Welcome to our 30th Birthday Annual Review. Many of you will know that we have been celebrating the year 1993 when Margaret Sinclair, Mamie Martin’s daughter, established the Mamie Martin Fund. Initially, a small Scottish charity to support a small number of girls into Secondary Education in Northern Malawi, the area where Mamie and her husband Jack worked in the 1920s.
For those of you new to the charity, Mamie was a teacher and, concerned at the lack of education for girls in Malawi, she set up her own class to educate local girls. Who would have guessed that her legacy in 2023 would be supporting 120 girls in 7 schools (2023-24 numbers) across the whole region?
This year has been especially busy and exciting. The highlight being the visit of our Country Director, Mercy Sibande, to the UK in May. This was her 2nd visit and we know just how much you, our supporters, appreciated meeting her.
We also, during Mercy’s visit, held a Birthday celebration coffee morning. Joyous, but bitter sweet as our Patron of 30 years, Alison Cameron, retired and she came to say goodbye. We will miss her support very much.
Besides the celebrations, our partners and friends in Malawi continue to grapple with the aftermath of the pandemic, with inflation and with the devastating effects of climate change. As a result, like last year, the demands on Mercy and on our Ready to Learn Fund increase.
Meanwhile, a small group of us continue to monitor our work against the 2023-27 Strategic Plan, looking at data collection in particular.
And as an organisation we keep in mind our new Priority, our journey to localisation.
We now look forward to 2023-24, with new Trustees and new funds to enable us to continue our work.
Mariot Dallas & Angie Wynn, Convenors
See links below for the Annual Review details: