Friends of Orphans target more needy children

Blantyre-based Friends of Orphans-Malawi has set out on a campaign to reach out to most vulnerable children in the country.

At the weekend, some of the organisation’s trustees visited Group Village Head Jameson’s area in Lunzu and Mponda area at Matindi in the district where they met community leaders and orphans to appreciate their challenges and come up with ways of assisting them.

One of the organisation’s founder and trustee, Theresa Hellyer from the United Kingdom (UK), said it is their wish to reach out to “as many needy children as possible”.

“In July last year, I came with a group of 14 students [from the UK] and worked in a village in Lunzu Township to build an elephant well to provide clean water to the village. This was also part of my PhD project looking at ways to purify water.

“While spending time in Malawi, I was touched by the level of poverty and suffering of my brothers and sisters, particularly the children,” said Hellyer

She said, alongside local trustees Theresa and Gift Mkandawire, they decided to take steps to make a difference.

“We are all agents of change and we wanted to make a difference to the most vulnerable, orphaned children through different ways such as providing them with urgent needs.

“When I came again in February this year, and with the assistance of Theresa and Gift as well as Pastor Gerald Kandulu and his wife, we identified a home-based scheme where the most vulnerable such as child-headed and grandmother-headed families could be assisted in their needs within their setting. This requires identifying the most vulnerable families and their needs,” she said.

Hellyer said Theresa and Gift Mkandawire are the directors in Malawi, while a charity has been set up in the UK with four trustees to raise funds to support the project.

Gift said since the organisation was set up last year, it has distributed items in several places.