We are travelling to an extremely rural part of Malawi on May 15th for 3 weeks to work with Hope4Malawi, a charity set up by two friends 10 years ago.

Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world, with average daily wages of $1 per day and an average population age of 17.2 years. It is very difficult for a child born in these rural areas to move beyond poverty, not least due to lack of education.

Hope4Malawi helps to improve the educational opportunities for children. In the past 10 years, it has fundraised for and built classrooms, libraries and toilets for 4 primary schools and built a secondary school. The focus now is to resource these schools and build a centre for the development of valuable skills, which will enable the students to acquire jobs. The charity works in partnership with local people, chiefs and government.

There are four of us travelling; we are all passionate believers in education as being the way forward for the poorest. Two of us are trained in education and will spend time supporting teachers and teaching some of the classes. Some classes have over 100 pupils with no connectivity, few resources and no electricity.

We would like to raise enough money to complete the building of the teaching block at the new skills centre, providing resources for teaching IT, textiles and bike maintenance. There is currently a shortfall of £11,000 for this project, which we would love to raise. Any funds raised in addition will be used to provide desks, chairs and equipment in the schools. It is impossible to raise too much! For example, the morning meal given by Hope4Malawi is often the only meal the children will eat; the teachers and children sometimes have to walk 2 hours to get to the schools so the charity provides bicycles where possible; the children often sit on the floor or a stone for lessons.

Any donation, large or small, will go wholly and fully to Hope4Malawi.

With grateful thanks,

Peter and Sally Cunliffe; Guy and Rebecca Stephenson

More information about Hope4Malawi and the website www.hope4Malawi.org