Welcome to our site! Now some of you will know Josie, and some of you will know Craig, and some of you will know neither of us! But you are all here hopefully to support us in raising funds for a small grassroots project in one of the poorest countries in the world.

WHY WE WOULD LIKE YOU TO DONATE?

Background to Malawi:
- 12th poorest country in the world
- 86% of population lives rurally mainly surviving on subsistence farming
- 65% live below the poverty line - majority unable to meet household food requirements
- Agriculture contributes 1/3 of GDP, 90% exports and 3/4 of total employment
- 15% of population has AIDS - along with Malaria a major contributor to a life expectancy of under 40years
- Only 25% of primary students go onto secondary school

WHERE WILL THE MONEY GO?

Community Resource Centre: (and 10% to Build Malawi, a fantastic project run by a friend of ours here in Malawi).

We are currently working on opening up a Community Resource Centre in Nkhata Bay, opening on June 7th 2008.

Objective:
“To establish socially and economically sustainable rural communities in the Nkhata Bay district, and Malawi in general”
o    To improve food security and household incomes
o    Improve health status, quality education and adult literacy levels
o    Improve environment and natural resources
o    Develop capacity of staff, partners and beneficiaries
o    Promote awareness and reduction of HIV/AIDS and Gender issues
o    Increase and improve access to markets and household income through co-operatives
o    Enhance utilisation of ICT and improve networking between different stakeholders
o    To build and encourage links both locally and internationally


How will this be achieved?
a) Locally owned project
3 in-country partners, ensuring it is locally driven and providing relevant solutions to local needs (Butterfly Space, PMDI (Malawian NGO), and Community Development Office (Local Government). Plus, a link to a Malawian Agricultural College to provide ongoing hands on support and training.

b) Education for self-sustainability
Providing varying levels of information and resources so that all members of society can benefit and ultimately take action e.g.
- Demonstration gardens
- Murals
- Simple ‘How to’ handout sheets
- Library
- Internet
- Formal lessons
- Ongoing On-site training and support
- Links to Micro-loan organizations / funds

c) Sustainable Centre:
The centre is being set-up so that it has an element of self-sustainability. This is achieved by the following:
-    Paid for internet access for travellers
-    Nominal community registration fee (encourage community ‘ownership’ of centre and recognition of resource provided)
-    Seed Loan scheme – communities provided seeds to set up own garden projects, but pay back after harvest + additional seeds. These then provided as loans to other communities
-    Possible Micro-loan community fee (i.e. after repaid loan, continue paying small amount towards centre)

*The funds you kindly donate will mainly be used to fund the expansion and capacity of the project e.g. renovation of building of 2nd half of building, increase micro-loan fund / seed fund, contribute to additional programmes e.g. transporting school kids to centre for computer lessons, invite specialist speakers, buy and maintain equipment, etc….


WHAT ARE WE DOING TO DESERVE YOUR SUPPORT!?

845km bike ride, the length of Lake Malawi!!!
On 9th June Josie and I will set off on the Illala Ferry from Nkhata Bay and travel for 2 days down to Monkey Bay. Then, from June 11th we will be attempting to cycle 845km from the south of Lake Malawi to the North!

We will be cycling about 80km’s per day, starting at about 5.30am each morning at sun-rise, cycling in 30 degree+ heat, incorporating a climb to over 3,000ft (all mainly in one day about ¾’s of the way through!), and mainly sleeping rough under the stars, and all of this on 2 bikes bought for around £70 in Malawi! (which incidentally is just that little bit too small for me, just to make it a little more interesting!?).


So I hope the project AND the effort we are putting in has convinced you to give generously! We have a tough target and a tough bike ride to complete, so please, please, help and send the link onto ALL your friends and family, facebook friends, etc....!!!!

Many thanks,

Craig and Josie.

PS. For even more background and information about what we are about visit:
www.butterfly-space.com
and my website created a while ago with info of how I ended up involved in this and how it has developed and the detailed project document.