Malawi News
A Container for Bandawe - the Good News......... and the Bad!
On 28 July 2009 a 40 ft container packed with 1050 cartons of miscellaneous goods donated by people throughout Ayrshire and beyond left Alloway Church Halls bound for Bandawe, North Malawi. The good news is that it arrived safely in early November.
| The packages were distributed to churches, orphan care centres, dispensaries, hospitals and schools—the photograph below shows the young ladies of a Bandawe school receiving their boxes. From the many letters we have received following the arrival of this and previous containers we have learned the following: “Today children can go to [primary] school because they have something to put on and parents can shift their attention from income for clothes to income for other goods rather than the basic for survival in a social setting”. | |
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The value of
“beddings and curtains” was also commented on: children in an orphan care centre
have been successfully trained in the use of sewing and/or knitting machines as
evidenced by “the graduation of some orphans who can work on the machines on
their own and are now independent with either knitting or tailoring as a means
to an end”; the value of” toys and play games materials” is important because
“psychologically the children are kept away from worrying that they are alone in
this world” !
The bad news is....the full cost of a container to Bandawe has risen, for
reasons outside our control, by almost 25% over the last 12 months. The most
significant reasons for this large increase are those created by the Malawi
Revenue Authority, namely the imposition of import duties on goods which
previously were not subject to these and a large increase in the Custom’s
Clearing Fee. We would very much have liked to be in a position to send a
container during 2010. We are aware that there are differing views regarding the
cost effectiveness of sending the container and these all need to be considered.
The most significant problem we face is that it would take a major fund raising
operation to raise the amount of money needed, particularly in view of the
current economic situation and the fact that other high level initiatives also
require to be funded. The bad news is…..that we have reluctantly decided not to
send a container this year. We would like to thank all those people who have,
over the last few years, collected, packed, labelled and funded the 3,500
cartons which we have sent to Bandawe. However we can still help the needy
people of Bandawe in other ways………. |
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