< Moira Dunworth, Author at Mamie Martin Fund – Page 16 of 18

Author: Moira Dunworth

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Partnerships in action in Mzuzu

Trustees, Angie and Moira, were happy to be in Mzuzu when the Malawi-Scotland Partnership held one of its regional events there. They write: “we were amazed at how many people were there and how many organisations were represented. Interesting, lot of organisations had sent more than one representative, an indicator, reflecting their commitment to networking and collaboration.”

The focus of the day was the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 (SDG2030) and Shadreck Ngulube, Regional Co-ordinator, went through them one by one, noting how we are currently  missing all these goals. 

The meeting broke into groups and Moira and Angie took part in the Education one where the sharing of information was really useful. The session concluded with a useful presentation by James Gondwe of The Centre for Youth and Development about communication. We all need to be clear as to what our organisations do and what our values are. Then we need to use a range of methods to let the world know about our work, ensuring that we are all giving the same message.

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New partnership in Malawi

Angie Wynn, Vice-Convener of the Mamie Martin Fund, signed a partnership agreement on Wednesday, 9th October with the Diocese of Karonga. The Diocese has two schools which meet our criteria for funding and we are able to support six girls at St Mary’s Karonga, a girls’ boarding school just south of Karonga in the far north of Malawi. These six girls are ‘Alison girls’ because their funding is part of the second Scottish Government endowment funding to honour the lifetime work of Colin and Alison Cameron in Malawi and Scotland.

The agreement was signed for the Diocese by Mr Remmie W. C.  Kamanga, the Diocesan Education Desk Officer. We are hugely appreciative that Remmie broke his holiday to meet us at St Mary’s for this historic signing.

Until last year we had only worked with the CCAP Synod of Livingstonia, with whom we have historic links and a real sense of shared purpose in continuing the work of Mamie Martin. Last year we broadened our remit, signing a Partnership Agreement with Mchengautuba Community Day Secondary School. Now that we have a similar agreement with the Diocese of Karonga, we can work with more sections of Malawian society to support a wider range of girls at secondary school level.

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The week that was – school visits in Malawi

Our Trustees have had a busy week in Malawi. With Mercy, our Malawian manager, they visited three schools. They are not used to setting off before breakfast and working right through till lunch, if they are lucky. ‘Let’s grab a coffee’ is simply not part of the schedule – not until the weekend anyway. Every term Mercy visits each of the schools we support. She always addresses the whole group, encouraging them and ensuring that they know to come to her with any problems.

In the first term Mercy also speaks individually to each of the girls who are newly on an MMF bursary. This is an important interview as it establishes the relationship which will last for all of that girl’s schooling and often beyond.

These are long working days; at one school we had 14 new girls this month and 12 in another school. Mercy also manages our small discretionary fund, out of which she gives money for the small necessities which most of the girls lack. They need soap and notebooks; they often need school uniforms and sometimes shoes or schoolbags.

Angie and Moira took the opportunity to chat to the girls when Mercy was conducting her individual sessions. That is always interesting, humbling, shocking (in terms of the hardship and poverty disclosed) and inspiring – all at the same time.

At one of the schools there are new buildings adjacent to the old school but no seats yet. The girls are used to sitting on the ground as there is no alternative outdoors. However, some of the classes are awaiting desks and chairs and sitting on a concrete floor is not good.

The girls are also eagerly awaiting the new hostel which is due to be built in the next year. The present one is so overcrowded that they need to sleep two to a bed. We look forward to seeing that new accommodation on a future visit. 

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Supporting deaf pupils in Malawi

We have supported one girl at Embangweni School for Deaf Children for five years. When Trustees Mariot and Moira visited with Mercy, our Malawi Manager, last year, we were struck by the need of this school and its pupils. Happily, thanks to new funding from the Scottish Government and the Thompson Fund, we met five new MMF girls on this visit. Three of these will be supported throughout their secondary education (they are all in Form 1 now) by a fund set up in the memory of Jack and Phyllis Thompson who devoted most of their lives to Malawi and its people. They would have been delighted to meet Mary, Funny and Deborah for whom the funding is making the difference of a lifetime. The other two girls are being funded by the Scottish Government through the Alison Cameron Scholarships.

At the school we heard sad stories of deaf children whose parents abandon them at school, sending no money even for transport home in the holidays. Not all families have this attitude of course but the barriers faced by deaf children in Malawi are huge and our funding makes a difference to our six girls and their families. There is great concern about their future after school and our Form 4 girl is particularly worried about that. We are always sad that we can only meet some of the need which we encounter here in Malawi.

We are glad about the project run by the CCAP and Sense Scotland which will work towards improving access to quality education for all children in Northern Malawi. We hope to see educational opportunities for our girls and all other disabled children improve in the near future.

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Malawian girls’ aspirations

We were pleased to be able to record a video with one group of Mamie Martin Fund girls where they spoke about their aspirations. This particular group are ‘Alison Girls’, funded by the Scottish Government as an endowment to honour Alison and Colin Cameron who have contributed so much to Malawi-Scotland relationships over their lifetime. 

The video mention of ‘Alison 1’ and ‘Alison 2’ refers to two separate blocks of ‘Alison’ funding – the bursaries are called ‘The Alison Cameron Scholarships’ and the girls are affectionately called ‘The Alison Girls’. They were keen to make this video in order to send their greetings to Alison herself. Hope she enjoys it.

While we are delighted to encourage the girls in their hopes and dreams, it is already a big challenge for them to be in secondary school. It will be an even bigger challenge to find and fund a university course. We are glad of our partnership with the Soko Fund which gives some of these girls access to some bursaries to study at Malawian universities.

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Supreme Malawi

Our Trustees, Moira and Angie, along with Mercy, visited Supreme Malawi this week. Based in Nkhata Bay, this social enterprise makes reusable sanitary products and is expanding into related items. They use materials and equipment sourced in Malawi from other Malawian businesses. They employ a core staff of nine tailors and one operational manager, taking on extra day workers to respond to particular busy times.
Beatrice, Team Leader, and a Malawian woman who has been on the staff from the beginning showed us how the pads are made from cutting the fabric to the finished and packaged product. We are delighted to provide these pads to our girls in schools in North Malawi.

Supreme also provides workshops for schools about menstruation management. Contact them for a quote – they only cover their costs; this is not a profit-making activity.

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Trustees in Malawi

Our trustees, Moira and Angie, arrived safely in Malawi on Thursday. Happily, so did all their luggage. Having successfully navigated the sim card process and changed money they had time for some R&R in Lilongwe before heading north on the bus on Saturday.

So Friday was spent shopping in the Old Town Mall where they bought some new Christmas tree decorations for our tree in St Andrew’s and St George’s West in December. Then they went to the Wildlife Conservation Centre which is a must-visit for any visitor to Lilongwe. As well as being able to take a tour of the centre and its animals, there’s a restaurant in the park. Sitting sipping a ‘yummy’ (seasonal fruit smoothie) in the shade surrounded by the sounds of the birds and the smell of the BBQ was bliss.

The guided tour gave lots of information  about the saved animals and the conservation work of the centre. Angie discovered that one of the newly qualified Malawian vets who she recently met during their visit to Scotland had done her placement here at the centre! ‘Tis a small world!

Moira liked the centre’s shiny and strong bicycles which facilitate the staff getting around the park. 

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Wedding list with a difference

On July 20th this year, one of our long-term regular supporters got married in Scotland. Hope Robertson married Malcolm Fleming on a lovely sunny day in Cramond followed by a reception near Biggar. Their special day brought sunshine to many girls in Malawi because they asked their family and friends to make a donation to the Mamie Martin Fund as a wedding gift. What a generous thing to do! In addition, the groom told the wedding guests about our work as part of his wedding speech. It is great when more and more people hear about our work and the need for it. 

This form of fund-raising is particularly appreciated in Malawi,  where money is central to wedding celebrations. Money is thrown in the air as the guest dance and that money is a vital part of the process of the couple setting up home together. Many of those who get married in the UK are lucky in already having a home, and Hope and Malcolm decided that they did not need any material gifts but would like their happiness to make a difference to girls’ education in Malawi. Their generous family and friends donated more than £2,300.00 – enough to pay for school fees for seven girls for a year. Wow!

If you also wanted to mark a special occasion and invite donations to the Mamie Martin Fund, you could ‘start fundraising’ on our Virgin Money Giving page or on Give as you Live. We’d love to know about your plans so that we can share them with other supporters and friends.

Huge thanks to Hope and Malcolm for this thoughtful and generous contribution to our work supporting girls in Northern Malawi.

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MMF team 21st-Century-ready in Malawi

Having been introduced to WhatsApp by our youngest Trustee, the Board has come to understand the importance of this mobile phone app in Africa. A  messaging tool which uses very little data, it has transformed communications within Malawi and between Malawians and the rest of the world. It works when mobile signal is poor and seems to be much easier for Malawians than email; it is usually accessed by mobile phone. 

Communication between us and the Head Teachers of the schools we support has always been challenging. They have very little internet access but most of them have internet-enabled mobile phones. Having been using WhatsApp with Mercy for some time, we set up a group for the Head Teachers to communicate with each other and with us. It was an immediate success!

“This is wonderful, Moira and Mercy. It will really ease our communication. Wishing you lots of God’s blessings.” Head Teacher, Bandawe Girls’ Secondary School.

“It is worthy having it. Communications simplified.” J. Mwale, Elangeni Secondary School.

It has already been used by the teachers to confirm Mercy’s school visits itinerary and by Mercy to confirm the parameters of the new MMF places which will be available to the schools from this month.

Isn’t it lovely when something so simple solves a problem that seemed complicated? Thanks to Mercy for her help with it and to all the teachers who are engaging with it so positively. It should be noted that we are not endorsing or advertising this app in any way; we are only sharing our experience of using it in this particular situation.

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Scotland Malawi Partnership Member Awards 2020

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We were honoured to be part of the Scotland-Malawi Partnership Awards event this year. While not receiving an award this time, we did get the chance to meet Her Royal Highness, the Princess Royal, who presented the awards and met representatives of as many member organisations as possible. HRH impressed everyone with her knowledge and understanding of the issues we face in our international development work. She was warm and gracious with everyone but we were all still left feeling shell-shocked from trying to do and say the right thing. 

Our Trustees, Moira Dunworth and Lynsey Shepherd, represented us at this event and Moira used the occasion, of course, to give her Malawian dress another Edinburgh outing. This dress is made from the chintenjie (cloth) designed last year by the Malawi-Scotland Partnership (MaSP). Vera Kamtukule, CEO of the MaSP, spoke eloquently about the value of the Malawi-Scottish links.