2025-08-13 So Much to See
If you come to visit Home of Hope (more on that later), don't expect to see everything quickly. There's so much! These photos from this morning give just a flavour:
⓵ Primary School
⓶ Secondary School
⓷Vocational Training Centre
⓸ Clinic
Learning practical skills
Students not going on to Higher Education (University etc.) can learn a practical course at the VTC. Four skills are offered at present: Carpentry & Joinery; Tailoring & Fashion Design; Brick Laying; Fabrication and Welding, with more to follow.
Electric Maize Mill
The low hum of the Maize Mill
Second to the cockerels and call-to-devotional bell (think school assembly), an early sound each day except Sundays is the low drone of two electric milling machines - housed not far from Home of Hope's main entrance so that members of the community can come and process their crops. Bright patches of hulled maize kernels spread out on tarpaulins can be seen drying in the sun, before milling to flour.
A full day
If Monday was a travel day, and Tuesday partly for finding our feet, today was full steam ahead! We try to squeeze a lot in, having come a long way. Early in day, a visit to the Clinic, where a major Malawi Orphan Fund project has been supporting improvements this year.
Inside, Dolly Chipeta the Head of Clinic, welcomed us and showed us some of the key improvements made recently. These are all in order to comply with Ministry of Health standards, and until they are met the government will not provide certain medicines, including antibiotics. In the meantime, Home of Hope has to purchase them.
Dolly, very pleased with fire extinguisher, air conditioning unit
and boarded ceiling in the medicines store room
and boarded ceiling in the medicines store room
The Clinic is open to the local community in addition to looking after the Home's children. HIV Aids treatments are regularly dispensed to many sufferers. It's a quiet period now, since outside the rainy season ("the rains" are - or should be - November to March) mosquitos are few, and therefore cases of Malaria run low. When children return from the villages to start the term at the end of September, it will be a different picture. "The children come back to us with all kinds of infections they've caught outside," Dolly explains.
The Medical Waste Incinerator
Some distance from the Clinic now stands the new Medical Waste Incinerator, constructed this year. We worked closely (though remotely) with staff team members Joseph and Thompson Chipeta to identify the right location, design and materials. Burning medical waster safely at very high temperature sis more involved that one might first think.
A high wall and locked gate surround the incinerator's furnace and chimney stack.
Phil and I were impressed by the quality of construction of the Incinerator. It's been built to last.
Dot-to-dots and drones
Meanwhile back at the ranch (well, the Guest Lodge), Gillian was holding another hit session of dot-to-dot-and-colouring out on the grass.
While vising the Clinic earlier, Dolly mentioned a leaky roof. Phil asked Chisomo Chipeta to send up his drone camera for a look.
A combination of leaf-litter and misaligned roofing sheets, not visible from the ground
are causing damage and letting in the rain.
are causing damage and letting in the rain.
Buildings maintenance is a constant challenge. Years ago now when walking the site with Rev. Chipeta he stopped and swept his walking stick in a slow circle around him. "Many have donated to construct buildings. Hardly any have in interest in keeping them in good condition." Phil has a sharp eye for "a stick in time saves nine" opportunities. As ever, the list is long. This leaking roof is small potatoes (if that's a suitable idiom!). There are many serious issues to attend to: an accommodation block end-wall suffering subsidence due to surface water run-off; another accommodation block in need of entire replacement; two log-fired kitchens no longer fit for purpose. If your "thing" is buildings, or would just like to help, please do get in touch. info@malawiorphanfund.uk
History, harvests, and the future
After lunch together - always a good time to re-group and share highlights - we joined Rev. Chipeta for a briefing on Home of Hope's history. It's an account I've heard many times, but on this occasion I took almost-word-for-word notes: it's an extraordinary story, told by a remarkable man. If you'd like to read it, comment below and I'll write it up.
Being near the main grain stores, we checked current maize stocks. Rev. Chipeta stressed how unusual it is for anyone still to have maize this late in the year, after poor rains and low yields. Food security is always a concern here.
We were excited to hear about ongoing talks with the Ministry of Agriculture to involve Home of Hope in the MegaFarms initiative – equipping around 1,000 farms in Malawi with loans for machinery, irrigation, and fertilizer. With climate change disrupting rain-dependent farming and fertilizer prices inflated by the war in Ukraine, such partnerships are vital. Feeding the children reliably remains one of the greatest challenges.
Join us in 2026
What do you feel as you read these updates? Curious about getting involved? In August 2026, a volunteer team will visit Home of Hope for about two weeks, likely to refurbish the Secondary School.
We’ll spend the next year fundraising, arriving not just with 2×23kg cases of needed items per person, but also with significant funds to upgrade buildings and grounds.
Think you’re “not useful” on such a project? We hear that from almost everyone who comes – until they come. Don’t write yourself off.
“Look at the joy”
As Phil and Joseph met this morning to review the Fish Farm Enterprise (how did they fit that in?), a new member of staff joined in the conversation: Peter, the House Master for one of the Boys' Hostels. He pointed over to where Gillian and a happily-noisy gathering of children where dot-to-dotting.
"Do you see that? You can't know the change in atmosphere you bring, by visiting these children. Look at the joy."
Think about it.
Alex
#ZeroAI
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