vets with horsepower Archives - Changing Lives Malawi

Two new classrooms

Thank you to charity ‘Vets with Horsepower’ for their help and support to build two new classrooms on Bright Futures Campus.

Advertisements

Sarah’s blog 12/1/26

We are always grateful for the support and kindness we receive. As a very small group of volunteers, we work very hard and appreciate help we receive from others. Thanks to a donation we received from charity Vets with Horsepower, two new classrooms have been built.

The two new classrooms are a dedicated nursery classroom for Bright Futures Nursery and also a classroom for sewing and textiles. It is hoped that, in future, sewing lessons can be given to vulnerable people in the community and be a hub of activity. By learning new skills, people will be able to have a brighter future for themselves and their families.

Jessica Kidd, whom one of the classrooms has been named after, is a top equine vet and one of the key people in the charity Vets with Horsepower. She, Professor Knottenbelt (whose name is already above one of the other classrooms), and the other vets, are making a huge difference to the charities they have chosen to support. We are delighted to have been one of the charities to benefit.

Each year, talented equine vets give up their time and talents to share their knowledge and experience with other vets. As well as being equine vets, their other love is motorbikes. Hence, Vets with Horsepower. Different destinations are chosen in Europe. Last summer was ‘The Italian Job’. The team of vets travelled hundreds of miles on their motorbikes giving lectures in their various fields of expertise.

Here are photos of the finished building. There will be more photos and videos of the two new classrooms shared over the coming weeks. If you would like to support our charity to ensure that children and young people have a brighter and better future then please do get in touch contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com You can help by sponsoring a vulnerable young person’s education, or supporting the weekly feeding programme. There is a food crisis in Malawi and food is scarce. None of the children and young people we support have enough to eat. Or would you like to make a donation to an existing sustainable project or to a new one?

Thank you again to Vets with Horsepower. Thank you for all the organisation that goes into your trips. Also thank you to all the people who attended your lectures and contributed financially to enable the two new classrooms to be built. We are delighted that slowly and surely things are improving for that community and people living in extreme poverty. By supporting vulnerable teenagers through education and opportunities to learn new skills for life, they have brighter futures. They now have choices and chances that they wouldn’t otherwise have had. Thank you also to the people who support and sponsor the vets to ensure that they have the time off work and backing they need to give these lectures for their charity. Also to their families for supporting each of their trips. As we say about our charity too….it is always a team effort!

Thank you for making a difference and supporting us to continue Changing Lives (in) Malawi, Sarah x

Sadie Harmin’s Staffroom

Bright Futures Secondary School has another completed building. Thank you to Vets with Horsepower for their financial assistance..

Advertisements

Sarah’s blog 24/09/25

Bright Futures Secondary School has another completed building. This year, as there are four years of students (and classroom four had been used as a staffroom) four new teachers have been employed in addition to the existing staff. A purpose built staffroom has just been completed and the name transferred to the new building. I think you will agree that the staffroom looks very smart.

Sadie Harmin is a little girl in America with a big smile whose grandmother & mother have been very supportive of our charity and of the projects we are helping. I have just sent Sadie’s grandmother a photo of the new staffroom and she is delighted with how it looks and with Sadie’s name written on the side.

The next building that we hope will be completed very soon, as the builders are working hard, is a two classroom block; one will be Bright Futures Nursery, and one will be an extra classroom for when extra room is needed/year group being split into two different lessons.

We are very grateful for the financial support we received last year from the charity Vets with Horsepower which made the building of this staffroom possible.

Hope you enjoy looking at these photos. There will be more from Bright Futures Secondary School in the next few days with new students looking for sponsors and school uniform and shoes being distributed. If you would like to support the education of a young person living in extreme poverty then please do get in touch. contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com . Thanks, Sarah x

Please help sponsor my education at Bright Futures Secondary School

Update on Teachers’ Accommodation

Advertisements

Sarah’s post 11/4/25

This post comes with a big THANK YOU to Vets With Horsepower, The Clive Richards Foundation and The Inverclyde Trust who all generously donated towards new buildings on Bright Futures Campus. I have also attached some photos of the completed teachers’ accommodation block, wash block and sinks. The majority of the work was completed in time to be used by teachers but, due to circumstances out with our control, finishing touches have only recently been completed and photos sent.

I have split this post into two sections; the first being the difficulties that have been faced by the team in Malawi. But, despite all these challenges, they continue to achieve and we are delighted with how the new accommodation block looks and the difference it will make to being able to employ even more teachers next year.

Firstly, the challenges;

Prices have continued to rise regularly, their currency has been devalued several times. (bags of cement bought yesterday for the next building are now the equivalent of £20 each).
The truck broke down and was out of action for several months. An expensive part was sourced and purchased in Tanzania. There was no way of knowing if this would fix the issue but, thankfully it did! While the team didn’t have use of the truck they had to pay a local farmer with two oxen and a cart to transport bricks and water to the building site. As you might imagine, this was not easy or quick.
There has been no fuel in petrol stations (especially rural ones) on and off for months now. They have had to source fuel on the black market when they can, at very inflated prices, and other times just wait until tankers do refill supplies.
The government has started some building work relatively locally, so hiring workers has also proved problematic.
The weather. The aim was to complete building work before the rainy season but it wasn’t possible to do this.

Despite these issues, the following has been achieved:

There are now six lovely new sitting room/bedrooms for teachers which has been such a great addition to know that there is accommodation to offer staff. Because it is such a rural location and the community is living in extreme poverty, teachers must have somewhere to live on campus. So there are now 10 bedroom/sitting rooms thanks to a previous grant we received from The Clive Richards Foundation for the first block of four.
There has been a second latrine block built beside the staff accommodation too.
Clean water has been piped from the local health centre to that area of Bright Futures Campus. The teachers now have a water tap outside their accommodation.
There has been a wash block built with showers and sinks and a drying area for clothes. There will be an additional wash block built in the next few months so male staff/female staff have their own space.
Solar panel kits have been sent and are about to be installed on the teachers’ accommodation blocks, giving them plug sockets. Each room already has it’s own solar power x 3 lights giving one outside light and one light each in the bedroom and sitting room.

So despite a challenging year, we have a lovely new accommodation block thanks to the financial help we received. We are very grateful for everyone’s support in helping us to continue to work with some of the most vulnerable children and young people in rural northern Malawi and grow Bright Futures Secondary School.

The young people are benefitting by having free secondary education, free school lunches, playing team sports and learning skills for life (practical agricultural lessons growing their own food and looking after chickens, pigs and goats) and by being in school, lots of teenage pregnancies have been prevented. Also, there are no girls that have been married off too young because families cannot feed them. Because of their free, nutritious school lunch, there is one less mouth to feed at home.

Primary School Leavers exam pass rates are increasing year on year because of our School Literacy Project, collecting preloved books to send to schools where there are little or no resources.

Thank you again for taking a chance on our small charity. With a great team of supporters we can continue Changing Lives (in) Malawi and give children & young people a brighter future. Thanks again, Sarah x

If you would like to help provide notebooks and pens for students from Chambo Primary School during the Easter holiday study school, please donate here https://donorsee.com/project/25617?share=1 This study school is to help them prepare for their school leavers exams. If they don’t have paper and pens then they can’t take notes. Please help?

Two little films

We are loving these two short films from the students at Bright Futures Secondary School…we hope you do too!

Advertisements

Sarah’s blog 10/2/25

We were asked by one of the charities who supports us to make a short video to go on their website. Two of the students at Bright Futures Secondary School, Mphatso and Hilda, helped us out with this and Levison filmed them in the library.

They thanked everyone who has supported them and continues to support them and said how much they like their school which has four classrooms. They receive free stationery and free school lunches. Hilda also said they enjoy practical science classes, practical agricultural lessons and playing sports.

Students in S2 at Bright Futures Secondary School were shown the short film and their reaction to the first video was filmed. It should, hopefully, make you smile.

Putting together a short film and photos with a professional finish is beyond my skillset unfortunately but I was able to call on one of my Facebook friends, Emma of Pineapple Digital Designs who very kindly put everything together to make two great films which we are delighted with. https://www.facebook.com/share/1EQLKvRH7N/

So the two films were sent to www.vetswithhorsepower.com who loved them and have already shared them on their social media pages. Thank you so much for supporting us again this year!

Feel free to share these two videos. These are some of the most vulnerable young people in rural northern Malawi. Before they started at BFSS most were suffering from malnutrition. They are all still hungry but at least they get one nutritious meal every school day. Most of them are orphans living with extended family and none of them would have had the opportunity of secondary education without support.

https://donorsee.com/project/25476?share=1 is the link if you’d like to help set up a beekeeping project at BFSS to help with skills for life, produce food and be an income generating project.

https://donorsee.com/project/24114?share=1 to help buy seeds for income generating projects, practical agriculture and producing own food. Or you can email us at contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com

We hope you enjoy watching these videos, Sarah x

Staff Accommodation Update

Advertisements

Sarah’s blog 4/10/24

I’ve got a brief update on the second staff accommodation block. There are six rooms in this block. It is built in the same style as the first block, but that block has four rooms. It is built in a motel style with a veranda along the front and each unit has its own front door. Inside each unit is a sitting room and a bedroom.

Water has been piped to this area of the campus, so there is a water tap that is in place and ready for filling buckets of water. The second staff latrine block is being built as well as two shower rooms and sinks for washing clothes. These sinks will be protected by a roof so that anyone washing clothes will not be standing out in the rain during the rainy season which is due to start in a few weeks.

This project has been possible thanks to; Vets with Horsepower, The Clive Richards Foundation, The Inverclyde Trust and The Souter Charitable Trust. We are very grateful for the funds we have received from each of the above organisations. It is extremely difficult to attract teachers to come to work in such a remote area. There is no suitable accommodation in the village for teachers to rent, so it is vital that staff have somewhere to live on Bright Futures Campus.

Once the project has been completed we will have more photos to show you.

We’d love some help with this project please to ensure it can happen before the rainy season. It will be a real treat for all the vulnerable children we help to support if we can organise a football tournament. Each child taking part will need food and drink so please do help if you can. Thanks, Sarah x

To help with the football tournament please click here https://donorsee.com/project/24384?share=1

The second accommodation block is almost ready.

You can see the new water tap where the blue buckets are in front of the building.

The two accommodation blocks with the water tap between the buildings. The gardens to the front of the buildings will be planted once the rainy season begins.

Vets with Horsepower

Thank you so much to Vets with Horsepower and all their sponsors and supporters for this amazing donation!

Advertisements

Sarah’s blog 22/08/24

We were absolutely delighted to be one of the beneficiary charities of Vets with Horsepower | Equine veterinary education to help charities .

Here is a short animation which explains nicely what Vets with Horsepower does. https://fb.watch/u6FarSjyvT . A group of motorbike enthusiasts, who also happen to be equine vets at the very top level, plan a journey each year and give lectures at various points on their tour. A huge amount of planning and organisation goes into these trips each year by the team at Vets with Horsepower and the people organising all the events en route.

As well as us being hugely grateful to Vets with Horsepower, we are very thankful for all of their sponsors too. So I would like to say a big THANK YOU to the following;

SKOPES Menswear ❤️
Boehringer Animal Health ❤️
IMV Imaging ❤️
Equine Medical Solutions ❤️
Nupsala ❤️
PODOBLOCK ❤️
Audevard ❤️
MedEquus ❤️
Coppax – EVC ❤️
ARIAT ❤️
Baker McVeigh ❤️
Rossdales Equine Hospital ❤️

and, of course, everyone else who made donations to this year’s event and to the vets for giving of their time and talents, thank you. We enjoyed following your journey on social media and looked forward to all the photo updates on the Facebook page.

£15,000 is the amazing donation that we received – we were blown away by how much we received and what that money will help us achieve. THANK YOU again. We will now be able to go ahead with the £33k expansion of Bright Futures Secondary School. I will tell you a bit of background to BFSS for those who aren’t familiar with our charity.

We support a community in the rural far north of Malawi. Everyone is living in extreme poverty and there are many orphans as some families have been affected by HIV and AIDS. No big charities are feeding children in primary schools that far north so most children are malnourished. We have been sending money to facilitate a feeding programme once a week. Over 500 children of all ages come to receive their one proper substantial meal of the week. Some children and young people walk up to 15km or 20km from their homes. It’s not good enough, but all we can do currently while we help set up sustainable projects for their future.

We match the most vulnerable children and young people with sponsors. Whilst they are at primary school, they receive a monthly food parcel to supplement the food that they have at home. Secondary Education has to be paid for in Malawi, so sponsored young people who had passed their primary school leavers exams, were attending nearby secondary schools. The system in Malawi is that the young people with the best grades are chosen to attend secondary school. If they are not offered a place (even if they have passed their exams and have a sponsor to pay their fees) then they cannot attend secondary school. That is the end of their education. We found ourselves in this position with 11 sponsored young people who had passed their primary school leavers exams with no places at secondary school. So Bright Futures Secondary School was born.

After lots of fundraising, Bright Futures Secondary School opened with two classrooms on 7th November 2022. Then the next two classrooms were built in time for the new school year in September 2023. By then there were three year groups. Next month, September 2024, there will be four year groups at Bright Futures Secondary School for the first time. More teachers need to be employed and, as it is in such a rural location, more accommodation built to ensure that teachers have somewhere to live.

This latest project, costing £33,000, will provide further staff accommodation complete with solar power and further latrines/washing facilities to allow the school to expand to have four years of students. Work is well underway on the motel style accommodation which will give six teachers their own private sitting room and bedroom. New textbooks have been ordered for the new s4 as well as other supplies being sourced ready for the start of term on 16th September.

I am still trying to find sponsors to enable some students to be able to take up their places at Bright Futures Secondary School. One of the big costs at school is school lunches. We insist that students have a substantial and nutritious lunch each day. For most, this is their only meal of the day. It saves their family having to feed them. So we must ensure that they are fed. They also receive uniform, shoes and stationery so they are well equipped for school. If you would like to support a young person’s education it is less than £1 per day – only £25 per month. You could sponsor as an individual or split the cost with your friends. contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com

I could continue writing as I am passionate about the young people that we help to support being able to have the opportunity to reach their full potential. To have the choices and chances that we take for granted for our children. Education is their way out of extreme poverty and they are desperate to learn. Each of them want a brighter future. I’ve probably said enough but, once again, a heartfelt thank you to Vets with Horsepower and all their supporters and sponsors for helping us continue Changing Lives (in) Malawi. I hope you enjoy these photos and having read a bit about Vets with Horsepower and also Changing Lives Malawi, Sarah x

5 weeks to find sponsors for 11 vulnerable students

Vets with Horsepower Charity

Vets with Horsepower have given us an amazing opportunity and we are very excited about this partnership.

Advertisements

Sarah’s blog 26/5/24

We are over the moon and so grateful to be one of the chosen charities for the Vets with Horsepower trip this year. https://www.vetswithhorsepower.com/

We will be posting more about this exciting opportunity over the next few days and weeks. Please have a look at the short animation that will introduce what Vets with Horsepower is all about.

Wishing the Vets on Horsepower a safe journey and a successful trip. We will be following your progress. Thank you again, Sarah x

https://fb.watch/siVz5MLZO5 – a short animation about Vets with Horsepower

This is what they have posted on their facebook page today: Many of us live in societies in which having the latest mobile phone is considered to be an important ambition… a recent appeal by Changing Lives Malawi was either heartwarming or heartbreaking- depending on your view point. Their appeal was simply for pencils and paper for their school. That was it. Pencils and paper. Because they didn’t have enough for the students, so the students could learn.

CHANGING LIVES MALAWI is a new charity for Vets with Horsepower and we are delighted to be involved.

Changing Lives Malawi was started in 2019 to support the people who live in Ibuluma which is a village in an impoverished rural area of Northern Malawi.

The aim of the charity is to help this community improve their lives by working towards self-sufficiency mainly through education.

Initially they started with a variety of projects:-

1 – A Feeding Programme for over 500 children (they could not learn if they have nothing to eat)

2 – A Literacy Programme (they could not learn if they have nothing to read)

3 – A Preloved Uniform Programme (they would not attend school in just rags)

4 – A Period Poverty Programme (providing reusable sanitary products so girls did not miss a week of schooling each month)

5 – A Sponsored Children Programme (ensuring monthly food parcels a given to the most desperate children so they can attend school and not have to work to get food for the family)

These projects have all made a difference to the community, but it became clear that a big issue was secondary education.

In Malawi, Primary School education is paid for by the Government. However Secondary School must be paid for. Their nearest secondary school is in Chisenga 20km away. Due to lack of quality roads/public transport pupils who are successful in getting a place (there are not enough places available) need to board adding extra costs that most families cannot afford.

In the summer of 2022, 8 of the sponsored children passed their leaving certificates for Primary School but were unsuccessful in obtaining a place at Chisenga Secondary School.

They decided that to ensure that these children did not miss out on their next stage of education, a Secondary School should be build at The Foundation. It was a huge undertaking for the charity, but they understood the difference it would make to the community. It would also compliment the nursery that had already been set up and be a bonus to the local Primary School in Chambo, 1km away.

After a massive fundraising campaign on 7th November 2022, The Bright Futures Secondary School opened its door to its first pupils. The school is funded through the sponsorship of students.

For the 22/23 Academic year the school had 2 Classrooms and an S1 and S2 pupils. During this year they raised more funds to build 2 more classrooms so for the 23/24 Academic year they could have S1, S2 and S3 pupils.

At the end of S2 the pupils sit their Junior Certificate of Education. If this certificate is obtained, they can progress to S3. ALL the pupils in S2 passed their exams and were able to move up in to S3. It was a huge achievement for such a new school and a credit to the determination of the pupils and teachers.

Being such a rural location accommodation for teachers is very difficult to find.

In the first year with 2 classes, the school needed to have 5 teachers. They built accommodation for them. In the second year with 3 classes the school needed to have 7 teachers. They have built additional accommodation for the teachers.

However in the third year when the school will have 4 classes, the school needs to have a minimum of 12 teachers. They therefore need to build another accommodation block to ensure we meet the requirements of the Education Board and are able to keep providing opportunities for the pupils and the wider community.

With a sizeable proportion of the funds raised and the support from Vets with Horsepower, they will ensure that the project is completed.

Pencils and paper…..

(and this is the appeal they are talking about) https://donorsee.com/project/23503?share=1

(this is the link to their facebook post)

https://fb.watch/siVz5MLZO5 – a short animation about Vets with Horsepower

Exit mobile version

%%footer%%