photos taken and he wanted his photo taken too! So if anyone does want to sponsor a child…Rodrick hasn’t got a sponsor and there are also children in a post from earlier this week whom I highlighted. Sponsorship is only 85p per day….£25 per month. Two friends could split the cost between them and sponsor a child together. It makes a HUGE difference to these children who know that someone really cares about what happens to them. contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com . Hope you enjoy the photos, Sarah x
After the wonderful response to the appeal for a sponsor for Brighton and also finding sponsors for Temwa and Ketti, I thought I would highlight some other children who are most in need of sponsorship. These are very vulnerable children who need a helping hand to change their lives. They need someone to take a chance on them, to give them opportunities they wouldn’t otherwise have. They will know that someone cares about them…someone cares about their future.
There are 11 children who I am highlighting on this post. They are all in need of a helping hand. They are all living in dire poverty. Thankfully, they have been given clothes from the generous donations we have collected. Please consider sponsoring one of these children to change their lives. You can sponsor as an individual, as a family, two friends can share the cost of only 85p per day, or a club or business could sponsor a child. Can you make a difference today? Will you commit to one of these vulnerable children today? Please? contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com Thank you for reading, Sarah x
We were glad to be able to send money to Levison to pay for Judith to go to the health centre and get medicine for her eye infection. Levison was able to give her clothes and shoes from the generous donations we sent.Fortune is looking like he’s going to be a promising rugby player…are there any rugby fans who could sponsor him please?Flary is a real cutie and enjoys attending the nursery. She would benefit from having a sponsor.Chimango enjoyed the rugby coaching camp. He would love a sponsor to help him continue having new opportunities.Hopeson also enjoyed the rugby training. You can see from his legs and arms that he’d benefit from having a monthly food parcel once he’s matched with a sponsor.Elizabeth was one of the girls on the rugby training camp. Are there any rugby fans who could sponsor her please?Patricia is very pleased with her new clothes and shoes. She would be very pleased to be matched with a sponsor too.Josephine would benefit from having a sponsor. She is the girl in the photo drinking water from the new water tap.What a lovely smile Junior has. He would love you to sponsor him.Ramsay looks like he’s loving his new clothes and shoes! Can you sponsor Ramsey?Chawanangwa borrowed his sister’s clothes so he had something to wear to go to The Foundation. He was given clothes and shoes. His growth has been affected by malnutrition. Chawanangwa would really benefit from having a sponsor. Can you help him? He’s wearing uniform form Riverside Primary in Stirling.
7am. So glad I am nearly at the end of my challenge. It’s tough because I am thinking about the food that I will be able to have next week and it’s making it harder to keep going with all the vegetables and rice!
As I had done 20km on my bike that I mentioned in my last blog, I decided just to do 10km on my bike for the next couple of days as my legs were sore.
I’ve been eating rice with mixed vegetables, lots of roasted vegetables, soup and a waldorf salad. Trying to drink enough water and finding that quite hard to fit in an extra couple of glasses. As I was out a lot yesterday, I did have a shop bought pack of melon and mango which tasted amazingly sweet and delicious.
6.30pm Just cycled another 20km and really pleased with myself! Never thought I’d be able to do that at the start of this challenge… I was struggling to get past 5km. So I will definitely try for at least two more 20km before I finish.
I decided to do this challenge for the following reasons;
To raise money to build a much needed school as there are not enough places in the local secondary school. If you don’t get picked for a place in secondary school then you don’t go. Education should be available to all. It is the children’s way out of poverty to build themselves a better future.
To raise awareness of the Feeding Programme and what the children have to eat. I am eating rice (instead of maize flour) and vegetables. I am fortunate that I have a choice. I am fortunate that I am eating more than once a day. I am fortunate that I am only doing this challenge for 31 days in May. The Feeding Programme feeds 500 children and young people once a week with a substantial and nutritious meal. As there are no big agencies feeding children in schools in that area, some children are walking from 20km away for this one meal a week. There will be some children who do not eat every day. Teachers have said that children are able to concentrate better and their grades have improved since The Feeding Programme was implemented. It’s not enough but better than it was. We would love to be able to send money to feed the children more often.
I set out to cycle 10km a day on my exercise bike to represent how far the younger children are walking to and from school (approximately 5km each way). However, some days I have been able to cycle 15km and have even done one 20km. I will try to do another couple of 20km before my challenge ends.
If you think that all children deserve an education please donate to my fundraiser https://gofund.me/ca9c1629 Please help me help the children.
11.30am There wasn’t much to report yesterday. I did 10km on the exercise bike and ate rice and veg. I have been finding the last few days harder, I think because it’s a bit colder and I’m wanting something a bit different from salad and rice. Last night I did open a tin of kidney beans in chilli sauce and had half of that tin with rice which was a nice change. I am currently making some soup which I am looking forward to.
6pm My soup was delicious….even if I say so myself lol. Sweet potato, broccoli and stilton. I only used a little bit of stilton to give it some flavour…it’s been nice to have vegetables in a different form today! I’ve just cycled 15km so if you think I’m doing ok then please donate and share my posts. I’m almost two weeks into my challenge and have cycled further than I first thought so I’d love your help to build a school for the children so everyone can go to school. Thanks for reading, Sarah x https://gofund.me/ca9c1629
