rain Archives

Christmas Lunch for 600

Thankfully, the Christmas lunch for 600 children took place before the devastating rains this week that have affected many parts of Malawi

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Sarah’s blog 31/12/25

As 2025 comes to a close, we thank all those who have helped us to support the most vulnerable in rural Northern Malawi. A few days before Christmas there was a lunch for elderly people and then, delayed because of a local funeral, Christmas lunch for 600 children.

So Christmas Day was even busier than usual for Levison and his team of volunteers, no day off for them. There were hundreds of children in need of food looking forward to their party. Christmas Day was a mammoth task of providing Christmas Lunch for 600 children.

The food crisis in Malawi is impacting the vulnerable children we are helping to support. Most of them are orphans, living with extended family, and all are living in extreme poverty. Some don’t even have enough to eat once a day. The situation is extremely serious.

That’s why even more children than usual turned up on Christmas Day, knowing they would be given a substantial and nutritious meal. Some children are walking miles for this free food. Some are carrying younger siblings.

Preparing food, cooking and serving 600 meals is exhausting and backbreaking work…and must seem endless. We are so grateful for the volunteers, without whom none of the children would be fed. We can only afford to run the feeding programme once a week and there are no big charities feeding children in schools this far north. Thank you so much to the donors who donated funds to pay for the food for this year’s Christmas lunch for 600 children.

Whilst we are helping support sustainable projects like planting fruit tree saplings, beehive making and rearing chickens, unfortunately, these children also need our help now. So it is a juggling act, we need to support their future but they won’t have a future without nutrition now.

We are hoping people will understand the great need from reading my blogs and looking at the photos and videos. Prices continue to rise and food is scarce. Donate money to Changing Lives Malawi

We would really appreciate if people could contribute £5 or £10 per month to ensure the feeding programme can continue to feeding increased numbers of hungry and malnourished children once a week. We would love to be able to send an extra £200 per month for the feeding programme to cover extra food costs. Can you spare £5 or £10 per month? Can your friends and family help us too? Contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com for our charity bank details.

Why not organise a 100 square competition or a weekly bonus ball competition with the proceeds going to our feeding programme? Or what about a football scratch card? There are many ways you could get involved even if you don’t think you have much time to spare.

We hope you enjoy looking at all these photos and videos from Christmas Day. These children know that they can come and will not be turned away. It is their safe place where they can play with their friends and fill their empty tummies. They don’t have many highlights in their lives…but this is one of them.

Especially over the Christmas and New Year holiday time, when most of us have far more than we need, will you join our team of supporters for the feeding programme please? contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com for bank details or to donate via our website Donate money to Changing Lives Malawi

Thankfully, the rains hadn’t been too heavy when these two parties took place. However, since then there has been devastation across Malawi. Infrastructure has been washed away, houses damaged, crops washed away etc etc. I will share some photos in a separate post. The people who do the least damage to our planet are always the ones to suffer most.

Enjoy these videos and photos of a happy day for all of these children who are all living in extreme poverty. Thank you again to those who financially supported Christmas Lunch for 600 children. And, of course, to Levison and his team for all their hard work and support for the most vulnerable in their community.

Wishing everyone health and happiness in 2026 and another busy year of Changing Lives (in) Malawi. Come and join us…it’s always about teamwork! Happy New Year and thanks again, Sarah x

BFSS Essay Competition S3 – January

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Sarah’s blog 1/2/24

The S3 class at Bright Futures Secondary School were asked to write about ‘my journey to school’ and the content of some of these essays was really difficult to read.

Some students are walking a huge distance to get to Bright Futures Secondary School, others cannot get to school when it has been raining as it isn’t safe to cross the swollen rivers. Risk of girls being attacked and also being bitten by snakes are some of the difficulties these young people face. Even having no raincoat to wear is just something we cannot comprehend when it is the rainy season. Yet they are desperate for a good education. They are desperate to have the chance to have a better life.

Obviously the answer to a lot of the issues that have been mentioned is to build dormitories at Bright Futures Secondary School. These are already on the list for future projects as we knew about the difficulties the young people were facing. However, reading their essays makes their struggles more real. How we wish we had the money to build dormitories immediately, but we have to be realistic. Unfortunately, we cannot do everything at once. Things are improving for these young people but it makes me sad that they still have huge challenges and struggles. Nothing is straightforward or easy for them. Dormitories will be built but not this year (unless someone wins the lottery or has a magic wand!!).

Mathius Nyondo was the winner of January’s essay competition. I hope you enjoy reading his, and the other S3 students’ essays. Thanks, Sarah x

Progress Report

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Sarah’s blog 30/01/24

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 ago

This 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 ago

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

Jackie’s very wet adventure

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Sarah’s blog 25/7/22

Jackie is one of the people who has embraced our kilometre challenge and has been doing lots of cycling. She is also keeping a note of the totals for me.

Jackie and family have been helping to move a boat through the locks on the Crinan Canal. There are 15 locks along the canal to move the boats from one level to the next. Jackie had her bike with her and was running and cycling between the locks adding to her total kilometres.

If you want more info on the canal here is a link: https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/crinan/crinancanal/index.html

It is a beautiful place and I had said to Jackie last week that there would be lots of tourists watching them open and close the locks as the boat travelled through the different sections. There were no tourists! The rain could not have been any heavier and poor Jackie (and everyone else) got absolutely soaked. She is very brave for allowing me to post a photo of her looking a little bit wet and fed up! Well done Jackie and thank you for adding lots of kilometres to our total.

So I’m going to post a couple of photos to show you how beautiful the scenery is then Jackie’s photos and the route she was running/cycling back and forward!

The new totals are U.K. 1,250.285 kilometres, Malawi 320km = 1,570.285 kilometres which is 11.95% of our total.

To take part in our challenge to travel one of the routes the boxes of aid take from here, Balfron, to northern Malawi… over 13,000km click here https://forms.gle/twQYfx7LRRrtvdhx9 and to donate to help us build a much needed school … Bright Futures Secondary School https://GoFund.me/44a92444

If you think Jackie has done a brilliant job this weekend then please donate a few £££. Thanks for reading and supporting, Sarah x

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