The Malawi Project, Inc.

    Today Lekilena lives a happy life with the other children at Mtendere and is enrolled in the public school in Lumbadzi. The pictures show Lekilena shortly after her arrival at Blessings and gain several months later.

    The children of Mtendere Village are supported through contributions to the 100-X Missions Group in Montgomery, Alabama. For further information about assisting children at Mtendere contact 100-X Missions Group

    Early on Sunday morning we learned some of the staff had made a rushed trip to the lakeside side, historic community of Nkhotokoto north and east of us. The trading center is located over a hundred miles away from Lumbadzi. It seemed there was a family of twelve children who were in a severe situation after the death of both of their parents. Someone had called Mtendere to come quickly. All day we waited for the return to learn the status of the children.

    That night the car arrived at Blessing, and inside were three children, three of the twelve. Three who were in the worst condition. It was believed the others would be able to survive for the time being on their own. But it was the youngest that was nearest death. Little Jannet. Only a little over a year old Jannet was down to a weight of only 7 kilograms (Could that actually mean she weighted less than 2 lbs?). The medical people decided it was too late for Jannet. She would not survive the night. The other two children were taken to one of the houses at Mtendere and Jannet over was given to the care of the medical staff. We went to bed that night convinced that with the morning sun we would be making preparations for a funeral. It seems so unfair. A tiny baby. There was nothing she had done to cause this. Her mother had died when we she just a few months old and her father had died just one week later. No matter how hard they tried the older children could not find enough food for the family.

    The sun arose around 5:40 AM and we were up and on the way down to the hospital to find out the status of the baby’s condition. To our complete surprise Jannet was still alive. She had survived the night. What a fighter. During that day and the days to come the staff from Mtendere and the hospital gave Jannet special attention. She not only survived but started to improve. In a single week she reached a weight of 8.5 kilograms. In three weeks she was up to 10.5. Although it was some time before Jannet would respond to anyone within a few months she would smile and seek the attention of some of the staff members at the compound. Soon Jannet became the center of attention and the other children often competed with who was going to care for Jannet.

    Today Jannet continues to make progress at her home at Mtendere. Two of her siblings are still residents of the village and all three are proving to be a great asset to the community. The little girl who was expected to be dead by morning is alive and well and is now nearing 5 years of age.

 Pictures

The first picture is of Jannet in tne early weeks after her arrival at Mtendere. The second picture is of her nearly two years after her arrival.

    A recent visit by a dentist and an eye doctor to the Clinic at the Gate seems to have inspired at least one of the children toward a future profession in the medical field.
   Both doctors gave basic examinations in their respective fields but one little boy decided the eye care field was the direction he wanted to go. So, he went back to his village area and gathered up small strands of cast off wire. From them he expertly crafted his first pair of glasses.

    One has to wonder if there is an eye doctor somewhere close by interested in hiring this young man to assist him. Bt then perhaps not! It seems he forgot the glass in the frames!

    On a more serious note it is a simple reality that most children in Malawi will never see or wear a pair of eye glasses or have an eye exam no matter how bad their eye sight becomes. Malawi is one of the poorest nations in the world.

    For more pictures on the Clinic at the Gate click here.

A Single Exception Caught the Attention of George Banda

The road from Lilongwe north to Kasunga is a good tarmac road. In fact it is the main road north through the tiny nation of Malawi, and the only one that is paved the entire length of the nation. Thus it carries most of the heavy truck traffic and most of the bus and walking traffic that can be seen in the northern half of the nation. This means it is not unusual to see perhaps hundreds of people walking along the roadside as one travels this major highway. It was not unusual to see many people walking along the edges of the roadway on that Tuesday in February as I traveled north from the capital. I was on the way to Kasungu District to deliver a number of wheelchairs from our offices at the Kuthadiza Disability Outreach Program offices in Salima. As always I saw old and young, people in oxcarts, others on bicycles, and always I saw many children going to school or playing along the way.

    On this day I was attracted to a small group of children near Madisi as my eyes stopped on a small boy pushing a dirty wheelchair. I pulled to the side of the road to talk to the children. I learned that the boy’s name is Fatsani Zawanje, and he is 8 years old. I learned that he was pushing the wheelchairs because one of the wheels was flat. He lived nearby so I went to talk with his mother since he was not in school, yet the school was only 2 km away. We then took the wheelchair for repairs.

    I am pleased to report the boy is now back in school at the Maranatha PVT Primary School nearby. The parents of the boy are very poor farmers. I encouraged them to follow the example my mother followed by taking me to school every day. It will now be easier for them to take young Fatsoni to school as he again has a wheelchair to help to get him to school and back.

    As I drove away from seeing Fatsoni’s smile I was reminded of Zachaus in the Bible. Along the roadside he gained great benefits from meeting the Messiah. Today along the roadside young Fatsoni has gained from a traveler who could stop and help him.
                                                                                                                                                                                                               By George Banda

*    Editors Note: The wheelchair that George Banda stopped to repair had actually been one of 1,100 wheelchairs that had been delivered and distributed to Malawi in 2006 in a cooperative program between the Free Wheelchair Mission and the Malawi Project.

     It is considered to be one of the most beautiful places in all of Africa. It is the 12th largest fresh water lake in the world and it contains more varieties of fresh water fish than all of Europe and America combined. It can be a tranquil place of beauty and it can be a place of unforgiving danger. It is Lake Malawi and it is called the "jewel of Malawi."

The Contrast of the Rich and Poor
   

        The shores of Lake Malawi reflect the same kind of contrast, this time between the rich and the poor. The sandy shoreline contains small resort areas that attract both the rich from Malawi and other parts of the world, it also is home to some of the poorest people in the world, the residents of the tiny fishing villages that line the Malawi shoreline.

 

         The Malawi Project has focused on the shoreline of Lake Malawi for a new group of programs that are designed to assist the people of Malawi. In the area of Senga Bay, just to the east of Salima the Project is helping the military to build a library for residents who have never had access to a library. In Senga Bay, at the Cool Runnings resort, medical supplies and equipment are in transit to assist in setting up a clinic where over 12,000 people have had no previous access to local healthcare. In the trading center of Salima assistance is being given to the Kuthandiza Osayenda Disability Outreach in the form of funds and supplies. Additionally a shipment of 500 wheelchairs is currently in the planning stage. South of the trading center funding has been given to assist a group of orphan children who were trying to fend for themselves in a destitute village.

 

        Meanwhile on Lake Malawi the village fishermen prepare their nets and at the crack of dawn each morning they fight their way through the surf in order to reach the fishing grounds beyond the distant horizon. Wives and families watch them leave not knowing for sure whether they will come home at the end of the day.