Sponsoring a young woman’s education in Malawi

Educate, empower and enable is what we Soroptimists do!  Meet the young student

whose education we sponsor in Malawi.   

When we were introduced to the work of African Vision Malawi, we were really impressed by the work of this tiny charity.  What could we do to help?  What was the most urgent need?  We believe that edication is the key to empowerment and therefore members gave their wholehearted support to a ‘G’s Education‘ fund.  On August 11th, forty or more people enjoyed Sally’s generous hospitality and after copious cups of tea and a superabundance of food, heard all about the work of African Vision Malawi and how we support G’s secondary school education.  It is so good to know that ‘our’ student aspires to being a doctor, chemical engineer or midwife. An AVM volunteer, pictured below is telling us just how much our help is need.  Her appeal certainly worked, as the total raised (so far) is over £600!  Such generosity means that we can safely sponsor G’s education for at least two more years and possible three.  We are SO pleased.  Many thanks to everyone who donated funds, cakes, sandwiches and of course, raffle prizes.

Malawi is one of the world’s 20 poorest countries. About 74 per cent of the population still lives below the income poverty line of US$1.25 a day and 90 per cent below the US$2 a day threshold. Only 12 per cent of households have access to credit. The average Malawian can expect to live just 40 years due to HIV/AIDS, malaria, and malnutrition. 15 million Malawians live in a country a little smaller than England

Most Malawians rely on subsistence farming, but often fail to have food security as the country is prone to natural disasters of both extremes – from drought to heavy rainfalls. Poor rural people in Malawi are unable to diversify out of agriculture and tend to remain underemployed for part of the year. More than a third of rural households earn their livelihood only from farming or fishing.

G lives in M’bang’ombe village in the Lilongwe district of Malawi. She was born on 9^th February, 2002 and is one of a family of 9 children – 4 girls and 5 boys.  She lives with her parents who grow maize and groundnuts for family food, with some available to sell to support the family. G’s father is epileptic and has problems with his hands, which makes him to unable do other work.

Several members give personal monthly donations to African Vision Malawi to support their wide range of activities. Find out more at www.africanvision.org.uk