Medical Sponsorship

Asante Mpikamezo (right in the photo) is a committed health worker in Ngala
Clinic, working long and irregular hours in difficult conditions, with
limited resources and medical supplies. He wants to advance his own training
by taking a Diploma in Clinical Medicine so that he can serve the community
better: to be allowed to take the course, he has to commit to staying with
the Ministry of Health, so he won't join a Brain Drain!

But there's a problem: the fees total £730 per semester, and the course is 3
semesters. We've scoured the Web, looking for sources of funding, to no
avail. Asante has the college place... he just needs help with funding. If
you know of any organisation / individual who can help, please get in touch!
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Khuuyu School

Khuuyu School teacher’s house properly roofed

 

School communities build their own houses for teachers, meaning the government will supply a trained teacher and pay their wages. However, very few communities can afford the cement for mortar, so dambo sand is used instead. Corrugated iron is also unaffordable, so many houses are grass-thatched. The better the house, the more likely the school is to attract a good teacher, so when possible, we help with roofing. This is Khuuyu’s first teacher’s house and Moffat Banda, our building supervisor, reroofed it over a 3 days period.

 

Widows' Craftmaking Group

Curio & Craftmaking.

Alex Ndipo (extreme left in photo), a local carver and supporter of widows’ & orphans’ groups in nearby Nkhata Bay, recently approached me with a view to setting up a similar group in our Ngala village. With the support of the local Senior Group Village Headman Kamkondo, we would find accommodation for a craftmaking group recruited from local widowed women with no other means of support. Their products would be sold through the various tourist outlets to which Alex has access, bringing back the proceeds for these women to improve their standard of living. It’s in its infancy, this project, but my role, through MEL, will be to support with ideas, my own skills, and materials I’ll source in the UK whilst there. It may become possible to extend the benefits of this to other members of the community. Volunteers interested in bringing their own skills to this project or donors wishing to contribute towards buying beads, jewellery items (earring hooks and the like)... please contact me! CAH

Sponsors and 'sponsees'

Much of my time has also been spent strengthening the relationship between our generous sponsors and those individuals their generosity supports. Lettina Khonje, photographed here on a cold morning, has had both eyes removed to prevent her retinal blastoma spreading to her brain. A kind sponsor has provided the funds to enable her to go to Nkhotakota School for the Blind. Her grandmother is illiterate and her mother has had minimal education, but, hopefully, Lettina’s education will be better than that.

 

Mercy, a deaf girl (as a result of malaria in early childhood) has been sponsored for some years at Mua School for the Deaf. Aged 16, she has been set up in a tailoring business with her mother so that they can be independent, self-sufficient, and Mercy has a profession in keeping with her disability.

 

Other children at Dwasulu Community Day Secondary School are sponsored by individuals who have received news of their ‘sponsees’. At a presentation ceremony, later this month, they will also be given learning materials and their school fees will be handed over to the treasurer. Attainment and attendance are also monitored: failure to maintain acceptable standards means sponsored pupils lose their sponsorship to more worthy candidates – there’s no shortage!

MEL 2013 updates

MEL 2013 without teams, for the first time ever (Does your school want to take part? Get in touch asap!!), has felt strange. The communities here have missed the groups visiting their villages, getting to know Malawian ways, working in the schools. My time has been spent in various ways (see Chaboli School under ‘Schools’), including trying to get this maize mill working for the community benefit again. It was donated by a volunteer agency, but unfortunately came with no manual, instructions or training. As a result, its maintenance has been sorely neglected... and it broke down. Alex and I have been working on basic stuff like greasing, cooling, cleaning, but the pulley wheel has been distorted through misuse and has now had to go to Lilongwe to the only engineering workshop capable of restoring it to useable condition. Hopefully, it’ll be up and running before I leave on 25^th August: villagers walk for miles with their maize to be ground; this would ease their journeys as well as bringing an income to the villagers. CAH

New pictures! - projects still going ahead

Malawi Education Link is still busy keeping projects going in rural areas. Schools are benefiting from the funds donated with new classroom blocks being built.

Sponsored students are also using the generous support of people in the UK to continue secondary school.

Have a look at the array of pictures in the "Schools" section of the website!

STOP PRESS

CHIGUMUKIRE SCHOOL lost the roof off one of its classroom blocks in last night’s powerful thunderstorm. We don’t have the funds to restore it, which means those pupils’ education will have to stop until the rains do, in April sometime. Any donations to help us put the roof back on would be much appreciated! Caroline (31.1.13)

A Local Reaction to Caroline's MBE

Tanyazi Chirwa is one of the Primary Education Advisers in the area covered by MEL: ‘I am proud and happy to convey my congratulations on your honour. Looking at the most vulnerable children the Link has touched, it has influenced an intrinsic drive in them, opening a big world. Never will they afford to go to elite schools but Link is laying the solid foundation for the dregs of my society. You are sharing with us all your sweat. Thanks that you’ve humbly attributed the honour to various fundraising teams without personalising the honour for us, mama.’

Other ways MEL helps

6yr old Lettina Konje has already had one eye removed. The retinoblastoma has spread to her second eye, blinding her completely, and will then reach her brain, with a fatal outcome.
Lack of money for transport has prevented her mother from taking her for this lifesaving operation. MEL has given her the £25 needed. Please help us do this more often. Caroline

Fundraising

Please help us fundraise

 

Now that we no longer have teams coming out, we’re really desperate for your help with fundraising, so that we can continue our work in Malawi, building and renovating schools, teachers’ houses. We can’t transport resources, donated goods anymore, so we need the cash to buy those items here.

 

Please help in any way you can.

 

Coffee mornings… Bring and Buys… Bagpacking in your local supermarket… Sponsoring a student… Donations…

 

The possibilities are endless, and I’m happy to offer support, advice. If you’re within a 50 mile radius of Ely, I’ll come and talk to your group / school /meeting / congregation.

 

Get in touch!

 

Caroline

MEL News

Does your school want to join MEL?

 

As of 2013, there will be no more teams from Hinchingbrooke School, by decree of the new headteacher. No reasons have been given. MEL has a safety and satisfaction record second to none. Despite a massive outcry from parents, ex- and aspiring team members, this decision will not be reversed.

 

This opens an opportunity for other schools to come out and visit, work, help in The Warm Heart of Africa. If you know your school would like to send teams, send us an email…. We’d love to hear from you!

 

Caroline

MBE!

On December 29th 2012 The Queen selected to award the Founder and organiser of Malawi Education Link with the rank 'Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire' (MBE). It was awarded for services to Primary Education in Malawi.

"Obviously, I'm honoured to receive the MBE but credit must also go to the 400+ volunteers who've bravely put themselves in my hands, since 1999, to come out to this remote part of Malawi, and also to all those supporters who've helped our tiny charity bring more than £300,000 in funds and resources to one of the poorest countries in the world." 

- C. Hansford

Caroline has been driving MEL for a Decade since 1999 when she first took a team of school children to the country.

The Cabinet Office website has a full listing of all recipients and further details of the rank awarded:

http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/resource-library/new-year-honours-2013