The Malawi Project, Inc.

    Explain it and few people can understand. After all, this is the 21st Century. No one lives in a mud hut anymore, do they? And how can someone in the fishing profession go out to sea in a carved out log? Can they?

    To explain life in African’s lower Rift Valley; mud huts, dirt paths, dug out canoes, and hand held agricultural tools is really a near impossibility to explain. After all, most people only remember these things in the distant past of 50 years ago in a time of frontier explorers, poor dirt farmers, or in imaginary Hollywood movie sets.

    But, in the heart of Africa, or more fitly, in the Warm Heart of Africa, in the country of Malawi, the past is the present. With a family income of only slightly over $100.00 it is hard for a family to gain even an extra plate, pot, or place for another family member to sit. Life is hard and it is not getting any easier.

    Each time a trailer of supplies reach Malawi from the supporters of the Malawi Project life gets easier for a large number of people for a time. Hope springs up that someone, somewhere, out there cares about them and is willing to help them. Families have a new bucket with which to carry water from the distant river. Medical supplies fill the shelves of a number of hospitals, school books flood a number of classrooms, pens and pencils touch the hands of children who can now write their lessons, and the future is a little more comfortable.

    How does one repeat "thank you" thousands of times for all of the aid that is being sent to help the poverty-stricken areas of Malawi. How does one say "thank you" for the child that is saved from dying because of a small box of medical supplies in a much larger shipment of aid. How does one say "thank you"

Canadian Group Rallies Support

    During the past 9 years nearly 300 trailers of supplies have been sent to the small nation of Malawi through the work of the Malawi Project. A vast majority of these trailers of supplies have been medical in nature, and they have allowed the Project to extend its reach into over 144 medical facilities in all three regions of the nation. Already in 2008 one shipment of medicine amounted to over $23,000,000.00 in medical aid, matching the dollar value of the entire Malawi national budget for the nation. This shipment and many more have reached Malawi as a result of the support of the Universal Aide Society.

    In the famine of 2002-2004 Universal Aide Society coordinated sending millions of dollars in food aid that helped keep many people alive. Additionally large amounts of clothing, shoes, books, and other supplies have contributed to incentive programs that are helping the Malawi people get on their feet.

    According to Suzi Stephens RN, the Medical Director for the Malawi Project, the largest supplier of aid through these years has been the Universal Aide Society of British Columbia, Canada. "Without the Universal Aide group and their tireless efforts to supply us with the massive amounts of food, medicines, clothing, school books and other needed supplies the Malawi Project and its work would still be a very small supplier to the people of Malawi. Because of them we have been able to become one of the top suppliers of aid to Malawi."

    Scott Gordon, a board member and treasurer for the Malawi Project notes that it would have been impossible to raise the needed funds to accomplish all of the work the Project has been doing without the support of Shirley Gremyachev, her board and her supporters.

    Without a question Universal Aid Society is in the top tier of the people who successfully quality to the "Be The Change" category of those who serve the needs of the helpless in the world today.

    Additional information about the Universal Aide Society can be found at www.universalaide.org

    Over lunch two members of the staff at the Namikango Maternity Hospital, and the American missionary at the Naminkango Mission in Thondwe, Malawi discuss with Suzi Stephens R.N., Medical Director for the Malawi Project Inc., plans for the arrival of the first 40-foot container of medical supplies to the hospital in the southern part of Malawi. The hospital is located between the former Malawi capital city of Zomba, and the largest populated city, and commercial center of the nation, Blantyre. The site will be a distribution site for aid to medical facilities in the eastern part of the southern district of Malawi.

Church Building Becomes Warehouse For Aid
    The church congregation that formerly met on the mission site recently moved to a larger building, leaving the older building vacant. The facility is quite adequate to become a warehouse for the incoming supplies, and is being converted into the warehouse and distribution site. A recent meeting with the District Health Officer in Zomba set the way for the mission to assist the government hospital system with the distribution of supplies.

Churches and Project C.U.R.E. Send Supplies
    The first full shipment of supplies is scheduled to arrive later this year thanks to the contribution of the Eastside Church of Christ in Colorado Springs and Montrose Church of Christ, Montrose, Colorado Colorado, and Project C.U.R.E. in Denver, who are working with the church and the Malawi Project to supply Malawi with needed medical supplies and equipment. Previously only partial shipments were sent to Namikango from shipments to other locations.

Administrator Applauds Shipments
    Symon Katete, the administrator of the Hospital could hardly believe his eyes as he looked over the list of incoming supplies. "I think the supplies will be very, very helpful. It will help us, but it will also help the entire region," Katete said. "It costs a lot to buy the supplies that will now be in abundant supply. One box of surgical gloves costs us 4,000 Kwacha (About $28.50 a box compared to about $8.00 in the U.S.). That is a lot of money and we can only purchase a few. Many rural hospitals cannot purchase any gloves."

Coverage Expands Extensively
     During the past year the Malawi Project has seen quite an extension in its outreach to new sites in the nation of Malawi. This has led to increased opportunities, and has also seen some of the original sites become independence from continued Project support. As was planned from the inception of the Project, each year sees more of the programs spawned by the Project gain their footing and move to or toward an independent course. At the same time new programs and sites continue to come on line.

    To reflect the new sites a new map is being posted in the "About Malawi" section that will identify some of the new locations where new programs are now under way.

    In coming weeks two members of the Board of Directors will travel to all three of the regions of Malawi in order to identify and prepare new sites to being receiving humanitarian aid.

    Recently a team of church leaders from Noblesville, Indiana, which included two members of the Malawi Project, spent several days in Malawi doing site evaluations and interviews with local church leaders concerning the establishment of an international school in the country. Additional meetings were then held in Indiana with administrative leadership from the Sunset International School in Lubbock, Texas in order to evaluate the progress toward the goal of the establishment of the school.

It can be a Crowning Gem
    "The establishment of this international school, as well as the new sites that are coming on line this year are quite exciting," says Scott Gordon, one of the newest board members and Treasurer for the Malawi Project. After he returned from the recent trip to Malawi Gordon was able to conclude, "This school will be a crowning gem to all of the work that the Project team has been doing in the country. We are really pleased to see these developments and we look forward to its success in coming months and years. The school is expected to be able to train leaders and help people to learn trades in a way that nothing else has been able to do."

    Laboratory services at Dedza District Hospital are no longer accessible because a voltage regulator stopped working following a fire that gutted a hospital block housing the kitchen, laundry and storeroom including the records room.

    Meanwhile, preliminary investigations into the cause of fire have revealed that a fault on the thermostat for one of the electric pots might have started the fire.

    Dedza District Health Officer Thomas Salim disclosed to Board Members of Dzidalire Community Development Agency {DCDA} Mama Cecilia T. Kadzamira and Mr. Andrew Sikanda Nkana who visited the hospital shortly after the fire, that there is no electricity because of the damaged voltage regulator.

    Currently the blood bank is not in use, nor is the only x-ray machine in the district and the CD4 count machine, used to measure immunity in patients who are HIV positive.

    Salim also said the autoclave machine, used to sterilize equipment, is also not in use as a result to the voltage regulator.

    "For now, we are still assessing the damage to some of the equipment as a result of the fire. But an assessment on the building, which was gutted has been done and it is expected to cost K16 million to renovate," Salim said.

    Following the transfer of 276 patients to various hospitals, out-patients services have resumed at the hospital. Salim, however, said maternity complications were referred to Mua Mission Hospital because the two hospitals have a service level agreement.

    The damaged equipment, whose value is yet to be assessed, includes electric pots, refrigerators, freezers, washing machines and meat cutters.

    "This is a very serious issue that needs urgent attention, we need help from all donor agencies, companies and individuals, Salim said.

Malawi Project Reacts

Immediately upon receiving this news Murry Dixon, the Director of Shipping for the Malawi Project announced the decision to make an immediate shipment of supplies and equipment to assist in the reestablishment of services at the hospital. The shipment is scheduled to leave Indiana before the end of October.