Joshua Trustee David Pearson has been working hard to
complete a footbridge over the Mudi River and we are delighted to announce that
it has now been completed. The Manyenje footbridge has been funded by Sherborne Castles Rotary Club. We would like to extend our
heartfelt thanks to the club and all its members for their incredible support.
The Manyenje footbridge will transform lives during the rainy season by providing easy access to Manyenje
Village year round. This will enabling villagers to safely use local
schools, health facilities, financial services, churches and maize mills.
Speaking when the construction site was visited, the Village
Headman of Manyenje was all smiles that a second bridge had been completed on
the south-western side of his village after the first one (a road bridge) was
constructed a year ago by Sherborne Rotary Club in collaboration with a
Malawian Rotary Club. “As you can see, my village is an island and once the Mudi
River swelled up during rainy season, this village was inaccessible. No one
could neither go out of it nor come into it. Now everyone would have free
mobility”, said Village Head.
How will this footbridge change lives? Manyenje Village is surrounded by three primary
schools and two secondary schools. In order to get to school children
from Manyenje have to cross Mudi River. Attending school became erratic and dangerous
during the rainy season as it was dependent on the water levels in the river. As a result children often missed days or weeks of school and fell behind their classmates.
The bridge will also benefit people living in the surrounding villages, as children from
villages in the western part of this region can now get to the newly built Manyenje
Junior Primary School and Under-Six Feeding Centre much easier.
“The bridge will improve the livelihoods of people in
Manyenje Village and all surrounding villages. It has been completed timely
when the problems of crossing Mudi River were about to start at the onset of
the rainy season. Everyone in the village is very happy with the development,”
said an overjoyed Mai Kambila, a Caregiver at Manyenje Under-Six Feeding
Centre.
The Village Head Manyenje concluded praising Joshua as
quoted, “my village has become a town overnight. I now have a primary school,
an under-six feeding centre, a teacher’s house and now, a bridge. Thank you
Joshua! Please, send our gratitude to the donors. Tell them we are over the
moon!”