Blog: March 2010

March 23, 2010

A message from Mwai Kamwendo a leader of Rays Of Hope  - Malawi

It started as a beautiful day. The sky was clear and the sun brightly shining. But as the day continued to unfold, dark clouds appeared from nowhere and engulfed the once bright and blue sky. In no time, it was raining heavily.

At the same time, the AfterSchool Program was about to start. Ida Mofolo, a camp kid, had no umbrella to shield herself from the big rain drops. It was a big test for her. Since the program started, Ida has never been absent from the program. So she couldn’t let the rains to be a stumbling block to stop her from coming to camp.

Bravely, she put her note books in a plastic bag, slipped her feet into her flip-flops and started off for camp. She arrived at the camp soaked. Her feet and skirt were muddled with mud. But this wasn’t a big deal to her as evidenced by the joy on her face that she made it to the program. She spent the whole afternoon in wet clothes.

This is just one example that demonstrates how enthusiastic kids in Chilomoni are about AfterSchool Program. They are eager to learn and do not take this privilege for granted. They are utilizing every opportunity that has been given to them to grow academically and spiritually.

March 4, 2010

A Message from Sullivan Kandulu the leader of Project TEACH in Malawi!

 Thomas A Kempis wrote in his book The Imitation of Christ that “The only educated man is one who has abandoned his will to do God’s will”.  He continued to say that “his concern is not about what’s best for him but what’s best for others”.

At Project TEACH we run AfterSchool program, summer soccer leagues, and soccer clubs. We have been running these programs close to two years now and this have been made possible by people like you who have not put your interest first but of kids here in Malawi.  Every month you pour out your support so that we run these programs. You may not be physically with us here in Malawi but with your support you are actually with us and we thank you for the lives that you are changing.

That reminds me of Mercy Mussa a 5th grade girl we have at our AfterSchool program.  When Mercy was very young she became very sick and her parents and doctors thought it was malaria.  She developed anemia and doctors carried out blood transfusion and later on they discovered that she also had epilepsy, leading to a learning disability. She has been repeating classes after failing final exams.

Her younger sister Caroline is in 7thgrade and before both started coming to our afterschool program, Caroline used to tutor her.  Last year, Mercy failed the 1st and 2ndtrimester exams.  We started working with her and we made sure that she was getting all the help she needed.  To everyone’s surprise she started picking it up and was able to pass her final grade 4 exams and now she is in grade 5.  Mercy is a very hard working girl and she has never missed a single day of AfterSchool program.

In the past six months we have seen the number of kids in our AfterSchool program increase from 20 to 30 kids. 

 Sullivan Kandulu

 P.S.  The soccer clubs and leagues are also going great and we have reached out to more than 450 teens in Mulanje so far!

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