Sharing our success!

Now that we are all home and feeling rested I wanted to share with everyone some of the specifics of what we were able to accomplish on this trip to Malawi.

To start our main focus was to provide all of the children and house mothers of Mtendere Village with new mattresses. Once we were on site and saw what the children and others were sleeping on we were glad we had made the decision to take on that task. As you have seen in our blog new mattress were purchased and delivered! After counting heads and beds and mattresses (several times) we came to understand that some of the children had been sharing one twin bed. As a team we made the decision to purchase wood and tools in order to build beds for the children who had been sharing. Leaving Mtendere we felt good that we KNEW each child not only had been given a new clean mattress, but also each child was now sleeping in their very own beds. Our project was able to expend even further with excess money so we decided to take care of purchasing a few other needed items. As we watched the children at meal time some of the volunteers realized that many of the children didn't have plates and cups. The Malawians are resourceful people so some of the kids had been given old pencil cases to eat out of and others were using plastic lids and other odds and ends. Katie and Susan and myself ventured out one of the days to the local market and were able to purchase 150 matching plates and 150 matching cups as well as new mops and buckets for each of the children's houses. We knew that providing these things was the right thing to do and because our donors had been so generous we could not only solve the bed situation but also solve some other challenges that the children and house mothers were facing.

Our fundraising effort was so fruitful that we still had the problem of MORE money. Three donors after finding our that the mattress and house clean up project was complete agreed to reassign their funds and participate in the FIRST ever Malawi Global Ambassadors For Children scholarship. For the past few years GAFC has been lucky enough to enjoy the same driver for all of our trips to Malawi. Isaac has not only been our driver, but also an important member of each of our trips. He has shared so much about Malawi and also shared his skills and been able to help with many of our projects. His stories and presence on these trips has been invaluable to all who have met him and been lucky enough to learn from him. This Summer Isaac lost his sister which led him to now be supporting not only his own children, but also his sisters. He and his wife are now providing for 7 children and each other. Isaac's oldest son graduated high school last year and this fall was ready to start college. With this family tragedy that occurred Isaac was unable to provide money to send his son on to college. Isaac felt it was very important that this son continue his education because if he didn't Isaac knew that if something were to happen to him his son would not have the education needed to get a job that would allow him to step into his fathers shoes and support this large family. While we were in Malawi classes at the Malawi School of Accounting had just begun. With the help of a few contacts in Malawi and the research skills of 2 members of this Malawi trip we as a group were able to get Halide registered and on the path to a college education. As we flew home to the United States he was attending his first class and catching up on what he had missed. I have been sent word that he is doing well and that Isaac and Halide are both so thankful for the opportunity they were given. It seems that we were in the right place at the right time and had some donors willing to agree to reassign their donations in order to provide this amazing gift to the Mtonga family. This scholarship has taken care of the first 2 semesters of school and the books and exam fees. After Halide completes these semesters we will speak with Isaac and find out how we can work with him and help his son continue with the accounting program. As a group we decided that giving a "hand up" was better than a "hand out" and we are excited to work side by side with Isaac and his son and see were this journey will lead. I will continue to update this blog as all of our projects continue to grow in Malawi.

Thank you again to everyone who gave so generously to this project. I hope you all see what wonderful things happened because of you.