YOUTH FELLOWSHIP LAUNCH MAJOR PROJECT

The aim of the group is to set up a permanent connection with Malawi and have a rolling plan for fund raising and aid donations.

The main focus is on the Mary’s Meals project which combines education and a meal a day for all children.  Education is seen as a way out of poverty and by providing a meal for every child they are encouraged to attend school every day.  The group feel this is where they can help by raising enough money to build a school and enable Mary’s Meals to operate there.

The building work is undertaken by the local workforce in Malawi, we provide the money for materials. The bricks for the project are made in the village and have to be made before December (the start of the rainy season); it takes approximately 3 months to complete the building programme.

The initial project will have the goal of taking a small group of older children (16+) out to Malawi in early July 2010 to decorate and fit out a class room and enable Mary’s Meals to operate at the facility.  The purpose of the trip next year (2010) would be to decorate the class room, not just a coat of magnolia but educational murals, times tables etc on the class room walls. These provide permanent learning aids for the children.

The project will provide funding for the school room and equipment for Mary’s Meals and it will empower the local communities to help themselves. Mary’s Meals is run by the women in the village, mainly mothers, it provides one meal a day for all children attending school and two meals for the under 5's. It costs approximately 1p a day to feed a child in Malawi.

The Republic of Malawi, the 5^th poorest country in the world, is a landlocked country in South East Africa and is among the world's least developed and most densely populated countries. It has been devastated by Aids, wiping out a whole generation leaving hundreds of orphans and many children with only grandparents left to care for the family. With a population of around 12 million, Malawi has 6 million children. Poverty prevents many children from attending school; the need to help the family feed itself is far greater than attending school. Mary’s Meals was set up in 2002 by two brothers Magnus and Fergus MacFarlane-Barrow, with the aim of encouraging children to attend school with the knowledge that they would still be fed.

You could help this project by saving all your small change and taking it to Church to place in the large collection mugs that are located in church or handing it to anyone you know who attends church regularly.  This is an amazing opportunity to do something which directly connects St Mary’s & St Wilfrid's and the youth of our villages with a specific project in the third world - so let’s work together and help the group to really make a difference

A big "THANK YOU" to all.
Your support has allowed the St Mary’s and St Wilfrid’s Youth Fellowship to amass £17000 towards our Malawi Project.

That means that the first payment has been made to the builder to begin on the building works for the school and toilet facilities in Chikwa village in northern Malawi. Bricks can be made ahead of the rainy season, prior to construction in the spring. All the builders and the craftsmen who will make the fixtures and fittings are local people.

On July 16*, the senior members of Youth Fellowship and four adult leaders will travel to Malawi and assist in the final stages of preparation of the buildings. This will not only provide a physical challenge but also an emotional one. Malawi is the fifth poorest nation, ravaged by HlV/AlDS. We will witness illness, malnutrition and, very probably, death in the children of the village. As a result of HIV/AIDS a large proportion of the population are under 14. Chikwa has the potential to support 300 children.

The school project is not simply to provide education, incredibly important though that is, but also to provide a sustainable food programme in the long term. Therefore, we intend to continue our fundraising activities indefinitely. We have established links with an organisation in Malawi who are assisting us with planning and logistics. With their assistance, we hope to continue to assist Chikwa to become self-sufficient and to go on to assist other villages which are in a similar plight.

So, the Youth Fellowship Malawi Project will continue and we pray for your continued support in this very worthwhile venture.
Thank you again. Or in Chewa (the language of Malawi), "Zikomo."

Arthur Mone, YF Leader