Here is the latest report on our Chifundo Program in Kaliyeka Township from Malawi Director, Pastor Moses Mtambo:
Meet Chifundo Nembo, an 11-year-old girl in our Malawian program. Originally from from the family village of Chepa, she now resides in Kaliyeka Township in a small house with a guardian and six other children. Chifundo is in Grade 7, lists English as her favorite subject, netball as her favorite sport and spaghetti as her favorite food. As an orphan, Chifundo faces many life challenges but she still dreams. She wants to be a nurse one day. Thanks to the physical, emotional and spiritual care she receives through the Chifundo program, we hope to help her make that dream a reality.
Program Report
The attendance is very impressive and almost every child who has been registered is attending the program – unless there is illness or special circumstances at home.
Our activities have improved very much. Previously, we had a few activities – jumping ropes, dancing, football and netball, etc; but since the November visit of the Ancient Path team from the USA we have introduced new activities such as a singing group, a photography project , and educational classes using new flannel graph teaching materials. The team also brought in many new toys and games such as puzzles, magna-tiles, bristle blocks, jax, new jump-ropes and soccer balls. The children also enjoy creating games together with the large colorful parachute that the team brought in. Of course the children still enjoy the weekly flannel graph Bible stories and especially enjoy being quizzed on the stories and scripture memorization.
Visitation
This month we have visited three Chifundo kids’ guardians, just to find out how children are doing in their lives. The grandmother for Bright, Blessings, and Praise said that, in the past three years she has seen the children improving in their spiritual, mental, social and physical life through our project. She is impressed that the children now can pray before they eat and sleep and that their bodies are looking physically fit. She expresses heartfelt gratitude for the Chifundo’s Basket program in Kaliyeka and says it has made a big difference in the boys’ lives.
Challenges
Any program with 200 children and 150 guardians is going to face challenges. Almost every day we receive complaints that other children have been sent out from school because of lack of school fees and various contributions to the institutions. Also every week we send at least two or three children to the hospital sick with malaria or other infections. Sometimes we receive requests from guardians to provide some dairy products and extra money for nsima, vegetables, soap etc which our budget does not accommodate.
It is challenging to serve 200 children without designated land and a building suited to their needs. However, we pray that this will be resolved in the near future. A donation has been given to purchase land and we are currently working to secure a large lot in Kalieya which will be accessible to all the children. On this land Ancient Path plans to build a multi-purpose facility that will serve the children and community well. In the meantime, we are grateful for the fence that was constructed around our family property during the team’s visit. There are so many needy children in the area but it is not possible to feed all of them. The fence helps us to keep the program organized, and keep all 200 children safe and fed. Please keep on praying for us that the grace of God should continue to embrace us every day.