We have had a lovely email from Father Joel thanking us for our recent donation and telling us how it has been spent. He said,
“We are very thankful to you at St. Chad’s for your untiring effort to assist orphaned children and poor people here……You are really saving the lives of people here and only God will reward you for the good you are doing”.
He also tells us that just as in the U.K. food prices are rising so they are in Malawi and this has caused school fees to rise too. However with our donation and £200 we knew Father Joel had kept in reserve they have been able to distribute food to 147 children and 15 elderly people. All the secondary school fees have been paid and the children are delighted to be back at school.
For a couple of months Father Joel and the Living Bread Organisation have been considering ways they could be partially or fully independent and self-sufficient financially. They have heard of other children’s organisations who have built a maize mill to provide themselves with an income. There are not enough maize mills in Malawi and people often have to travel many miles to have their maize milled. They know that this would cost approximately £7,000 and have recently bought the land on which to build it from a donation. We have encouraged them to apply to MACS (Malawi Association of Christian Support; www.malawimacs.org ) as they do short term projects just like this and have a lot of experience in building. They are now busy filling in all the relevant application forms and getting quotations for the work and we hope they will be successful.
In the meantime our efforts at fund raising must go on. The Strawberry Cream Tea is to take place on Sunday 8th July at 3.30pm. We have negotiated with the organisers of the Mini Olympics, that people going to their event will use the field behind the church and the lane alongside the church for their parking, so that the church car park will be available for Cream Tea supporters. I know some of you will have been concerned about this.
Mini Olympics visitors will be able to join us either for a cream tea or just a slice of cake and a drink if they wish.
Many thanks to all of you for your continued support. You are making a real difference to these children’s lives.
If you would like to see a breakdown of exactly how our money was spent by Father Joel, see the Malawi noticeboard.
Sue Gregory.