Thursday, May 8, 2008

Countdown to Malawi!

Hello! We wanted to take a quick minute to tell you about an exciting new trip on which we are about to embark! Before we were married, we decided that we wanted our life together to be full of adventures. This July, we get to build on that decision, with an adventure partnering with humanity on the other side of the world. We're heading to Malawi, a small-ish country in the south eastern part of Africa. Our team will be collaborating with the organization Y-Malawi to help out people in the areas surrounding Nkhoma Mountain. Y-Malawi is an overarching organization focusing on filling community needs identified by the Nkhoma tribes while working together with Malawian leaders. For more information, please see: http://www.y-malawi.com.

Our trip will give us exposure to how one can come alongside and give to the people and the villages. How incredible is that?! Y-Malawi’s contributing humanitarian agencies work on different levels to inspire community transformation as well as advocate for the Malawian people. We are excited that we get this opportunity to both serve the community and be educated on the Nkhoma Valley.

We will be able to work with five of Y-Malawi contributors: World Vision, FTS, and Opportunity International, Nkhoma Youth Development, and Chief’s Ministry. Between these five organizations, we will be able to meet the people of Malawi holistically. World Vision works in Malawi in the areas of child sponsorship, performing community needs assessments as well as filling the identified needs. Our first day in Malawi, we will be able to experience first hand how child sponsorship effects the community. We will get the privilege to visit the families and see their lives. For 5 nights during our trip, we will be camping in one of the Nkhoma villages. There we will be helping to further plans around Nkhoma Mountain by building a pre-school and then visiting the children who have benefited from pre-schools in other parts of the community. The Malawian tribal chiefs in Nkhoma have put a big emphasis on education, and as a result all of the schools that have been built in the area are very well attended. This pre-school will be an attempt to start that education process earlier in Malawian children's lives. We will then partner with FTS to put on a community event, and then visit the families in their homes to assess the needs of the families. On our last few days in country, we will be joining Opportunity International in learning more about microloans, and how just a few dollars can jump start a local economy. We will also learn about the Youth Development projects, Chief’s Ministry and how leadership education, HIV/AIDS education, as well as drug/alcohol abuse prevention programs are bringing knowledge and power to the community. Does this sound like an incredible opportunity? We think so!

1 comment:

Sunny said...

WOW! Heather, that is awesome. What a great opportunity to make a real difference. I hope you post pictures from your trip.