* To also cater for the community’s members such as a Masjid; a learning block nursery and as a women skills development centre
* Without donors, we would never be able to carry out the important work
* Which has eased the pain and made a difference to so many lives in Malawi
* As a charity, we continue to strategize to maintain our 100% donation policy—chairman, Faruk Bharucha
By Duncan Mlanjira
Malawi Relief Fund (MRF)-UK, a charity with a huge footprint through projects across the country aimed at alleviating poverty, will in July commission Shukran Jali Orphanage at Jali in Zomba District that is set to provide quality living standards and educational facilities for 100 children.
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In its 2023 audit report, MRF-UK chairman, Faruk Bharucha said the centre will also cater for the community’s members such as a Masjid; a learning block (for both secular and Islamic education); a nursery and as a women skills development centre.
He kindly acknowledged the support they receive fro various donors, saying without them they “would never be able to carry out the important work, which has eased the pain and made a difference to so many lives in Malawi.
“As a charity, we continue to strategize to maintain our 100% donation policy,” Bharucha said in the activity report’s foreword. “We take the trust of people very seriously and guarantee that every penny we receive from donors is spent supporting the causes and projects you have donated for in Malawi.”
He stressed that their focus is to improve access to education, health, provide clean water & sanitation and to relieve poverty by building capacity through empowering programmes aimed at improving livelihood opportunities — thus improving their living conditions.
“This year has been extremely challenging with difficult economic conditions in the country.The cost increases and there are cost uncertainties.
“The shortage of foreign exchange and the lack of supply of materials have all had an impact in project delivery. The increase of cost of living has also had a significant impact on food security with millions predicted to be facing food shortage this year.
“With that in mind, it has been a huge year for MRF-UK where we built over 600 houses; 10 new community complexes; built new vocational centres in rural areas; one early childhood development (ECD) centre; completed works on our first health clinic and further developed our vocational training centre by introducing electrical programme.”
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In times of disasters, MRF-UK swiftly responds to by providing food handouts, which they also give out once they handover new houses — which to date it has constructed over 3,000 homes with 681 just in 2022.
For the communities it provides the houses, MRF also drills boreholes as part of its objective of providing access to clean water and to date, 1,685 water points have been created to cater for over 220,000 people as well as 50 hand pumps and 80 boreholes.
The charity also offers the Gift of Sight project, which has delivered 5,230 operations in 12 hospitals across all regions; screened over 45,000 of which 43,000 received some form of treatment with 129 referred to a hospital for further treatment.
It has built a health clinic in Nkhotakota to ease distance of over 12km to the nearest health facility and its future rehabilitation plans have been drawn up to develop an Under-5 and maternity units in the future.
MRF-UK has also been involved in access to Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT) services in which they team up with senior and experienced consultants who have been visiting Malawi to assist with complex cases and providing training which they do at their own cost.
For this services, the charity has sourced key accessories which include sterilizing equipment, theatre lights, theatre operating table and a diathermy.
It has also donated over 60 wheelchairs to individuals alongside 40 to hospitals and clinics.
The audit report further highlights sponsorship given out to 100 underprivileged students to study at Maryam Girls Teacher Training College — in line with MRF’s objective of empowering women through access to higher and further education — while its Talha Scholarship Fund provided support to 262 students on a range of degree programmes in various public universities.
Five ECDs were established with a further 4 planned for 2023 to provide porridge at the nursery, parenting services, health awareness, skills development for the mothers and community women.
Its Maone Vocational Training Centre offers students key construction skills, carpentry, joinery, bricklaying & plumbing, electrical/solar development as well as placement opportunities in industry to gain valuable experience.
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Women, especially widows, empowered through tailoring skills as well as basic education in child care and social life skills.
Agriculture is also not left out, as MRF provides smallholder farmers with farm input packs such as fertilizer, encourages winter cropping in line with the objective of Building Resilience — that include providing bicycle taxis for goods and passenger.
For the forestry season, MRF-UK plans to plant half a million trees in line with its objective of investing in environment.
Soon after Cyclone Freddy hit the country, MRF-UK reached out to disaster survivors of the flash floods whose homes were washed away in Zomba, Machinga and Machinjiri in Blantyre.
The charity, whose catchment area includes Zomba and Blantyre, assisted a total of 1,200 families with immediate needs of maize flour and plastic sheeting as temporary shelters.
The areas were in Jali; in Traditional Authorities (T/A) Kapoloma and Chiwalo in Machinga — in the villages of Samute, Mapata and Chikumba and Bande’s Machinjiri area.
