Many thanks to Philofaxy!

Many thanks to the good folks at Philofaxy, who have asked people who are advertising on their site to give a donation to Chimwemwe in lieu of payment for the advert. This enormous generosity has raised well over £250 in the last few months, with especial thanks going to Giovani di Gesu and Gerard McCabe.
Many thanks for your support!

Mac in the UK!

Mac is in the UK, fundraising, meeting donors and friends and hopefully not freezing to death! He has just arrived in Scotland to stay with Amanda.

Grant from Kitchen Table Charities Trust

We are delighted to report that the Kitchen Table Charities Trust's Grants Committee has approved a grant of £6,500 towards the cost of building a rehabilitation and training centre for orphans and other vulnerable children at Manasseh Township,  Blantyre.

In a letter to Mac Nkhutabasa, Brian Donaldson (the Chairman of the KTCT Grants Committee) said," John Humphrys founded the Kitchen Table Charities Trust to help small charities like yours that succeed in transforming people's lives with very little money.  It gives us at KTCT pride and satisfaction to be able to support the work of the Chimwemwe Children's Centre,  and we wish you and your colleagues every possible success with this project and all your future activities."

The grant will enable Chimwemwe Children's Centre to commence building before the Malawian wet season.

Rotary boat trip raises £380

Many, many thanks to Dennis and the Howe of Fife Rotary Club for another very generous donation!

Dennis Beattie organised a boat trip from his house, up the Tay to Perth and back, followed by drinks and a buffet meal. He would not accept any contributions towards the day, but there was a bucket put out for donations. Dennis very kindly asked for the donations to be given to Chimwemwe and Amanda Fleet accepted the money on Tuesday from the club.

The support that the Rotary of the Howe of Fife give is enormous and we can never thank you enough.

Just back!

I'm just back from Malawi and have had a fabulous (albeit tiring) time out there.

So, what's new?

Well, the hope is that we will be able to take over a building previously used by another charity group that worked with children (but which seems to have folded) to be able to house the children who are still on the streets. With any luck, they will be able to move into this building by the start of July.

We are also trying to put together budgets to get funding to build our own centre and are hopeful that we will be able to make a start on that before the end of the Malawian winter (UK summer).

More detailed updates soon!

Army Cadets Raise £250

The Royal Signals (Kinross) Detachment of the Black Watch Army Cadet Force has raised the magnificent sum of £250 for Chimwemwe. Pictured below are some of the detachment presenting a cheque to Amanda on Thursday 10th February, 2011.

We are all enormously grateful for the continued support that the cadets are giving. A big thankyou from all of us at Chimwemwe!

Mac cycles to Success

August 2010:Mac Nkhutabasa has completed a sponsored cycle ride from Blantyre to Lake Malawi to raise funds for Chimwemwe. The gruelling ride took place over the last weekend in July, 2010 and has raised K200 000 (approximately £900).

Afterwards, a tired Mac was pleased with the achievement.

“The money raised will help the project enormously. We are looking to be able to buy some land and this event has gone a long way to helping us achieve that goal.”

The land will be useful on many levels. Firstly, the goal is to be able to build a centre for the project, which will have office space, space for the children and also kitchens to help with providing a good meal each day to the children. In addition, the land will be used to teach the children how to grow vegetables - an essential life-skill that orphans would otherwise miss out on. The children are very excited about this, although more excited about eating the food that will be grown!

We are hoping to be able to raise the rest of the money needed to buy the land very soon.