| Davis Sauka and I plan first
to start a small pre-school for toddlers and children, local to the
village where he and his family live. Our goal is to engage the children
with activities such as making music with simple Malawian instruments,
singing both traditional and international songs, dancing, story-telling
and creative play. We will encourage the acquisition of age appropriate
skills, such as beginning to recognizing the letters of the alphabet
and numbers. Our goal is to provide a nutritious meal every day that
the school is open to the children who attend. There should be no
charge for this school; our hope is that we will be able to secure
funding from donors to make and keep the pre-school viable. Davis
and I are both well versed at making "something from nothing".
Our hope is that we will be able, with minimum funding, to create
an excellent pre-school experience for local children. |
The HIV/AIDS pandemic has left many children orphaned. |
Using the current methods of farming means that there
is not enough land; farmers must resort to planting up hillsides.
One hard rain could wash the crop away, and often does. |
Our second project idea
is one that is gaining great support in many areas of Sub-Saharan
Africa and will entail teaching primary school aged boys and girls
ecologically responsible gardening techniques based on research by
Stacia and Kristof Nordin in Malawi. Their research on agriculture
and nutrition can be found on the internet. If you are interested
in learning more, please read "Man Should Not Live On Nsima Alone"
found here.
We also hope to buy and distribute indigenous tree seedlings to these
primary-school aged children, for them to nurture and protect. Deforestation
in Malawi has led to a multitude of very serious problems, such as
water run-off that has lead to drought conditions even in times of
normal rainfall. Our goal is to encourage the children to use good
land-stewardship techniques so that they may foster a better environment
for the future of Malawi. |
| Our third project will be possibly arts
and crafts in nature, something for women in the village to make and
sell. The goal is that they will be able to create sustainable businesses
so that they can earn money to support themselves and their families.
We have not yet decided what these items will be. Both Davis's and
my strengths are in the arts; I work often in fiber (knitting, sewing,
rug making, quilting) as well as ceramics. It is possible this craft
project will be something that utilizes the abundance of second-hand
materials that can be found cheaply in the second-hand clothing markets
in Malawi. |
This is a group of women who do embroidery in the
village. Their work becomes hangings and pillow covers that sell
through shops in the city. |
Bernard Gamula runs a tennis program, funded by ITF, that is free
to the children. |
All of our projects are
ways in which we hope to give to the people of Malawi. By engaging
the children, by helping them reach their potential both socially,
emotionally and intellectually we hope to help them build a strong
sense of esteem for themselves, for others and for their country and
culture. |
If you feel moved to support any or all of these projects, please email
us! Please go to the Photo Gallery link
and the Shopping/Donate link where you will
find items for sale.
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