Posted: 19th August 2019
This month (August) signified the arrival of our first team for our new project in Malawi, partnered with Starfish Malawi.
Education is the main focus of our work in Malawi. From 2010 – 2018, Mission Direct volunteers helped to build a primary school for the Yawo people on the Eastern side of Malawi. Our new project is to now build a new primary school and refurbish an existing nursery building in Moyo Village which is 20 minutes from the shores of lake Malawi. Currently the children need to walk an 8-mile round trip to the nearest school – and if they arrive late the teacher often sends them home. By building a school in their own village more children will be able to receive a basic education which can improve the quality of their lives – and provide hope of a better future.
Our first team of eight wonderful volunteers not only worked incredibly hard to get work underway for the new 2-room classroom block, but they also raised an outstanding £8,569.56 towards the project! The project is a real community affair with women on a rota to carry water in huge 20 litre drums to the building site for mixing cement as well as each village making and contributing bricks to the project. On their final visit to the building site before leaving Malawi the team were delighted to see all the initial brickwork finished and ready for the metal door, window frames and ring beam to be added. This work will be completed by the local builders using the funds raised by this team. Sufficient funds to build the toilet block have also been raised which is a marvellous achievement!
As well as making great progress on the build itself, volunteers had a lot of time with the local children, painted an incredible mural inside the nursery, donated a football kit to a local team,team, assisted work at Glad Tidings Orphan Care Holiday Club and Pothawira orphanage, and visited the ladies sewing group at Glad Tidings clinic. The ladies, many of whom work in the nursery during the week, also work for half a day on a Saturday to make reusable sanitary pad packs for Starfish Malawi to distribute to girls, to enable them to attend school when they have their period. Without these kits many girls have been missing up to 2 weeks per month of schooling. What a fantastic project and environmentally friendly too!
Than you to all involved and to Starfish Malawi for a wonderful partnership. If you’d like to be involved and join our team in 2020, visit the Malawi page.
