Hope4Malawi Christmas fundraising appeal - please can you help to change a child's life?

Children in rural Malawi have very little. Poor families struggle with even the basics, like having enough food to eat. Hope4Malawi has made a real difference over the past 10 years, providing life-changing educational opportunities to enable children to escape the poverty trap.

Hope4Malawi's Christmas appeal aims to raise more money to support and expand existing school feeding programmes, and to provide much-needed exercise books and school desks.

Just £15 provides a vulnerable school child with food and exercise books for a year. And £50 provides a desk for two children, so they don't have to sit on the floor. Thank you for whatever you can give to help, it will make such a big difference.

Food for thought

Hope4Malawi's feeding programmes are a lifeline, enabling children to attend school, remain healthy and concentrate in class. Currently, 2,000 children at three schools - Mpemba Primary (1,200 children), Chipwepwete Primary (650 children) and Hope Secondary (150 students) - receive a mug of hot Phala each school day. This is a maize-based meal (like porridge), fortified with soya and vitamins.

Feeding programmes bring the whole community together. The Phala is cooked by ladies from the local community over open fires. The cooking vessels used each hold enough Phala for 250 children. The children bring the firewood to school each day.

Feeding programmes have many advantages. They:

-- Improve attendance with children arriving on time to eat before school.

-- Improve concentration in class.

-- Enable children to stay in school for longer, without getting hungry.

-- Improve health and wellbeing.

-- Increase the number of children registered in school.

-- Reduce pressure on vulnerable families who often can't afford to buy food for the whole family.

Books for the mind

To help children learn more effectively, Hope4Malawi provides exercise books at all of its partner schools.

Many children sit in class without an exercise book, particularly younger children. If they can't write things down, recap and revision are impossible. Eventually, many of these children drop out of school altogether. And at the secondary level, some students only have a few exercise books to cover all 10 subjects! Imagine the confusion.

Hope4Malawi also provides schools with desks to support better learning. Thanks to your help, more children will be able to sit at a desk in class, rather than on the floor.

Your kind donations will encourage these children to take the life-changing opportunity to complete their education and enjoy a better future. Thank you so much for your support.