Orphanages

Yvonne - Oct 08

"I'm here nearly a month now so I have well and thoroughly settled in now. It's lovely here and everybody is so nice and friendly. Workwise, its very varied. I spend some time at the orphanage, some time at the school and we've also started a project to finish the building of a well and start the building of a new orphanage so we're in getting ours hands dirty - it's great!! We're all getting on very well together and have been out on a couple of trips to see what else there is in Malawi. Really enjoying myself so far so hopefully that'll remain. Would love to see the well completely finished and a large portion of the orphanage built before I leave and to know I was involved with the project. Thanks for email and I'll keep in touch with more news soon."

Manon - Nov 08

"At the moment I'm doing very well, thanks for asking! Yvonne and I are busy with this other project concerning the building of a well and an new orphanage. We're working hard in the heat of the day, but our help is appreciated by the community, so it's definitely worth it."

Marie - Dec 07

"At the start it took me a while to get used to the set up, people's roles, and what life was like for the children and families in the village. As in any new situation it takes time to learn these things and build relationships. The more time I spent there the more I discovered the extent of need. Over the days I spent time with the orphanage manager learning about his responsibilities, which are much wider than the physical orphanage grounds, maintaining strong links with the local community; playing games with the children; and attempting a few cleaning jobs and painting a mural on a wall.

Being there on my own was a challenge but I think it also meant I made closer relationships with the staff. I threw myself into the little time I had there, trying to find out about their lives and aspirations over cups of tea in the yard. Some of the lasting memories I take away are children making toys out of the clay mud, an older girl putting a wrapped chocolate biscuit in her pocket saying it was too nice for her to eat and that she must take it home to share with seven others of her extended family, a packed hall of excited children playing sports, infants singing the alphabet, secondary children ecstatic about getting a new pencil, cool dancing, smiling faces and small hands reaching out to touch me.

This is a great project to support and an experience that cannot help but shape and develop you along life's journey. As a country Malawi has so much to offer in terms of beauty and wildlife so there are plenty of exciting weekend trips to make your time there even more memorable."

Sara - Jan 08

"I'm here! really enjoying it, had my first full day at the orphanage and the children are just so amazing! Richard spent a lot of time with me this morning giving me a bit of background which was great, looking forward to spending more time there!"

Rachel - May 06

"Working with Reverend Timothy, Christine and all the team at the project has been a truly inspirational and rewarding experience. I have such admiration for the hard work they put into all their projects, the love they show to all the children and the sheer determination they have to the continued development of ideas. They have achieved so much so far, but they want to achieve so much more and I have every confidence that they will do whatever they set out to. They need help though, so I am going to do my best to raise awareness for them so more people can come and see what fantastic work they do and help out wherever they can. When you see the children's faces here, you can see where they get their determination from. Thank you for my wonderful time here."

Tracey - Dec 07

"I can tell you in brief that this experience has been fantastic so far, and I've been very well looked after."