Welcome 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. Earlier in the year we did stockpile some maize in anticipation of the price rise, and this will be used later in the year when food becomes scarce, entering what the locals call “The Hungry Time”.

This month saw our last volunteer for the year, Liv, finish her 3 months stay with Mphatikizo, leaving early September. During her time with us she worked with the mobile clinic, teaching at the preschool, building shade tents for vegetables, and weighing and documenting all the children attending the feeding centre. A huge thankyou to Liv for all her work, patience and help during her stay.

Staying with the preschool/feeding centre, below are pictures of the children receiving school bags, pens and exercise books as well as clothing kindly donated by Mary’s Meals, a Scottish organsation who operate feeding centres throughout Malawi. We hope this is just the beginning of a partnership with Mary’s Meals and that long term they will assist us with Lukuni Palor, a fortified porridge, supplying both the Mphatikizo feeding centre and outlying CBO’s, with us distributing the food during our out-reach clinics. This is still very much in the pipeline, but they are aware that we now feed many children who were attending their centres, which have now been closed due to funding issues, and the staff in Blantyre are keen to help.

With the school closing for several weeks during school holidays, it was a wonderful last day for both kids and parents. During this downtime the new kitchen for the feeding centre has been finished, meaning we can prepare the porridge in a sanitary environment all year round. The kitchen has an area to prepare and distribute the porridge under cover and a room at the rear to store the maize, soy and sugar etc. We have also spent some $400NZ dollars on a rocket stove and new pots specifically made to fit the stove. Whilst a significant investment by itself, the stove uses markedly less firewood than conventional cooking fires and will hugely reduce both the firewood and consequent cost of preparing the food. From an Mphatikizo perspective, this also fits more in line with our sustainability values and the need to reduce deforestation here in Malawi.

The market garden continues to flourish and, although still very much in its early days, is producing rape, kale, Chinese cabbage and mustard leaves either for sale locally or distribution to local families in need. Long term, we are trying to establish relationships with local restaurants, supplying their vegetables, enabling us to earn some funds for Mphatikizo and give locals a means to earn income. Long term, Megan Fitzgerald will lend her expertise to take this project to the next level.

Finally, I will leave this update with the Mphatikizo football team, organised and run by my son Joshua. As of writing they are off (with village in tow) to play a police boys’ club in Zomba. Joshua earnt all the funds to hire transport for the team by selling tickets to discos the boys would run each weekend. Today they head off, sporting the Methven club’s donated uniforms, on a weekend they would normally never experience. As a father I am very proud of Joshua’s efforts to improve these boys’ lives and of the team for galvanizing the community and to simply have fun. I will include photos of the trip in next month’s update.

Well that’s news from Mtubwi and I’ll finish with the usual thank you for all your love and continued support. Mphatikizo continues to support many people here in Malawi and give a hope that would be missing without your continued support.

Zikomo

Bob and family

September 2019