We hope you had a good summer time or maybe you are stil enjoying it. In the past few weeks, a lot of things happened in Malawi. And we have quite some updates on our projects and plans for the new school year. This will start on 10th September.
GIFT
saw his grandparents after almost 1 year. His school year had been particularly intense, being the last of primary, he focused on studying for his final exams and never went back home. He was extremely glad to see everyone again and planned to work at the shop together with his uncle to earn something. However, he was told he was too young for that, so he resorted in helping his family on the small piece of land they own. He harvested cassava and few other vegetables and every now and again helped with some baking. Just last week, we received a big news for him: he successfully passed Standard 8 exams and was selected for a governmental school. However, unfortunately, the school he was selected for is not a boarding one, is far from everything and everyone and therefore it is not an option for him. Clement is now busy selecting a suitable and good private school for him. This has obviously to be done before the 10th of September. We hope, he will manage to find something good and not too expensive soon. We expect the school fees to be around 350 EUR per trimester, but we will update you as soon as the school is selected.
KATIE
Things look good also for Katie. She also successfully passed the exams from Form 2 and was extremely glad of it. She spent the summer at home with her grandma and her mother. During this time, she helped harvesting cassava and did many chores at home. She also had a scare when her mum was suddenly hospitalised. Luckily everything turned out for the best. The happiest moment of Kattie’s summer was however when she received a full boxes of clothes, which were kindly donated to us. She was so excited that she sent pics with almost every garment on!
Also for Kattie the new school year will start on 10th September. She is looking forward to seeing her friends again and also to using her new sport attires for the sport activities there.
Kattie never had a fixed sponsor, so, also in this case, if you are interest in supporting her and know someone who might, let us know or simply make a donation. The costs for the next school term can be found here.
STELLA
Stella spent her summer at home with her family. She enjoyed her birthday and time with her siblings. Her youngest brother Joshua graduated from nursery and was admitted to a good governmental school. Her older brother also was bright enough to gain admission to a good governmental secondary school. We are glad to hear that things are going fine for Clement’s family. Clement also got promoted and is now in the National Executive Board, as National general secretary in his local church.
WITNESS
Witness has started his own independent life. We obviously hear from him and we know that during the summer he has been helping a lot at home, with the small farm (of cassava) and with selling things at the market.
RAMOS
Ramos’s shop is going on but his activity is actually picking up at a much slower pace than we all initially thought. Part of this is related to the minimal equipment he has. The real root of the problem is however the extreme poor living conditions of his family.
His father is now officially out of the picture and, since he was the only one taking care of an income in a family of 8, this is now a big issue. There is no food, the house is falling apart… Ramos is sleeping at the shop and giving every cent he earns to buy food for his younger siblings.
At the moment, the cost of food is high: 1kg sugar is 1800 MK (approximately 1.5 EUR); a 20L bucket of maize flour is 11500 MK (approximately 10 EUR) and a 20L bucket of rice 23000 MK (approximately 20 EUR). If you think that in a good month Ramos earns 50000 MK (50 EUR) and has to give 30000MK for rent, you will understand why their ends do not meet.
Marajowi targets the 5 UN Sustainable Development Goals (i.e. no poverty, zero hunger, good health and well being, quality of education and gender equality), therefore we decided to support Ramos a bit longer.
In particular, we are trying to raise material that he can sell in his shop or equipment he can boost his business with. Think of laminators, paper cutters, printing paper, printers with ink, USB cables, earphones, binders or even a tablet, a mobile (suitable for whatsapp) or a pc screen. More details can be found here.
JOYCE
Joyce had a good summer, she enjoyed the life in Nkhata Bay she loves so much. We also discovered she has a very close Malawian friend who actually lives in Hilversum. He was visiting his native village for the school holidays, but now he is back to his plumbing studies in NL. Small small world…
Most importantly, we are noticing that Joyce is finally growing up and seriously thinking about her future. Her dream is to become a flight assistant, but that is really dependent on her school results (which are not available yet). If not, her second wish seems to be to take a course to become hairdresser/beautician to then start her own business. If she goes that way, Marajowi will support this last part of education and then also Joyce will be on her own.
Are you interested in supporting Joyce? Make a donation and specify it is for Joyce.
MALITA
Last but not least Malita and Bandawe School for the Hearing Impaired. As always, since Malita went back home, we have no more news from her. We do hope everything is fine though. She will start school again on 10th September like the other kids. We are sure afterwards we will get some updates.
This year, we are determined to succeed in getting a better communication line from the school, but also to support them more. In particular, we would like to help them have more workshop for vocations activities (i.e. sewing, carpentry, painting) for the students so that they can learn a profession for later.
We are talking with some disability support centres and with the Carvers Association. Now that she has a certificate for community development, Maria might be able to give us some tips too.
Don’t hesitate to contact us in case you have some ideas too. Like every year in September we need to boost our financial situation to keep helping our friends.
