Here we are one year on and what a difference a year makes! Thanks to you all and your generousity the school now has a feeding station providing all 545 children with a porridge breakfast and allowing them to attend classes. You can see from the pictures how happy they are and Mary's meals will monitor the quality of this provision by employing a field officer to work with the school. We still need to continue to raise funds to keep the feeding going-it only costs £6.15 per year to feed a child and Angela and I have pledged to raise these funds for the next three years. So please continue to support us in whatever way you can--every penny goes to this wee school and the children in these pictures.

In addtion to the feeding station World challenge sent out a work party and the young people worked with the school committee to lay concrete floors and paint some of the six classrooms. My nursing colleauges and friends in Western Isles also raised £2000 by bag packing to pay for some desks which are locally made. So in less than one year we have managed to make some difference. We want to continue to support these lovely people to have the opportunity to support themselves. Thank you all and bless you for reading this and your continued interest and support.

Mary and Angela

November 2010

So thanks  to you all the feeding station is nearly operational--how wonderful is that! The ceilidh went well and raised £1495.00 --thank you to all involved--I could not have done it without you--you cooked suberb stovies,organised,ran the bottle stall, baked and made the buffet delicious. Then you compered,sang, played brilliant music, danced and generally enjoyed a great night--all for those children--thank you.

Many thanks must go to our ALSO friends your generousity on Saturday night meant that we raised another £1045 so it all went into the bank yesterday as well as £500 direct to the school to help with the World Challenge work project next month.  Frances your painting of the children is superb  you are so talented--thank you for all you do.

So we continue to raise the ongoing costs which are approx £4200 per year. Please help if you can either via this page or by direct debit. Remember it only costs £ 6.15 to feed one child breakfast for one year. Yes 50pence per month--you would not even notice spending and what would it buy anyway?????

Angela and I continue to think of new fund raising activities--if you want to suggest an event or help in any way then please be in touch.

God bless you all

Mary and Angela  17th June 2010

Well here we are nearly there..both Angela and I are thrilled and humbled by your generousity to this wee school. We are especially grateful to one dear friends generous donation which has significantly boosted the funds in the last week. Thank you!!

I also want to thank others who have listened to my wee story and donated cash as well as taking some of the direct debit forms--these children will never meet you but thanks to you all they will go to school!

The plans for the ceilidh are going well and we are looking forward to that very much as well as the bag packing in Stornoway later this year.

So hopefully the feeding station will be built before long and all we have to do is keep the funds coming in on a regular basis for the next three years to ensure their breakfast continues. This is costed at £6.15 per child per year--not even the cost of a newspaper per month. Please complete a direct debit form if you can--we have 700 children to feed so we need plenty sponsors. If we get people to sign up to £1.00 per month then two children can be fed--would you even notice that? This would require 350 sponsors but at £2.00 per month we only need 175 sponsors, please consider this if you can.

Our thanks to you all from these children

Mary  31st March 2010

Another update and many thanks to you all--I paid in £2355 to the bank today--most of this from one ward in Western Isles Hospital. Over just three weeks the staff in surgical ward raffled a christmas hamper they had also donated to and raised £1680-- how wonderful is that !! and with other donations I managed to raise our total to date to nearly £5000. I cannot thank you all enough, these children will never be able to thank you in person but will know where their breakfast comes from. The next event is a charity ceilidh in Stornoway on 28th May--plenty room in the house for B&B for my mainland friends!! Just let me know-- a great night promised for all--you may want to buy a ticket anyway.... £5.00....

Love and God's blessing

Mary 8th March 2010

Thank you to all who have donated to date we appreciate it very much and hope you will continue to support this small school by circulating this page to your friends and colleagues encouraging them to support us in any way they can.

Angela and I visited the school in November 2009 and were delighted to meet with the children and staff again, they have made such progress with the small amount of money we have sent direct to them to date. We continue to raise the money for the feeding station using this page and other fundraising efforts. This especially by the surgical ward staff in Western Isles Hospital who held a Christmas hamper raffle--many thanks to you all. We hope to have news of when the feeding station work will start very soon and are also excited that world challenge will work in the school later this year as well. What a difference these two projects will make but we need to continue the fundraising to make it all happen so any ideas or activities are very welcome.

God bless you all

Mary and Angela January 2010

Thantwe school is just outside Blantyre in southern Malawi. There is no road to the school and it receives no government funding. Currently 462 pupils attend 6 different classes led by a dedicated team of teachers with a ratio of 1:40-70 children. The teachers do this with minimal resources of any kind but with a commitment to these children who would not otherwise receive any education.

Our work as a ALSO teachers led us to Malawi and to visit this school in 2007. Whilst our primary purpose in visiting Malawi was teaching obstetric emergencies to health professionals, Angela had received a donation to be given to a school. We were taken to Thantwe by one of the Malawian midwife teachers and while we were humbled by the circumstances these pupils and staff face each day, we were also filled with respect for the people we met. In Malawi babies die every day as do young children, it has one of the highest neonatal and child death rates in the world.

This means that children who survive to school age are very special indeed and vital to the countrys economy and existence. All these children ask is for the opportunity to receive an education in order to get themselves out of the extreme poverty they live in.

While there are 462 pupils; the school is confident around a further 200 local children would attend regularly if they could be fed each day. This project hopes to address this need and allow these additional children access to an education.

Mary's meals is a registered charity who will build a feeding station in the school if we can commit to raising £7,000. Thereafter it will costs £6.15 to feed each child for a whole year.

We have committed to raising the £7,000 in the first instance and we ask for your help. We will visit the schoolin November and will also meet with the Mary's meals local director to discuss the project in detail.

Please help these children by giving what you can and raising awareness of this site.  

God bless you all,

Mary and Angela.

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