Hi Debbie,

 

Thank you for supporting our work in Malawi through our Changing Stars, Malawi charity.  It really is very much appreciated by us and by the children out in Malawi.

 

Here is the photo of your sponsored child who’s name is Roy Simion aged 6 years. (Look at that shirt!!)

 

We have informed the children’s parents or guardians that they must adhere to our four rules to get continued financial support. 

 

They must attend school consistently unless of course they are ill.

They must always try their best – we didn’t want to say they have to achieve a certain grade as this may not be achievable for some children but so long as their teachers say the child is trying their best, that is good enough for us.  

They must take all their exams when they are due.

They must let us see a copy of their school report at the end of each year so we can check on their progress on our sponsors behalf.

 

The school system is complicated in Malawi.  Some primary schools are free but these will be classes of 250+ children being taught under a tree.  Chitsanzo school is a smaller private school that parents have to pay for the child to attend but the classes are limited to around 60 children.   We will be covering the cost of a child attending with your help as many parents cannot afford to pay.  

We will therefore pay the first terms fees, then check all the children are adhering to the rules before paying over next terms fees.  That way no monies are wasted.  If a child is not attending for no good reason then the funding for that child will be withdrawn.  This may mean that we do have some funds left over from your sponsorship but I am sure you can see that the funds will be put to good use elsewhere if not all needed for the sponsored children.  You will receive an end of year report on how your child/ren is doing so you can decide if you wish to continue the sponsorship. 

 

We will be buying each child a school uniform, which is being made by a dressmaker in the village, thus giving them work too. 

 

Finally each family will receive a full bag of maize this year.  The cost of this has doubled since last year, due to the monsoons and bad rains this year, so we may not be able to do this every year but we have committed to do so this year.  This has meant that the total cost of the school fees, uniform and maize has been £54 this year but we have covered the difference with funds that have been donated but not ringfenced specifically for school fees.  This is Africa and things are politically and socially unpredictable so we do have to sometimes make decisions on our sponsors behalf but I can assure you these decisions will always be in the best interests of the children.   If you have any comments on how your money is being spent then please just get in touch.  We are happy to answer any questions you may have. 

 

We also purchased 570 books for Chitsanzo as they had only around 30 curriculum books for the whole school and they were very old and out of date.  We will continue to invest in more books next year until the school has enough books for each child to have one.  For this year they will continue to share. 

 

At Chitsanzo we have also provided funds for the roof for three new classrooms, for the cement to make the flooring safe, and for the painting of those three classrooms.  This will help considerably with the younger children as they can get out of the sun for their lessons.  Charlie and his team of volunteers this summer have undertaken a lot of the manual labour to help get the rooms ready for September.

 

The sponsored children are only one part of the work we are doing which if you are following us on the Changing Stars Malawi facebook page, you will already know. 

 

Our other main projects are Mango Tree nursery where we pay a monthly amount to pay for teachers at the nursery, and we take over educational resources.  Charlie and our two staff who visited this summer undertook more training of the teachers there in phonics and numicon.  They also introduced reflection and assessment of their teaching too which has been really successful.

 

We support the Cape Maclear Child Protection Committee and work closely with them on situations within the village which occur.  We have also paid for training for the group and associated interested parties. 

 

We work with the CDSS which is the local secondary school as some of our sponsored children attend there too.  We are hoping to offer more support there once Charlie moves across to Malawi next year. 

 

We support Morning Stars Nursery which is in its infant stages and we are offering business support and educational resources as well as our team painting the building this summer. 

 

We have taken medical resources this year to Billy Riordan clinic and to Moses, a new Chipata which has set up in the village. 

 

We support the work of Open Arms orphanages still, having raised over £50k for them over the past 10 years. 

 

We have replenished the mobile library set up last year at Beit Cure orthopaedic ward for children in Blantyre. 

 

So as you can see we have lots to still do and need as much support as you can offer.  We are extremely grateful for you sponsoring the children to go to school, and if you wanted to help with any of our other projects when you are fundraising throughout the year then I can assure you that your fundraising would be put to amazing use. 

 

We are looking to start arranging visits out to Malawi for anyone who may be interested.  We would arrange all logistics for you and take you to our projects so you can see for yourself what we are doing and hopefully join us in helping the poorest people in Malawi.  All we would ask is that you cover your own expenses and do a little fundraising for the charity before you come out.  Please let me know if this is something you would be interested in as we are currently compiling a list. 

 

Finally I will just relate a story of a family who has come to our attention this weekend.   The child who is 12 years old is one of our sponsored children but we were asked to visit her personally to see her home situation, so Charlie went to see them yesterday.  The child’s father is not around, her mother is disabled and cannot walk, her grandmother is blind and elderly, and she has an older sister who looks after her grandmother and mother.  Their tiny house had a flimsy straw roof which would be blown off when the rains come any time now.  They go for days without eating and last year the Headteacher at the school said that some days the little girl was unable to attend school as she was too weak having not eaten for several days.  They have no way of supporting themselves so cannot buy food.  Their only food comes when another local villager takes pity on them but they are often struggling to feed themselves let alone another family.    We are paying for a new roof for the house so they will at least have somewhere dry and secure to sleep.  We are providing a bag of maize each month so the family will eat.  We took over some lipsticks for the helpers in the orphanages but have a lot left so Charlie is giving the older sister these to try and sell to earn a little money for the family – if this works we will take her more resources in February.  We are also networking to try and secure her some work locally too.  We will revisit the family in February when we next go out and check on how they are doing.  The Headteacher will keep an eye on things for us in the meantime and ensure they have enough to eat.   Imagine, a child being too weak to attend school because they have not eaten for several days.  How can this be happening?  

 

There is much work to be done, and we cannot help everyone out in Malawi.  But we can, with your help, make a life changing difference to a few, so thank you again.

 

Warmest wishes,  

 

Lesley and Charlie at Changing Stars Malawi.