Category: General

The St John’s Town of Dalry Coffee Morning was a great success – raising the tremendous amount of over £1,000. Many thanks to all those who helped and all those who attended. Supporting Abbas Rest in Scotland enables Care & Share in Malawi to continue their regular assistance to many sections of their community at Chiringa, and to develop new initiatives as the needs arise.

We’ve known for a long time that the gate of the centre at Chiringa needed replacement, so we have funded a new gate. The photos below show the old gate, the new gate, and the adjoining wall where three young people were trained in brickwork as an important component of the gate installation. The fourth photo shows the Minister of ICT, Hon Mark Botomani, MP, visiting the Tele-center as part of the promotion of universal ICT access – our manager Forster asked the Minister for support for children in our care, and was granted ten training places at the Tele-center.

Now that the newsletter has gone to all our regular supporters, we are delighted to offer it, plus an extra newsletter from Chiringa, on our Newsletters page (in truth, we intended to do that in June, but time swept past). We have also added a few words about trustee Madge’s visit to Malawi – personal contact is an important part of our responsibility to Abbas Rest here and to Care & Share there.

Now, in April, we can celebrate the completion of the Michesi Water Scheme, and its handover to the local Water Committee on Thursday 18th. This is the result of five organisations and two contractors, all named on our page celebrating the provision of solar-powered water supply at three public kiosks – watch the video. For more details and a couple of photos, go to our Water Scheme page.

.

The number of people affected in Chiringa by the cyclone is now 745, and some families have already been assisted with food items.

Maize, bought last year, was distributed recently, and two photos are of the maize day – we do a large annual purchase, stored and treated to prevent attack by weevils, to help the community during the hunger months. The water committee for the new Michesi Water Scheme enjoyed their training last week – one photo shows the committee and another shows Blessings counting payments – the water payments will ensure that spare parts and repairs are affordable. This month’s Cyclone Idai did cause some damage in the area, but not as serious as in Phalombe, not far away, and in the Chikwawa and Nsanje areas further south.

Many thanks to the community of St John’s Town of Dalry – on September 29th they came together at a Coffee Morning in the Village Hall and raised about £800 for Abbas Rest and the work of Care and Share in Chiringa. This contribution makes a big difference to our small charity doing work for orphans, for youth, for students, for elderlies, and, quite simply, for the whole of this community on the far east of Malawi.

The Abbas Rest website had lapsed, so we are creating a new website, and will add gradually to its contents. It represents both Abbas Rest and its supporters in Scotland, and the Care and Share centre and community in Chiringa, Malawi.