Changing Lives Malawi

CLM website

Malawi is the 9th poorest country in the world; – it is a stable, peaceful, and gentle place where people want a quiet and simple life.   The charity Changing Lives Malawi was created on 29th May 2019 to formalise support already being given to a small rural community in Ibuluma, Northern Malawi.
The entire community has a tough life  because of their remote location and the fact that they are “forgotten” or irrelevant to the administrators.  Ultimately they want to be self-sufficient but without regular food and education it is a very difficult challenge. 
Changing Lives Malawi is working with the community to improve opportunities for the children for which the benefit will extend to the wider local community
The Foundation began life in 2018 by feeding 400 children, approximately 50% of which were orphans,  each weekend

In 2019 the Foundation built its first new building, “Sophie’s Skill Shed”
In 2020 the shed was extended to have a verandah and the “Emma Buchanan Rainbow Library”

Also in 2020 the child sponsorship programme started.  The aim of this was to ensure that the most vulnerable children have access to a monthly food parcel, to boost the supplies coming into their home and hopefully meaning that the child could attend school.  Common these children have to take time out of school to work to earn a tiny amount of money, or scavenge for berries to get a meal.  Over the years this has risen to over 80 children being sponsored; this has brought an enormous local benefit.
Facilities for running water/clean drinking water were developed at the Foundation in November 2020.
In 2021 a shower block was built, to give the children the dignity of being able to wash safely and privately. It is very well used.

Next at the end of 2021 came the chicken shed and an incubator, giving the community an opportunity to rear chickens for food or as income generation the selling eggs and chickens.

Throughout this time and right up to the present date there have been many boxes of pre-loved clothes, basic supplies, sewing machines and fabric to help to make period pads for the students amongst other items, books sent out to The Foundation via The Bananabox Trust, funds to plan fruit saplings to provide food for the community, assisting the setting up of a nursery in the Skills Shed.

However, in 2022 Changing Lives Malawi had to make a big decision.  By this time 16 of the sponsored children were attending Secondary School in Chisenga, 20km away.  Secondary School in Malawi is fee-paying  and is out of reach for a huge proportion of the community but as a result of the sponsorships, their school and boarding fees were  largely covered.  There is unfortunately a shortage of places at Chisenga and in August 2022 when the Primary School Leavers exam results were issued, we discovered that we had 11 sponsored children who had achieved entry requirements but for whom no places were available at Chisenga Secondary School.
We had the choice of suggesting that the children repeated their final primary school year to maybe get a better grade in their ‘Leaver exam’ or we could make the huge leap to build a secondary school at The Foundation.
After a massive fundraising campaign, The Bright Futures Secondary School opened its doors to 29 pupils on 7th November 2022; Four teachers were recruited for Form 1 and Form 2, in the two classroom block that we had built.  At the end of the academic year all of the Form 2 class passed their JC (Junior Certificate of Education) with excellent marks, a huge achievement for such a new school.  We believe that part of their success is down to the fact that they are fed lunch at school every day; previously they might not eat daily.

There was no resting on our laurels as two more classrooms were needed by September 2023, ready for the expansion to  Form 3Classes. The second block with Classroom 3 and 4 was finalised just before term started in September 2023. In the 23/24 academic year the school grew to having 45 pupils over the three Forms with 7 teachers.  The fourth classroom was used as their staffroom initially
Due to the rural location, accommodation is a huge and limiting  issue.  Thanks to further fundraising and some fantastic grants, a four room motel style accommodation block was built in early 2024.

For the 2024/25 academic year, we knew that we would be expanding to the full 4 Forms that a Secondary School could have and that there would be the requirement to have a 12 teachers.  With that focus and with the great support from a number of sources, including Vets With Horsepower, we embarked on a further six-room motel-style accommodation block.  It is under construction and will be ready for September 2024 and the arrival of the new teachers.  We are eagerly awaiting the exam results for the Primary School Leavers exams and the Form 2 Junior Certificate of Education exams. We hope that Bright Futures Secondary School will have approximately 60 pupils spread over its four years. 
We can’t believe how far the community has progressed in the last few years but we want to help them grow their opportunities further.
As part of the building construction, we have sent out solar panel units to help provide a steady supply of electricity, to allow education to continue into the evening, and to provide reliability to the incubator for the hatching of eggs.
As the campus grows, we need more panels to fulfill our aim to have solar panels on all buildings,


So what is needed now? 
Dedicated classrooms are needed to give the students/teachers the best environment/opportunities for learning.  At a minimum, these include a Science Room, a Computer Room, and a Skills Room(s) (as the original one is used by the nursery) to allow for the development of wood and metal work skills and sewing and home economics skills.  Not only do we need the buildings to provide spaces to allow these activities to happen, but we will also need to provide the necessary equipment and consumables for the students to learn.
With an expanding number of teachers, the school needs a dedicated staff room, with areas for the senior teachers to be able to have assigned areas for small meetings, etc.
Also, with the number of teachers, currently, the accommodation available is really not really suitable for teachers with families.  So to be able to attract a diverse range of teachers, we plan to build two two-bedroom semi-detached homes.
With extra teachers and pupils, basic facilities such as a kitchen, latrines, and additional wash areas are needed.  We have been lucky with funding for this, and once the latest accommodation block has been completed, the new latrines/wash areas will start being built.
Once we have achieved these minimums, then we can move on to the long-term goal, which is to provide dedicated dormitory accommodation for girls and boys, plus accommodation for a matron.
Pupils in Malawi value the opportunity for education and will walk up to 20km to reach school every day.  In this rural part of Malawi, the transport infrastructure is fundamental, with dirt roads and river fords instead of bridges.  During the rainy season, which runs from approximately November to April each year, the rain can swell the rivers so they cannot cross.  This can mean that the pupils cannot reach the school, or if it looks like rain is due, they need to be sent home early before the rivers flood.  Clearly, it is not good for their education to be interrupted, and being able to provide a safe environment for them to stay overnight during the week will improve their opportunities to learn.
This next step cannot be taken lightly because it is not just about building the accommodation for the pupils and a matron to look after them; it is about increasing the number of children that are sponsored and other income sources both through Changing Lives Malawi and by the local community in Malawi to be able to fund the wages of a matron and the meals for the children.
Looking beyond The Bright Futures Secondary School, we would really like to assist Chambo Primary School which is its nearest school and its feeder school.  In January 2024, we were able to help Chambo Primary School get drinkable running water, a girls’ washroom, plus funds for local carpenters to build desks and benches for a classroom.  Helping the pupils at this primary school (and the others in the cluster) will help educate more pupils.


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