Build a self-reliant community in rural Malawi!

Hello Our Generous and Faithful Supporters!

Most of you who already know us, and a bit about Malawi, have heard us use the expression "Pachoko Pachoko" before. It’s a critical phrase to embrace when working in many parts of the world, but especially Malawi. It means slowly but surely, and it is a way of life, similar to our own phrase "slow and steady wins the race." 

At the end of last year, we launched our project to bring power to our community and we had a lot of excitement and momentum for the first few months. This project is still well under way, however now we are stuck in the inevitable "hurry up and wait" phase. The community has enough homes wired to qualify for the governmental Rural Electrification Program, but now we wait for the government to come and deliver the power. In the meantime, as we wait, we'd like to continue wiring at least 15 more homes in our community, to increase the impact and hopefully give us some priority on the installation list. 

Our school feeding program is also on a slow but steady pace. Malawi's economy has been on a dramatic downward trajectory this year, which has had a negative impact on pretty much every facet of daily lives in every home. Our school is struggling to supply enough teachers to keep exams scores high, but thanks to the feeding program, we have been able to keep attendance at record highs for the school. This relieves some of the economic household stress on families with children, so we take pride in the fact that we are still able to help our community in this way during an extremely hard time. 

We'd like to extend our gratitude to you, our faithful supporters. We know in the nonprofit world that our supporters often look for quantitative data to evaluate their impact. While we recognize the importance in those numbers, we would also like to stress the importance of long-term support, support that is able to withstand the unpredictable nature of operating in a developing country. Because of you, we have been able to provide some stability in our community. Strengthening the resilience of our community has always been at the heart of our mission and we could not do it without you. 

So, thank you for taking the time to read this newsletter and for your continued commitment to the work we are doing in Malawi! 

Much love and gratitude!

Tamra Carlson & Zinyengo Kawonga