< Lancashire West Methodist Circuit Archives – Mamie Martin Fund

Partnership celebrated (with cake, of course)

We were so happy to celebrate our partnership with the Lancashire West Methodist Circuit this month. This group of church communities supports six Malawian girls at school in Karonga, in the far north of Malawi. The girls are now starting their fourth and final year of secondary school. MMF Trustee, Phil Wright, introduced the event at Croston (near Preston) and expressed the appreciation of the Mamie Martin Fund and our partners in Malawi for this wonderful support.

Moira Dunworth, our Marketing Lead, reported on the progress of the pupils and the finances of the project (very healthy, thanks to generous Lancashire West donors). She included some updates about other MMF news. She told the meeting that a new book about Mamie Martin and other women missionaries is now available. Then we had a lighter few moments seeing video clips of Jo Wright and her ‘dips’ in 31 lakes/tarns as a fund-raiser for MMF. Jo, herself, kindly rounded off the presentation by reading the lovely poem from two of the Malawian pupils supported by this Circuit.  

After the event those present adjourned for some tea and cake. What a lovely welcome for the MMF visitors (from Edinburgh, Kendal and Lancaster) and what a great opportunity to share news and stories. Thanks LW (as they call the Circuit in Malawi!).

MMF photo exhibition doing ‘the rounds’

We are delighted that the photos of our work in Malawi are now in their fourth venue in Lancashire, England. Our partners there, the Lancashire West Methodist Circuit, are ensuring that as many people as possible get to hear about our work.

Our Lancashire West partnership supports six girls at secondary school in Karonga, North Malawi. Those girls will be going into their second year (of four) in October. The photos are currently being shown in Holmes Methodist Church. Three other churches are involved with Holmes in this particular exhibition, which runs until 5th September –

You can see the locations and further details of these churches on the Circuit’s website. A ‘Circuit’ in this context is a group of Methodist churches. Our partnership is with the group, rather than any individual church.

Thanks to Helen Hindle for creating this lovely display and sending us these images. Next stop for this exhibition will be Dalgety Bay in Fife, Scotland.

Trustee-Partner meetings in Karonga

While our Scottish Trustee, Alan Laverock, was caught up in the Omicron crisis and had to leave Malawi, our new Malawian Trustee, Remmie Kamanga, stepped up to the mark and visited our partner, the Diocese of Karonga, with Mercy, our manager in Malawi, last week.

Acting Education Secretary, Mr Thomas Nyondo with, Remmie and Mercy

We set up the partnership with the Diocese in 2019. We are supporting six ‘Alison2’ girls in Karonga and those girls start Form 3 next month. We will support additional girls starting in 2022 and until they finish their secondary education. Six of these will be supported at St Mary’s Karonga by Lancashire West Methodist Circuit and a further 4 by our new ‘Katy’s Fund’. Six other ‘Katy girls’ will be at Kaseye Girls’ Secondary School in Chitipa, a new school for us and one which is in the far north of Malawi, close to the Tanzanian border. It is also a Diocese of Karonga school and a welcome expansion of our partnership with the Diocese.

Mr Nyirongo and Dr Nyirenda, Deputy Heads at St Mary’s, Karonga meet with Mercy and Remmie

The Trustee visit was important in terms of strengthening our partnership and confirming our shared values. The girls we support are chosen by the schools on the basis of need, not academic ability or any other attribute. We are lucky in having Remmie on our Board; he brings long experience of education in Malawi at a number of levels.