Malawi - Presbytery of Ayr Initiative
A team of seven people visited Malawi during late September/early October 2006 to represent Ayr Presbytery at the Twinning Ceremony which took place in Bandawe in October. The team, listed alphabetically, comprised (Left to right);
- Dr Gareth Powell, General Practioner
- Rev Arthur Christie, Team Leader and Minister of Monkton and Prestwick North Church
- Mr. David Watson, Primary School Head Teacher
- Mrs. Elizabeth [Liz] Geddes, Special Needs Advocate
- Dr. David Geddes, retired Industrial Chemist
- Mr. John Henderson, Presbytery Elder
- Rev Rona Young, Minister of New Cumnock Parish Church.
In addition to representing Presbytery of Ayr at
the Twinning Ceremony, the team had another important
remit, namely to carry out a detailed fact finding operation regarding the
conditions facing the people in the Bandawe area. During the time they were in
Malawi the team members, on behalf of the many people at home who had so
generously donated money to help the Malawian people.
- Resourced an embryonic dispensary on the Bandawe environmentally friendly safety cooker Station in an area where about 10,000 people do not currently have access to medicines—not even simple pain killers. To achieve this an existing building had to be refurbished, a qualified nurse was employed and three school leavers who had little, if any, prospect of finding work were employed and trained to become health visitors.
- Provided sufficient financial help to a nursery school run by 5 volunteers to feed 140 children and the 5 volunteers for 6 months a maize mill
- Provided financial help to an orphanage which is run on a voluntary basis. It is worth noting that in the population of about 12 million people there are between 1 to 2 million orphans.
- Initiated a study to establish the feasibility of refurbishing an existing unused building for use as a Day Care Centre for orphans, elderly people, etc with the possible provision of, for example a maize mill, an energy efficient environmentally friendly safety cooker, etc environmental nursery garden
- Provided money to an Environmental Nursery Garden to fund the purchase of a polypropylene protection net. An Environmental Nursery Garden cultivates seedlings of indigenous Malawian trees which are in danger of becoming extinct due to over cutting for cooking purposes
- provided basic materials, such as jotters which can be bought locally, for some primary school.
- Gave money to each of the 12 congregations in the Bandawe area to assist in the running of the churches.
On returning from Malawi the group met to develop guidelines for future linkages. Arthur facilitated the meeting and each member of the group spoke on those areas and problems to which they had been guided and where they thought that they would have most impact. Following discussions the group reaffirmed that the focus for twinning was “the development of sustainable relationships”, centering on the Bandawe area, and that financial assistance was a secondary consideration. The group considered that positive contributions could be made in the following areas (in alphabetical order);
- Church and Associated Parish Buildings
- Communications
- Education
- Health
- Orphans/”Older Orphans”
Care Transport.