News from Malawi

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

Kiaora 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

Kia 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.

Kia 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.

Welcome 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

Mulli 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

Kiaora 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.

Kia 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.

Welcome 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!!

Welcome 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,