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.
