Sewing, Stories and Sunsets: Our Final Day at Home of Hope

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There’s a quiet kind of joy that settles in when you spend time creating something with your hands, especially when it’s for a cause that truly matters. Over the past few days, Gillian and Ruth have been welcomed into the gentle rhythm of the “Pads Room”, a calm, purposeful space filled with fabric, laughter, and the steady hum of sewing machines.

Here, they’ve watched Cynthia, Pirilani, Ellen and Edina sewing beautiful tote bags and zippered wash bags. The wash bags, lined with waterproof fabric, are perfect for carrying toiletries or similar items when travelling. These handmade pieces will soon make their way to the UK, where Protection for Education will sell them to raise funds. It’s a beautiful circle — the money raised helps continue the team’s vital work of sewing reusable sanitary pads for the girls attending Home of Hope’s schools, making sure no girl has to miss a week of school every month simply because of her period.

There’s something quietly powerful about this room. Beyond the stitches and seams, it’s a safe space, a place where younger girls can ask questions of older, trusted women. Where awkwardness is replaced with understanding, and silence with sisterhood.

It was wonderful to see the electric sewing machines we brought last year whirring to life again, zipping through fabric with ease. And the treadle machines? Still going strong, with expert feet tapping out a steady beat. Everyone here is fast, focused, and skilled.

This trip, we brought along plenty of knickers in our many suitcases so that each girl could receive three pairs to go along with her set of three pads. It’s a small thing, but it makes a big difference — in confidence, dignity, and school attendance. Even a bar of soap, made possible through donations, allows each girl to wash her pads and care for them properly.

Every stitch sewn in that room is a step toward education and empowerment.

While sewing was happening in one part of the site, something quieter — but just as lovely — was unfolding out on the lawn. Many afternoons, Gillian would carry out a chair, settle under the open sky in front of the guest house, and soon a group of children would gather around her for story time.

“We’re going on a lion hunt!” became a firm favourite, complete with the fun, the rhythm, and the repetition that draws children in. Handa’s Hen was another hit, especially as it became a fun way to practice counting in English. Moments like these, books opened, imaginations wide, are where connection and learning come to life.

Meanwhile, Phil spent time with Linda, Executive Director of Home of Hope, finalising the projects MOF is able to support this year thanks to the incredible generosity of our donors. It’s encouraging to see how clear the vision is here, how thoughtfully ideas are turned into action.

Gillian also met with Chisomo and Thompson to help move forward with MOF’s sponsorship programme. Home of Hope is nearly ready to launch a brand new website, which will make it much easier for donors to sign up to sponsor a child or young person, whether in Nursery School, the Jane Glaves Primary School, the Home of Hope Secondary School, the Vocational Training Centre, or even a student heading off to University.

Sponsorship isn’t just about covering school fees. It’s about investing in someone’s future, showing them that someone, somewhere, believes in them.

And now, we come to the final moments of this trip.

Today, we watched our last Malawian sunset, after watering the grafted Macadamia saplings in the shaded area beside the Guest Lodge. The sky shifted slowly from golden to orange, then purple, then dusk. There’s something grounding about how the sun says goodbye here, without fuss, but full of beauty. We leave tomorrow morning for an early afternoon flight to Addis Ababa, and then the long overnight to London Gatwick.

There’s so much we’ll take with us, memories, laughter, stories, and the quiet certainty that real change is happening here. Bit by bit, stitch by stitch, story by story.