Working for Malawi

Hurst students support the orphans of Malawi by raising funds and undertaking voluntary work within their impoverished communities

Malawi is one of the world’s poorest nations. It is home to some 12 million people, 45% of whom (yes, that’s over 5 million men, women and children) live below the poverty line.

Average life expectancy in Malawi is just 37 years.

The work of the Joshua Orphan Care Trust is focused on nineteen communities in Southern Malawi that suffer the effects of particularly debilitating poverty; early adult deaths as a result of AIDS adds to their plight.

The charity – working through local people and international volunteers – helps the many orphans in these communities through closely directed programmes of education, health, feeding, water and income-generation.

In early July, Hurst’s Mike Lamb and a team of some sixteen Fifth and Lower Sixth pupils will travel to one of the communities to which the Trust is giving this vital support. There they will be set to work on projects (renovating classrooms, building a playground and providing much needed additional support for the community by repairing roofs) made possible by the  money they have raised in the UK. Their target is a not unambitious £10,000. “A significant sum to us” said Mike “but a fortune in a poverty stricken country like Malawi; we can really help to make a difference”

But first the youngsters have to raise the money to pay for their travel to Malawi. This will be achieved through events designed to publicise their cause and encourage the support of friends and family. Their first such venture – dubbed the Malawi Triathlon’  – has left a delighted but slightly tired squad with a very clear idea of how much work they have to do to achieve their targets.

Sponsors supported each one as he or she ran the average distance a rural Malawian child walks to school so that in total the team  covered 100 km. Each cycled (using static machines in the College gym) until between them they had covered 600km (the approximate length of Lake Malawi) and finally they rowed (again using static machines) until their combined total reached 80km (the approximate width of Lake Malawi).

“This event is a first step on a long journey” said Mr Lamb “and the team is already bonding and working well. They are a great bunch of kids, they are very determined and they are all committed to doing what they can to relieve some of the daily distress and hardship experienced by Malawi’s young orphans and their communities. I am sure they will achieve great things.”

 

Some of the team who took part in the 'Malawi Triathlon' (below, left to right)
Back row:  Joseph Mosley; Bertie Nehls; William Old; Jack Phillips; Sam Keating
Front row: Alex Colombo Sansom; Jasmine Upton; Alice Cadwallader; Jack Train