Protect 500 Kids with Disabilities in Malawi

Dear Donors,

With this report, we would like to update you on our project in the Mangochi district for 500 children with physical or mental disabilities who live in extreme poverty. Thanks to the collaboration with our local partner, Tiyende Pamodzi, the physiotherapist visits to Namwera and the 12 villages of the district continue. These visits are essential to assist children with disabilities by helping them grow and develop.

However, children and families in the Mangochi district are facing many challenges. High inflation has increased the cost of food, leaving many children suffering from or at risk of malnutrition. In addition to high prices, the local population is complaining of increasing difficulty in finding the food they need. Malnutrition represents a particular challenge for children with disabilities, as it worsens their health conditions and compromises the progress achieved with physiotherapy.

To fight malnutrition, Tiyende Pamodzi Group has decided to provide an incentive to families who attend physiotherapy sessions. The local partner provides them with corn, which the families supplement with peanuts and other food to create protein meals that can help malnourished and at-risk children during physiotherapy sessions.

At the end of October, our staff and volunteers will travel to Malawi for the usual monitoring trip. In preparation for this trip, we want to launch a special fundraiser to provide the 13 villages with the corn needed to meet their needs for the next year. A 50 kg bag of corn costs $27 (€25) in Malawi. For a year, 70 bags are necessary, so our goal is to raise $1,907 (€1,750).

Thank you for supporting our project and helping children with disabilities in the Mangochi district!

Dear friends,

Aleimar would like to update all of you supporters about the local situation in Mangochi District and about the progress of our project that wants to help children with disabilities. Our local partner, Tiyende Pampdzi Association, reports really concerning condition.

One important factor is climate: almost every family in Malawi is a farming family, a source of great strength for the country’s economy. This was seen a few decades ago when the country was regularly exporting agricultural produce to neighboring nations.

However, this means most families have also been extremely vulnerable to climatic stresses and shocks. International and national Meteorological agencies say the upcoming 2023/24 rainy season (also known as the lean season when food supplies diminish) in Malawi is expected to be influenced by El Niño. In the past, El Niño conditions have been linked to a delayed start of the rainfall season, below-normal precipitation, and dry spells. This climatic situation brings with it the risk of rising malnutrition.

A high number of families that live in the 12 villages supported by our project is facing hunger. Malnutrition and stunting have a really important impact on children with disabilities and on the potential success of physiotherapy: undernourished children are too fragile to receive physiotherapy treatments, but at the same time most of them are not able to eat without these cares.

Thanks to your support we can provide children with emergency food kits, but the number of families in need is growing and we want to do more for them.

With your help it is possible!

A heartfelt thanks,

Francesca