Malawi- a little goes a long way.......................

KISS Cook Book Highway Farm charity support to Malawi 2012Update from daughter Lucy.............
The proceeds and kind donations from the charity fund-raising efforts organised by Highway Farm continue to make a lasting and positive contribution to small charities, individuals and enterprising groups throughout Malawi.  The main donations made in the first few months of this year are as follow:

Char Char Chest donated the Queens Hospital

Queens is the main hospital serving Blantyre, the southern city of Malawi. While it does its very best it is underfunded, staffed and resourced. Health statistics tell a terrifying story in Malawi with high infant mortality, HIV/AIDs rates and often drugs shortages. Supposedly having 1400 beds, this is irrelevant as patients share beds, mattresses on the floor, sheets and lie on the concrete floors. Malawi also struggles with training and keeping enough doctors and nurses, many seeking to earn higher wages abroad.

Within Queens there is a Teaching resource room, staffed by 2 full time teachers and assisted by volunteers. It aims to work with sick children who are admitted to Queens on a longer term basis. We have donated a Char Char Chest – an educational resource box which provides books, posters, pens, crayons, flash cards all designed for use in Africa to aid, inspire and facilitate the learning of these young people.
For more information on the Char Char Trust - http://www.thecharchartrust.org/Home.html

Ongoing support for the Sewing Project at Thyolo Church

The donated money continues to help the 8 women to learn a new skill, thus having a positive impact upon their families and the community as a whole within the tea growing district of Thyolo. They are taught by the resident tailor and have refurbished the 6 Singer sewing machines and bought a stock of material and threads. They are learning to mend old clothes, make school uniform and basic clothes items which they are selling at the local markets. The project is based at Thyolo Church Hall and some of the profits go to the child and elderly feeding programmes managed by the Church and also to buy more sewing resources.

Donation to Open Arms Orphanage - Open Arms is a transition home for orphans in Blantyre. They are unique in that their aim is to return each child to their existing community whenever possible. They have facilities to accommodate 40 infants under the age of two. They also have homes in the community for older children that cannot be re-homed within their community where they are supported through education and fostered by a ‘house mother’. Open Arms have an extensive outreach programme for the orphans they have re-homed assessing health and nutrition, education and living standard, training local women in basic nursery education and establishing small-scale industries.

Donations here go a long way to help with the running costs: £6 – Infant formula milk for a baby for a week, £40 - Average monthly wage for one of our care mothers, £120 Purchase of fuel efficient stove for Nursery and feeding station, £300 Education for a child for 1 year.
For more information about Open Arms Malawi - http://www.openarmsmalawi.org

Thank you everyone for your support with our fund raising efforts throughout the year. Brilliant!
Regards, Pauline