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We’ve heard so often about the lack of role models for girls in Malawi, in the north in particular. It’s hard for them to aspire to a job or profession if they have never met anyone doing that job. The schools tell us that this is badly needed but that they can’t afford to bring people in to speak to the classes – the transport itself is too big a cost.

So, when we decided to commission a photographer with a grant we had received, we were clear that the photographer must be a woman. There are very few female photographers in Malawi, we learnt. However we did find Nerani Nthara and she visited two of our schools this month. The photos which she will provide will be very useful for our website. They will also be a valuable aid in our reporting to donors and supporters. Another important outcome, and one written into the brief, is that the pupils meet this young professional woman and see her working.

Nerani engaged with the girls to show them what she was doing and explain photography to them. We loved these action shots and can’t wait for the final photos.

Alastair Cuthbertson is a nephew of Mamie Martin, a first cousin of Mamie’s daughter, Margaret. He and his wife, Carol, are loyal supporters of the Mamie Martin Fund (MMF), carrying on Mamie’s vision.

Alastair and Carol have taken part in the MMF cycling projects over the last couple of years. Now in their 80s, they appreciate their ebikes for these adventures. This year, Carol is walking rather than cycling. She identified Offa’s Dyke as her #borders22 route. This is the boundary of Wales and England. Carol is not able to walk this in reality so she is doing it virtually in the Chilterns, England, where they live. Similarly, Sally Macpherson has walked the Berlin Walk in and around Edinburgh as part of #borders22.

Carol started this walk in April and updated us in July:

“The total length of Offa’s Dyke Path is 176.3 miles. So far I have walked 130 miles. 

Apart from a weekly walk starting from my friend’s house, all the walks have been from home, not more than 2 or 3 miles each time, so it’s taking a while! I tend to go in the afternoon. I have been having fun tying the Dyke walk with local points of interest.”

Carol writes up her walks on a regular basis and these appear in her blog on the MMF website. We think that she is very cool to have her own blog. Mamie Martin would have loved it. She kept a diary and would certainly be a blogger if she were alive today.

Daphne Loads takes part in our activity projects each year. She rides a trike around East Lothian. Her plan in #borders22 is to trike a star of East Lothian and you can read her blog about it on that page. As well as thinking about borders, she had been thinking about language borders, as it were. She has just published a book about poems in foreign languages. She is donating all the proceeds to MMF and she says this about the book and about why she is making this generous donation:

“Farfetched is a book about reading poetry in different languages: what we notice and what we miss, and how poems can help us to make sense of our experiences. I loved writing it, and I hope people will enjoy reading it.

I can’t imagine what my life would have been like without access to good teachers, books and libraries. What if I had been told “you can’t go to secondary school because we don’t have enough money, and anyway you’re a girl …” That’s what happened to my mother; and that’s why all the proceeds from Farfetched are going to the Mamie Martin Fund.”

The book can be purchased in paperback or Kindle format from Amazon.

Remember that if you buy any product through Amazon Smile and have selected MMF as your charity we get a % of each of your Amazon purchases. Click here for Daphne’s book.

On Malawi Independence Day, we honour our Malawian Patron, Vera Chirwa. She was born in Malawi (then Nyasaland) in 1932, the decade after Mamie and Jack’s time. Vera was the only girl at her primary and secondary school and went on to train as a teacher and lawyer. She was the first Malawian woman to qualify as a lawyer. Throughout her life she campaigned and worked for human rights. When we campaign today for the education of girls, we talk and write freely and seldom face personal danger as a result. Vera and Orton Chirwa, her husband, campaigned for Malawian independence in the 1950s, eventually facing a death sentence and years of exile and imprisonment. Vera was later released but Orton died in prison.

Vera’s autobiography Fearless Fighter tells her story and the story of Malawian independence. It’s a great book. Let’s remember that at the beginning of her great achievements and adventures, there was a grandmother who insisted that Vera was a girl who should go to school. In the Mamie Martin Fund, we are committed to helping girls in Malawi go to school, so that they can play their part in the development of their communities and their country.

Photo: Vera on her 90th birthday