Kia Ora everyone. I can’t believe it is February already and 2022 is well on its way, with a busy start for Mphatikizo. While the world comes to grips with living with Covid, our community in Liwonde has experienced the harsh realities of climate change, with another year of late rains, followed by extreme flooding. With most families being subsistence farmers, this can have devastating effects on food supply which, when combined with
Read MoreKiaora everyone and welcome to the last update for Mphatikizo in 2021. This year has been hard for us both as a family and for Mphatikizo in Malawi as it has also been for people the world over. Covid has added an extra obstacle to our efforts and added another medical ailment to those living in poverty, on what at times seems an ever-growing list. With
Read MoreKia Ora everyone and welcome to Mphatikizo’s October update.
I hope everyone is well and coping in what they now call our new “normal,” in which I hope will not continue for much longer. On the ground in Malawi, we continue to be busy, both in our community and some of the outlining villages. Sometime ago Richard was contacted via the internet by a group of students from the Netherlands expressing a desire to help Mphatikizo. The group is called Ipso and they wished to donate raised funds to water projects and as a result Mphatikizo ended up with enough money to repair several boreholes in outlining villages.
Read MoreKia Ora everyone and welcome to another update for Mphatikizo. As with all countries in the world, Malawi continues to suffer from the added burden of Covid, with families suffering both medically and financially with costs soaring for basic food items. The official figures for Covid in Malawi are 34,000 cases, 31,700 recovered and 1,136 deaths.
Read MoreWelcome to another Mphatikizo update and the first for 2021. I apologize for not being in touch pre-Christmas but last year finished much the same as it had behaved all year for our family and many others the world over. Malawi saw out the end of 2020 relatively unscathed from the Covid pandemic while it wreaked havoc in the rest of the world. From the perspective of our community in Mtubwi life’s battles remained unchanged with Covid adding both the lockdowns and an increase in the everyday cost of living. For a country of 18
Read MoreMulli Bwanji and welcome to another update from Mphatikizo. As is always the case we have had a busy month in Mtubwi with the kids returning to the pre school and a little more normality returning to the community. During the last month we have seen an increase in people seeking assistance for food, due mainly to the increase in prices of basic items such as salt and oil, a result of the Covid -19 pandemic, and of course the annual battle with the dry season
Read MoreKiaora and apologies for the length of time between updates but as for all people in the world, we are still living in very uncertain times. Whilst many parts of the world are being ravaged by Covid -19, Liwonde remains relatively virus free. The official line from the current government is as follows 5240 reported cases, 2857 recovered, 164 deaths. Whether or not you believe these figures (and their accuracy would have to be debated) our community in Liwonde appears at present to have been spared from the virus and we can only hope it remains this way.
Read MoreKia ora everyone and welcome to another update for Mphatikizo. I am writing this from lockdown here in Christchurch where I am with the kids, Regina being in Malawi, the family like many others, experiencing self-isolation , the worlds new normal for now. I thought I would start this update with the photo on the right. This was taken last year during the handover to Agogo Ayia of her beautiful house by our friends from Methven.
Read MoreWelcome to another update for Mphatikizo and apologies as usual for the lateness of our Update. Currently this finds me and the kids back in New Zealand having returned late last year, with Regina remaining in Malawi to keep things on track. The decision for myself and the kids to return was driven by both financial needs and for the kids’ schooling which was suffering in Malawi. I will return once Diana is settled with school and some much-needed funds are back in the bank!!
Read MoreWelcome to another update from Mphatikizo, as we get to what we hope is the end of another dry season, the weather being extremely hot with all and sundry looking for both water and shade. Soon the landscape will change with the coming of the rains and a different set of challenges for everyone living here. We have had another busy month here in Mtubwi with some great work happening both at the Orphanage and several of the outlying communities in our catchment area. We were fortunate to have help from American Aid in the form of Christina, a Californian, working with the Peace Corps here in Malawi for 2 years. Christina ran a crash course in bee keeping,
Read MoreWelcome to another update for Mphatikizo and the end of what has been another busy month here in Mtubwi. We are now well into the dry season here with the landscape now resembling more like the moon than our beautiful Malawi! Due to the rains earlier this year, the price of maize has already begun to rise, meaning another tough year ahead for people in the village and a busy year for Mphatikizo.
Read MoreWelcome to the June update and I would apologise for it being late however it is late for all the right reasons, simply put we have been so busy. The beginning of the month saw the Fitzgerald families last week with us, the arrival and departure of Megan and Dylan, on the 9th and 10th Liv Richardson who will be with us for 3 months and Rob and Fi Cameron , here to do a medical visit for a month.
Read MoreThe last month has seen the return of the clinic to both the Community Centre and as a mobile outreach programme together with The Malindima housing project, comprising of seven volunteers from Methven, New Zealand.
We have been lucky to have had 12 volunteers with us during the period and the results in the community speak for themselves. It has been an incredibly busy time with everyone working hard to achieve what are very tangible results.
Read MoreWelcome to the March update for Mphatikizo and to what has been an incredibly busy time here in Mtubwi. As most of you have seen from the news, Malawi has been suffering the effects of a cyclone which has hit us, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
Sitting here writing this, I am deafened by the torrential rain hitting the iron roof at a time when here in Liwonde we should be in the dry. The south and north of Malawi have been worse affected with us seeing multiple houses down, decimated crops, but thankfully not the number of fatalities suffered in the south.
Read MoreWelcome to another update for Mphatikizo and I hope you all had a safe and restful New Year with family and friends. This year in Malawi, Mphatikizo will be busier than ever with volunteers working with us from early April until late in the year. This is both an enormous leap forward for the charity and a very exciting time. Malawi has seen heavier than expected rains this year with many people losing both crops and homes.
Read MoreHere in Malawi we are in the midst of what is developing into a very heavy rainy season, with the last few weeks giving us torrential rain on a daily basis. I have shown the house on the left as it has now been destroyed by the rains and is typical of many of the huts here in Malindima village. This particular house was home to the woman pictured and her three kids. The replacement home we had been constructing for this family was also damaged by the rains and the family are currently housed in Mphatikizo. This highlights the need for the housing project this year and, from the charity prospective, makes sustainable sense as much money is used doing
Read MoreWelcome to the final update for 2018 and as you can see from the picture above, the rains are here, and Malindima is looking green again. The last two months have been an extremely busy time for Mphatikizo with four volunteers visiting from New Zealand.
While we have had some great successes there have also been some issues, most of which arose during our time in New Zealand. The most disappointing was that there was quite a bit of minor theft which collectively has cost a lot.
Read MoreWelcome to another update after what has been, as usual, a busy time for Mphatikizo. From our family’s view point we are all very excited as in a couple of weeks I will be rejoining Regina and the kids in Malawi. As a family it has been a long hall for us all, but Regina has done a wonderful job flying solo in my absence.
Mphatikizo is looking at a very busy time entering the Christmas season with three volunteers arriving early October and staying until the New Year, and another four arriving via London late January and staying until March.
Another exciting development is
Kiaora everyone and welcome to another newsletter for Mphatikizo and the end of what has been a very busy month.
Last month saw the arrival of our volunteer group from Lincoln University who were here in Malawi to build a community Pre School, help establish gardens and take part in an out reach programme targeting young girls and early marriage. The communities here were absolutely wonderful in accepting the group with open arms and they were free after project time to interact with our neighbours visiting home, villages and playing with the abundant local kids.
Read MoreHi everyone and welcome to another update for Mphatikizo. Whilst I am still working here in New Zealand Regina and the kids continue with the hard work and on the ground in Malawi Mphatikizo continues to grow and assist people in the Machinga district. The Pre -School /Feeding Centre continues to grow at an alarming rate with the daily role now topping out at just shy of 200 children. We did receive food from the …
Read More
