A huge THANK YOU to The Rotary Club of Allander and The Rotary Foundation for supporting this project financially and Rotary District South Scotland for facilitating the grant application.
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Sarah’s blog 21/10/26
A solar irrigation kit has been a long time coming but it has finally arrived. It is going to make a big difference to the agricultural projects at Bright Futures Campus.
A huge THANK YOU to The Rotary Club of Allander and The Rotary Foundation for supporting the purchase of a solar irrigation kit. Also thank you to Rotary District South Scotland for facilitating the grant application. Stuart from The Rotary Club of Allander (Milngavie) put a lot of work into the grant application. We are grateful for the continued support and links with their club. I am looking forward to seeing them again next month.
As you can see from the videos, everything is working. The pump was being tested in a water barrel and the water being collected in buckets. There is also a huge length of hosepipe for when this solar irrigation kit is set up properly to water the crops.
I’ll share more photos and videos when I receive them. We are delighted that this is another example of teamwork making a brighter future at Bright Futures Campus.
If you’d like to help with supporting a project you can email contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com or why not have a look at our new fundraising page and make a small donation towards the projects we are helping to support Changing Lives Malawi | Localgiving . Thanks again to our Rotarian friends for their support, Sarah x
Extreme Poverty…what does it actually mean? What does it look like for the children we are helping to support and how we are changing lives with the help of our supporters.
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Sarah’s blog 13/12/24
I had been asked to talk to Eyemouth & District Rotary Club and Allander Rotary Club about our projects and about how Allander Rotary Club have been supporting us for the last 18 months. So last night, over Zoom, thankfully all the technical things worked and I shared about the difficulties and successes in helping to support the orphans and their families/care givers in rural northern Malawi.
I keep using the phrase ‘Extreme Poverty’ but what does this mean? And what does it look like? During my talk I explained some of the information below;
Extreme poverty is the most severe type of poverty, defined by the United Nations as “a condition characterised by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information. It depends not only on income but also on access to services.”
Extreme poverty – what does that look like for the children and young people we are helping to support?
Extreme poverty means children not eating every day.
Extreme poverty means children not having proper clothes or shoes to wear.
Extreme poverty means not having toilet facilities at their homes and having to relieve themselves in the bushes with no dignity, at risk of attack and no sanitation. No water and soap to wash their hands.
Extreme poverty means no clean drinking water at their homes.
It means that children are sleeping fully clothed, cuddled together on the floor of their hut trying to keep warm at night as the temperatures drop because they don’t have blankets or mattresses.
Extreme poverty means living in a small mud hut with a leaking roof, no windows and an ill-fitting door. There will be bugs living in the grass roof.
Extreme poverty means they can’t sleep properly because they are hungry and malnourished, and they wake up exhausted.
Extreme poverty means that some girls, as young as 10 or 11 are at risk of being married off as it is one less mouth for the family to try to feed.
Extreme poverty means missing big chunks of school to try to earn a pittance to help your family. This happens to a lot of older siblings who miss school to work so their younger siblings can attend school.
Extreme poverty means that girls, if they have no sanitary protection, miss one week of schooling each month.
Extreme poverty means that children and their families cannot afford to buy malaria tablets if they get ill.
Extreme poverty means that even though a child passes their primary school leavers exams. If they cannot afford to pay the fees for secondary school, that is their education finished.
Extreme poverty means that families cannot afford to buy notebooks, pencils and uniform for their children’s education.
The older students are, the poorer their families are as they’ve missed so much schooling. There are students at Bright Futures Secondary School who are age 20 now as they are desperate for education.
Extreme poverty means that children regularly walk, with a bag of maize on their head, to the nearest maize mill approximately 15km away. They walk in groups to help stay safe from being attacked. They walk all day with no food or drink then walk back again. The maize isn’t even their own…it belongs to someone else who is giving them a few coins for their effort.
These are just some of the examples of what life is like for the hundreds of children and young people whom we help to support. HOWEVER, they now have HOPE. Things are getting better and they do have a brighter future.
I’m sharing last year’s Advent Calendar again as it has some great examples of how, with the help of our supporters, we are Changing Lives (in) Malawi. Thank you so much for reading and for supporting the children we are helping. We couldn’t do what we do without your help. Teamwork always. Sarah x
