Malawi Orphan Fund

We left Home of Hope, Mchinji at 8am this morning. Before we left we fitted in preaching at Devotions (pic 1 the children ant devotions) and Breakfast with Lucy. It was lovely to share our final meal with Lucy and we were able to just chat as friends. So now to look back, and mention some things which haven’t been mentioned yet. Cynthia. Cynthia runs the pads enterprise at Home of Hope. I was able to spend some time catching up with her and her youngest daughter Tanya. Cynthia calls her children my children as we are sisters. I have known Cynthia since she was 15 and I was 19 so we are close. I would love to share some of the videos with you, but without strong enough WiFi I am unable to upload the videos to YouTube. On Thursday the Home of Hope received over 100 young people looking for a place in Form 1 and at the boarding house. All these children have families, however they are unable to afford to send their children onto Secondary school. They each had an interview and 40 children...

We woke up this morning to the sound of singing. It was a slow start with our first thing being breakfast served to us by Matrida. She is so wonderful and has a number of jobs here at Home of Hope including looking after those working at the maize mill. We went to see the girls hostel at 9:30am and met the two matrons who are full of energy. We were able to see the damaged mattresses - the ones that Malawi Orphan Fund hadn’t replaced. Thanks to friends from St John’s and St Leonard’s Church Bedford, we have been able to provide 60 new mattresses. On leaving the house of Break Dance (Girls hostel), we ran into some of the girls on their school breaks. They decided to sing for us. (Find the video on Facebook soon). From there we went to see 2 of the house mother’s houses, UK house and Japan House. Children who are under 10 years of age live in these houses and each room has 4-5 children in it. For the very young children under 6 years old the house mother sleeps in the same room as them....

Today started with Devotions, walking down we heard beautiful singing by the choirs in devotions. As usual we headed back to the guest house for breakfast and then our day began. Anna had collected jewellery from her friends to give to the ladies here at Home of Hope. We started off at 8:30am with the ladies who have worked at Home of Hope most of their lives and know every child by name. These ladies; Lucy, Linda, Mary, Dolly and Lerato all said - we feel seen. Thank you! Next it was off to the primary school to take some clips for a new sponsorship video. We had a wonderful talk with the head master of the primary school who explained how the education system works. He would love some UK teachers to come out for a short term trip to teach in the classes and teach the teachers as well. They have up to 60 students in each class and this means that the government will pay for teachers to be at the school. Of course not all children at the school turn up every day. We slowly walked over ...

Today was sponsorship day. Usually on a trip to Home of Hope I am asked to take pictures of every student at the primary and secondary school and this takes about a week. Today we took pictures of every child who lives at Home of Hope from Primary and Secondsry School and also those students at the VTC (vocational training college). It was a long day but Chisomo, Thompson, Anna and I worked as a team. Chisomo on blackboards, Thompson on the list of names, Anna as chief board cleaner and myself as photographer.  We also took school photos: We were completed by 3pm. Something that we have never done before. Once we had completed the sponsorship photos Anna requested to visit the clinic.  It was an eye opening experience. On a slow day they see approximately 80-100 patients a day. In the rainy season they see over 200 patients a day.  There are only 2 qualified workers, a Nurse, Dolly and a Medical Technician.  The clinic has grown and improved since I was last her...

This morning was an early start. Our alarms going off at 5:10am, although there was no need for alarms as the bell for devotions woke us both up. Thompson came and collected us and walked us down to the hall. It was a short time together, a few announcements and dedicating the day to the Lord. After Devotions it was time for breakfast which was swiftly followed by a visit to the farm at 8am with Agogo. Both Agogo and Thompson are so passionate about farming it excites us too. And they should be exciited. The farm means they can feed the many children at Home of Hope. Currently they are practicing irrigation and so have crops such as Maize, Beans and cabbage etc growing out of season. This will help feed the children but it won’t be enough most likely due to the amount of mouths they must feed. On the way back to the guest house Agog took Anna and I fo the store which is starting to deplete as the continue to feed the children. Afrer a short rest, we headed into Mchinji Boma to buy some...

This morning we were given a lie in - no devotions (assembly) for us as those at Home of Hope are so caring they decided that we should just rest until church. The children had other ideas though, so whilst Anna was resting I was surrounded by some of the children who had been shouting alendo which means visitor. I did this until the wonderful Matrida (who others call Matilda) came with our morning porridge. After breakfast (picture of breakfast will be included tomorrow), we were collected by Agogo and his wife who we all know as Agogo Akazi. We sat at the front of the church on soft chairs (thank you to two of the older boys for taking them). During church we had many choirs sing, praising the Lord. Such beautiful voices. And clearly singing brings them so much joy. We were asked to wait with Agogo Akazi until Agogo was ready to take us back. Our afternoon was spent eating lunch, then sleeping until we met with Agogo and Thompson. Agogo told Anna all about his history as well as the ...

We took off from Addis almost an hour late. Somehow still due in at the same time. We landed in Malawi at 1pm, and were greeted by dear friends from Home of Hope; Lucy, Thompson, Chisomo (currently studying in Malawi), and Dingase and who works at the airport. We then headed to the supermarket to exchange some dollars for MKW and also to do a small food shop. Of course we also treated our drivers (Thom and Lucy) to KFC. The roads are being built into dual carriage ways - a far cry from the newly tarmaced road that had been laid in 2007. Both Anna and I slept in the car most of the way to Home of Hope and this view was the most welcome! Of course we go into Home of Hope and were greeted by a few of the children. As you can see, they are wide awake whilst we are weary from travelling. Now time for dinner and rest. Matrida and Carolyn have cooked us such a tasty dinner. They are so wonderful. Nsima, beans and cabbage. (I started eating before I remembered to take a picture). Time to res...

When Alex finished his blog entries he said the blog may carry on when another trustee of MOF visits Home of Hope. Well let me introduce myself. My name is Jane and I am visiting Home of Hope with my friend Anna. We are travelling via Bole International Airport. We have met a resident of Lilongwe on our flight who was lovely and encouraged us to visit her daughter’s cafe. We also met a lady travelling to climb Mount Kilimanjaro and was so taken by Home of Hope that she is going to find out what’s happening there via Facebook. Now though we wait for our next flight. I am posting retrospectively as I haven’t had access to WiFi until now.

[ Previous post ]  Leaving here's hard, so today we completely ignored the prospect and had one of the fullest days of the visit. After all, we're already thinking about projects for 2025! (Want to get involved? See contact details below.) We prepared an "assembly" (here, "morning devotional") for children and Mothers, on the theme, "Honouring those who work hard among you" (1 Thessalonians 5). Each child received some cut out paper hearts - happily here in the Guest House are some jolly good scissors! - to give to someone whose care they appreciate.  Seeing an opportunity to link a couple of things together we then diverted to the Secondary School area. Last year, some hard work transformed the Primary School. Today wasn't the day for builders and concrete and paint, but as a little gift to the older children who'll soon return to start the new School Year, we all spent a few minutes tidying up the place. No kerb-side refuse collection exi...