Clean water - from Dorset to Malawi

It's often on a Friday, the end of the working week that a story comes my way and I feel inspired by the incredible generosity the people of the UK show time and time again for the people of Malawi.

And today is no different, young pupils at Sherborne Abbey Primary School focused their fundraising efforts for ten months last year and raised enough to install an urgently needed water tank at Mbinda Primary School - a school very different from their own, but one they wanted to help in order to improve life for some fellow Primary School students on the other side of the world.

They raised an incredible £1,000 by organising a Lentern breakfast, making bracelets, collecting money at the Harvest Festival, selling cakes and more.

And it’s not stopped there - this year they are focusing their efforts on raising money for urgently needed textbooks - what superstars they are!

It is estimated that more than 2.4 million people living in Malawi don’t have access to clean water. As a result roughly 3,500 children die every year from diarrhoea caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation.

This water tank will ensure that some of the most vulnerable children in Malawi are no longer at risk from drinking unsafe water at school.

We are delighted that the two schools have formed this link and when our trustees David and Marjorie Pearson were in Malawi earlier this year they delivered letters from pupils at Sherborne Abbey Primary School to pupils at Mbinda - and all 60 have been responded to. It looks like the start of a fantastic long distance friendship - and many more happy Fridays to come.

Joshua runs a range of water projects, from constructing water tanks and bore holes, too educational workshops on how to make water safe and how to use it properly to keep healthy. To find out more click here.

If you would like to partner with a school in Malawi, contact Heather on heather@joshuainmalawi.org.uk to find out more.

Tell them we are over the moon!

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!”

The Joshua Maize Mill in action

Joshua Trustee honoured by National President of Rotary

Joshua trustee David Pearson is once again championing our cause and be rightly rewarded for all his hard work, and that of his Rotary Club in Sherborne.

At the beginning of the year we were delighted to announce that David had been awarded the Times/Sternberg award for his work in Africa. As part of the prize David was awarded £5,000 which he put towards building a lifesaving footbridge in Malawi. The bridge is set to be completed in May and we look forward to sharing the photos with you soon.

Now back in the UK David was delighted to be honoured by the National President of Rotary in Great Britain and Ireland, Nan McCreadie, who congratulated him personally on his award and all he has achieved in Africa. She is the first woman President in its 100 year history and was in Sherborne to deliver the 100th Anniversary Lecture of Rotary in Great Britain and Ireland to Rotarians from a large part of the West Country.

David has also been featured in this month’s Rotary Today magazine, which is delivered to Rotary clubs across the UK, read it online here. We’d like to say a huge thank you to David, his wife Marjorie, and all of the members of Sherborne Rotary Club who have shown such incredible support for Joshua over the years.

If you are a member of a Rotary Club and would like to find out more about how you can help transform lives in Malawi, get in touch with Heather Rayment on heather@joshuainmalawi.org.uk