Tag: orphans

Happy Mothers Day (Malawi) – It takes a village to raise a child.

Sarah’s blog 15/10/21

It’s a national holiday in Malawi today. The schools are closed and people are celebrating Mothers Day. It made me wonder what the children who are supported by The William Stewart Foundation are thinking and feeling today.

The Foundation supports approximately 800 children and young people through different projects. These are some of the most vulnerable children in the world, suffering from malnutrition, extreme poverty and most have experienced grief and trauma due to the loss of a parent or important adult caring for them. Do the ones that have lost their mums have memories of them? Were they too young to remember? How many children are now carers themselves? Of course we know it’s not just females that have caring roles but today we thank the women who are bringing up their own children, other people’s children, grandmothers, aunties, big sisters, and some who are not blood relatives but have loving, caring hearts. Life is very hard but even harder when you’ve got nothing and you and your family are very, very hungry.

The African Proverb ‘It takes a village to raise a child’ is so true and The William Stewart Foundation is part of that village, raising the most vulnerable children, feeding them, clothing them, trying to give them hope for a better future. We can all be part of ‘the village’ for these children, playing an important part in their lives, supporting them so that the mothers of the future have opportunities that previous generations haven’t had. Happy mothers day to all the caring women in Malawi. Thanks for reading, Sarah x

‘The best way to multiply your happiness is to share it with others’

Sarah’s blog 12/10/21

The children at The William Stewart Foundation Nursery were all gifted new uniform and a blanket each from the boxes that arrived a few days ago.
Christina smiles as she wears her new dress and cuddles her blanket, she needs a sponsor

Philemon in his new tshirt and squeezing his blanket tightly that he has just been given. He also needs a sponsor to improve his life.

There are 50 children at The Foundation Nursery, aged between 4 and 6. They meet three times a week and are always fed during each session. The nursery running costs are paid for by a monthly donation, without which the nursery couldn’t run. The children were each given uniform last year and donations of more uniform have just arrived. There were a few dresses but many more tshirts. So, thanks to donations, children were each given either a dress and a tshirt or two tshirts and each had a fleecy blanket gifted to them. As you can see, the children love receiving gifts.

In future, if we can get enough donations, we would like to present each child with a bag when they start a the nursery. This bag would contain a blanket, 3 pairs of pants, soap, t-shirt & shorts or a dress, plus two t-shirts and a sweatshirt as nursery uniform. Also it would be a great opportunity to include a toothbrush and toothpaste and a picture book. Imagine the difference this would make to each child at nursery. They’d have something to wear at nursery and something to wear at home. They would have clean underwear and a blanket to keep them warm at night. And to learn from a young age about the importance of cleaning their teeth. This is one of my goals to make this happen for each child starting nursery, so that everything would be made up in the bags already and gifted to the child on their first day. We take an holistic approach, with each child at the centre of all we do, to support the children at The William Stewart Foundation in Northern Malawi. If you would like to help with this project then please get in touch contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com . Look at the boy in the green top in the following photos of the nursery children having received new clothes on Sunday. He is examining his friend’s new clothes as well as his own. I love these photos and knowing that, as a team, we are helping to make their lives just a little bit better. Thanks for reading. Sarah x

And just look at the tie that the boy in the checked shirt has received…very smart!

Thank you for our clothes

Sarah’s blog 11/10/21

I’ve always said to my own children that there will always be people with more than them but there will also always be people with less than them.

If we all shared what we have then there would be enough for everyone in the world. A very simplistic view, I know, but there is no reason why we can’t share with others, wherever they are in the world, if we have the ability to do so.

There were five children that Levison sent photos of yesterday. Five children suffering from malnutrition and dressed in rags. Children who have missed school to find piecework for the equivalent of 10p per day. These children are desperate for sponsors to improve their lives so please, please do get in touch if you can help. Or could you and a friend split the cost of sponsoring a child? It’s £25 per child per month, so sharing with a friend or family member would only be £12.50. Each sponsored child now has their own page on our website so you can keep up to date with new photos and information there. contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com .

Do you recognise these children from yesterday? Clothes make such a difference. Thank you if you donated clothes and/or helped to pay for transport costs. Yesterday was an important day for these children. Let’s see if we can find sponsors to turn their lives around and make their dreams come true. Sarah x