History of the Project so far: In 2001 the then priest-in-charge for the Doddington group of parishes proposed establishing an overseas mission project to provide a focus for the charity of local people from both the Church and the wider community. The objective was to establish a link with a sense of both ownership and continuity; people
could not only contribute but make decisions on how funds are spent, see results and hear feedback. A Project Committee was formed who, after hearing presentations from several organisations, decided to support a Salvation Army project to construct a village community building in Malawi. Since then the link with Malawi has become firmly
established with periodic visits by the Committee to inspect and report back on the schemes which have been funded. To date £30,000 has been raised and transferred directly to the Salvation Army in Malawi which manages the local execution of projects. Many people may not realise that the Salvation Army operates in over 100 countries throughout the world.
By Western standards a little money goes a long way which means that projects bringing significant benefits, such as
the bicycle ambulance scheme, require only modest funding. Past projects include:
· Construction of a brick community/Church building at Kasungu village - March/April 2002, £7,500
· Purchase and delivery of 10 tonnes of maize/meal to 1000 families during the 2003 famine - £3,000
· Sinking of a 45m deep well at Mpando village - August 2003, £2,500
· Construction of new education centre/worship building at Malikopo village – August 2004, £4,000
· Construction of a well at Malikopo - April 2006, £2,700
Putting this in perspective, UK credit card debt currently stands at over £900 for every person in the country.
Easter will be the third time local representatives have visited projects in person. In addition to the fund-raising
climb, the purposes of the trip include:
· Inspection of the education centre and well at Malikopo village
· Presentation of £500 to the Smile Malawi Childrens’ Centre for the purchase of a
freezer (www.smilemalawi.com)
· Visiting a camp providing respite care for orphans responsible for younger siblings
· Assessment of an anti-child trafficking centre on the Zambian border for potential
future funding
Malawi is in the top ten poorest countries in the world, small donations can make remarkable differences in the lives of many people, all who live in simple mud huts in villages in southern Malawi.
Up-Market Shopping arcade. Mango trees, Termite mounds and dry grass, not much for a herd of cattle! 
Village houses, Malikopo, dry and dusty, this is the end of the wet season New Community Hall, Malikopo
Facts and Figures
(World Bank: World Development Indicators 2006)
Malawi Great Britain
Population (millions) 12.9 60.2
Area (sq.km) 118,500 243,200
GNI per capita (US$) 160 37,600
CO2 emissions (annual tonnes per capita) 0.1 9.5
Life expectancy (years) 40 79
We sent a party of four people out to Malawi in April 2005, all members of the party paid their own way. The object of the trip was to see the completed projects and how they had changed the lives of those that had benefited, and to identify new projects for us to support. We went to the village of Malikopo south of Blantyre in the central rift valley to see the new community hall that we had paid for. The hall is now being used as a School, a Church, a Community Centre, a Medical Centre when Doctors or dentists visit and an Adult Education Centre, it serves a village of over 400 inhabitants. Whilst there the group were offered a simple meal of Chambo Fish or Chicken with Nsima, a thick maize porridge fashioned into a thick pancake. Apologies were made for there being no vegetables, but there had been another drought and none had grown. We also noticed that a number of houses were crumbling and needed repairing we were told that as water had to be carried for more than three miles from the nearest well at a sugar cane plantation, a round trip of over six miles, it was only possible to carry enough water for daily cooking and washing needs and impossible to bring enough to grow vegetables or repair houses. We decided that a well was needed urgently, and the Salvation Army was asked to find out if Malikopo was on a well building program, there being no sign of a well planned in the near future we decided that it would be a good investment. We gave instructions to proceed, it took a few months of waiting and $6,000 (US) or about £3,000. In early November 2006 the well was completed.
Our recent success: A new well at Malikopo. this is the second well that the project has financed.
This is the new well at Malikopo. This serves 400 villagers in Malikopo and two further villages. this cost US $6000