Category: General

The November newsletter is now on this website and the gift ideas are the same as last year.

The Zodiak journalist who visited earlier this month gave a good write-up of Care & Share activities – the link is in the newsletter but it’s quicker to click here for it – a ‘must-read’ for all our supporters.

Our May/June 2022 newsletter, mostly written by our Malawi manager Chikondi Gundo, is now online at the ‘Newsletters’ page. Over the last year we have managed to fund what has been needed (Gift Aid has supplemented supporters’ regular givings) but the challenges of higher costs and greater needs will make balancing the books much more difficult over the coming financial year – we aim to quantify this in time for the AGM . . .

The AGM will be on Zoom on Tuesday 19th July at 11.00 am – if any supporter does not know how to join the meeting, please use the form on the ‘Donate or Contact’ page to let us know you wish to attend.

The maintenance of this website, providing an essential public face to all the excellent background work carried out in Scotland and in Malawi, is provided by a supporter at no cost to Abba’s Rest.

Season’s Greetings to our supporters – and thanks for the extra donations of recent weeks. All the current news (up to late November) is in Newsletter 15, now available from our Newsletter page. Discussions and decisions continue to be taken by email and on Zoom, but Zoom does enable Chikondi from Chiringa to join in despite the distance! This month has included maize distribution to the needy, and discussions to ensure the sustainability of the solar-powered water supply.

Officials from the Social Welfare Headquarters in the capital Lilongwe visited Care and Share on the 16th to check what we are doing there. Malawi trustee George Makawa reported that after their inspection “Care and Share was applauded for the wonderful job it is doing for the community and we have been encouraged to do more”.
That is a compliment not only to Abbas Rest and to Care & Share, but to all our supporters who make it possible. In this connection, we are delighted to acknowledge this week’s donation from St Ninians Episcopal Church Castle Douglas.

The May newsletter (#14, now on the Newsletters page) was being distributed in the last few days. If you support us but do not receive the newsletter (whether by email or by post or hand-delivered) please let us know – some email addresses have changed (making our emails bounce back) but we wish to keep in touch !!
The AGM of Abbas Rest will take place online, by Zoom, on Tuesday 6th July at 11:00 am – if you’d like to meet the Trustees and enjoy more of a discussion than just what’s on the newsletter, please contact us in advance so that we can send you a Zoom link and a copy of the Annual Report.
There’s always fresh news from Chiringa, so keep in touch!

You know that in 2019 we and Ayr Rotary co-operated to bring a year-round source of clean water to Chiringa (details are elsewhere on this site). This last week, our team there organised a short but very important refresher course for the water committee, led by local facilitators – a significant next step in local management of the vital resource. The two photos here show a whole group session, and a committee member reporting back from a group discussion.
 

for supporting Abba’s Rest as its Christmas charity, raising a superb amount of £1,610 – encouraging us in our efforts to do our best for the orphans, and the wider community, at Chiringa.

You, our Abbas Rest supporters, generously made individual gifts, via our Gifts page, to those in need at Chiringa – solar lights (4), plastic sheeting (4 rolls to cover 8 houses), and blankets+mat (2). The solar lights were given to Medeliya, James, Fibe and Eunala. The roofing sheets were given to Ogeniyo, Olaliya, Agness(1), Selina, Maliyana, Samson, Agness(2), and Maggie. The blankets were given to ?Jiney and Ogeniyo. The 13 recipients (10 women and 3 men) were selected as the most needy in the judgement of our Chiringa team who know the area and the people so well – George, Blessings and Chikondi. This was our first attempt to arrange special gifts, and we thank you for getting the scheme off to a good start.

Care and Share, supported by Abbas Rest, distributed maize in small groups this year to avoid large groups – today 8 OVCs (orphans and vulnerable children) from Ntikhe village in the morning (left photo), and OVCs from Lolo village (right photo) this afternoon, then three villages tomorrow, at 8am, 10am and 1pm. Their rule is: no mask, no entry to the compound.

Covid cases in Malawi were in single figures most days from early Sept. through to Dec. 17th, but have surged since. Two Cabinet ministers died early on Jan. 12th, and President Chakwera declared a state of national disaster later that day. Cases spiked at 1232 on the 15th, and are currently about 600 a day. The government introduced new lockdown measures yesterday (18th), including renewed school closures, a night-time curfew, and no gatherings over 50 people.

Two posts today – see next item

with both funds and encouragement, as we do what we can within the budget, and plan positively for the future of those we help and the charity itself. In December, Muriel married Amanda and Alan from Glasgow and accepted a donation from the happy couple when they heard from her of the work of Abba’s Rest. The church mis-named in our November newsletter (sorry!) is the Balmaclellan, Kells and Dalry Church – their Abbas Rest appeal raised over £700 – many thanks – many people of the Glenkens are stalwart supporters of Abba’s Rest. And several individual supporters have made donations over recent months. As costs rise in Malawi as elsewhere, these donations help us maintain our activities in Chiringa.