Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page. I'm raising money for Temwa (as always!) my friend Sophie Guise & I founded Temwa at the end of 2003. I will be undertaking a 30km trek along the South West Coastal Path, this 30km hike will begin in Bude in North Cornwall and journey northwards towards Hartland Point in Devon. It is again one of the most challenge parts of the coastal path. I've been training for this, as it will be tough!

Since very humble beginnings Temwa has developed into two organisations (Temwa UK & Temwa Malawi) with a shared vision to develop self-reliant communities who are able to transform their own futures in northern Malawi – one of the poorest countries in the world. Tenwa serves the communities of Nkhata Bay North, a very remote, hard-to-reach area that is home to around 55,000 people. 

Our aim is to provide an infrastructure to support families in this region facing financial and humanitarian hardship. We accomplish this by implementing programmes in education, health, agriculture and forestry. All of our projects are community-driven meaning that local communities, including local governance structures, are actively involved in the design and implementation of the projects. Our projects are delivered by our in-country Temwa team, all of them nationals and many from the local area. As such they have a deep local and operational knowledge of the needs of Nkhata Bay North.

I had the pleasure of visiting the Temwa programmes in Malawi in November 2022 and I was so impressed by the impact of these projects and the dedication of the team that implement the projects. Please see the photos from this visit on my page.

In 2023 so far Temwa has achieved the following;

Community Agriculture and Forestry

We hosted the official Farming Futures project launch events which involved demonstrations of sustainable farming techniques and discussions on business development.

A borehole has been dug at Temwa's Usisya demonstration garden, enabling more consistent water access for watering the vegetables and plants grown there.

33,542 seedlings have been out-planted so far this year, with 75,000 new seeds ready to be planted and raised in our tree nurseries.

The Dube Farmer Group were supported to build a greenhouse to expand their banana production.

Community members are building 75 beehives to protect their forests and supply honey for income and nutrition.

1,000 community members were trained in making organic manure fertilisers to use for winter cropping to combat increasingly unpredictable harvests.

A demonstration plot has been designed at Chilembe Village to develop and learn the Farmer Field School curriculum, including using marker ridges and mixed cropping.

Fruit tree orchards have been established at Kaulasisi Primary School and Mzgola Primary School with 1,250 trees each including mangos, avocados, and guavas.

Community Health

We delivered 300 vital water filters so far to two remote villages, Joloti and Yepe, while facilitating training on how to use and look after the filters.

Cases of waterborne diseases are already falling in these two new villages according to recent reports - since the delivery of the water filters, no new cholera cases have been reported.

Temwa has continued to support outreach clinics, offering HIV testing and counselling, as well as other services including TB screening and antenatal services.

In March, approximately 1,500 people attended awareness events on Temwa’s health programme, including HIV testing and cholera prevention.

Drama performances aimed at destigmatising HIV information were attended by over 6,000 people. They informed community members about HIV control and prevention.

Community Education

5 schools performed brilliantly at our Literacy Fair in March, with 85% of the children correctly responding to their given tasks.

Community members have been developing sustainable action plans to continue running the successful Reading Camps after Temwa’s Community Literacy project comes to an end in September.

Boarding school support and sanitary pads have been provided for the female bursary students to ensure they are not missing school days due to walking long distances to school or lack of menstrual hygiene provisions.

Chipunga Community Day Secondary School graduated the first 60 students from the school since it was established in 2019. The three bursary students won awards for their academic achievements, including Veronica who won best student!

Our Spelling Bees in May were attended by over 900 people, with 80% of participants able to confidently express themselves in public and demonstrate great familiarity with spellings in the local language.

We delivered 25 water filters to Temwa bursary beneficiaries in secondary schools, resulting in a significant reduction in students missing school due to waterborne illnesses.

These projects have such a huge impact on the community that we serve. If you are able to assist me with sponsorship for my trek I will be very grateful, the funds go a long way at Temwa and make a big difference in Malawi.

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