Daily meals solar light for 100 Orphans in Malawi

Dear Beloved Friends,

My name is Noel Banda. I am writing to you from Chinseu Village, Blantyre, Malawi, with a broken heart.

Let me tell you about Esther.

Esther Phiri is 14 years old. She is an orphan. Both her parents died, and she lives with her 78-year-old grandmother. She is one of the 100 orphans under our care at Chinseu Community Based Organization.

Last season, something miraculous happened.

Esther was selected to high school.

In our village, only 2 out of 50 children make it to high school. Esther was one of them. She studied every night on the floor, by a small candle, sharing one textbook with three other children. She passed with distinction.

We ululated. We danced. We thought poverty had finally lost.

We were wrong.

On the first day of high school, Esther walked 7 kilometers to school barefoot. She wore her torn primary school uniform. She carried her books in a plastic paper.

The headteacher looked at her and said, "My daughter, you cannot enter this classroom like this. Go home and come back when you have proper uniform, shoes, bag, and learning materials."

Esther did not go home. She sat outside the school gate from 7am to 2pm, watching other children learn inside. Watching her dream slip away.

She came to my office that evening. She did not cry loudly. She just whispered:

"Mr. Banda, am I being punished because I am an orphan? Will I lose my place because I have no uniform?"

I had no answer. I had no money to give her.

Friends, this is the painful truth about poverty in Malawi. It is not that our children are not intelligent. It is not that they are lazy. It is that a $25 uniform stands between a brilliant child and her future.

We can save Esther's dream this week. Here is what she needs:

1. School Uniform (2 sets) - $25
2. School Shoes & Socks - $18
3. School Bag - $12
4. Learning Materials (10 exercise books, 5 pens, mathematical instruments, dictionary) - $15

Total needed: $70 to put Esther back in class permanently.

$70 is one dinner for a family in America or Europe. For Esther, it is her entire future.

Esther told me she wants to be a teacher. She wants to come back to Chinseu and teach other orphans like her. "I want to teach them that being an orphan is not the end," she said.

Will you help us write a different ending for Esther?

Will you be the reason she walks back into that classroom with her head high, wearing a uniform, carrying a bag?

Even $10 will buy her exercise books. $25 will buy her uniform. $70 will save her year.

If 7 of you give $10 today, Esther will be in class tomorrow morning. I will personally take her to school and send you a photo of her first day.

We have 100 orphans, but today I am only asking for one. One girl. One dream. One future we can save together.

Zikomo kwambiri. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

With hope and tears,

Noel Banda
Project Leader
Chinseu CBO - Supporting 100 Orphans in Blantyre, Malawi
GlobalGiving Project #11257 - Superstar Rank 110

P.S. Esther's high school has given us 14 days to bring her requirements, or they will give her place to another child. We have 10 days left. Please, if you ever loved a child who wanted to learn, help Esther today. Donate here.