A Warm and Fuzzy Story

It's almost like a fairy tale story. Pretty little girls. Brand new dresses. Women all over America who care, and work to bring hope to girls who never have a new dress, and never, never have anyone who brings them a present from America. See the story. It appeared on the NBC Nightly News on December 21.

http://dailynightly.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/20/9584376-little-dresses-bring-hope-and-friendship-to-malawi?chromedomain=usnews

NBC News Tells About Little Dresses

Girls in new Dresses

After meetings, early in 2011, near Detroit with the founder of Little Dresses for Africa, Scott Gordon and Dick Stephens carried 75 of the dresses to Malawi in July for little girls. The dresses were actually made from pillow cases. The little girls seldom receive any gifts, and a new dress is something many of them never get in their entire lives.  NBC Nightly News carried a story about Little Dresses early in 2011, and on December 20th the Nightly Network News (NBC) will report a follow up story. Part of the content for the story was filmed in Malawi a few weeks ago.                                                                               

Bell Looks at Closed Doors

"When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one that has opened for us." 

- Alexander Graham Bell

Ground Breaking for Hospital

Ground breaking for a new hospital near Mkutu Village, in central Malawi, has taken place, and a number of pictures have been posted on the web.

The hospital is a co-operative effort of the Dzidalire Development Agency, and the Malawi Project.

  
Pictures at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/malawiproject

Mama Kadzamira prepares her talk

Evidence of the Little People

          We had heard about them for years. Once they were called the pigmy tribes, others called them the little people. The famous writer of African stories, Wilbur Smith, called them the sand people. The stories said you could find drawings on the cave ceilings in the Dedza area that would convince you they were real ...if you knew where to look. We made the trip to Dedza, found some school boys and their teacher in a remote area, and headed up an unmarked path to see if we could locate the drawings. Our seach and the result can be found on the Malawi Project Travel Blog. See for yourself if they were real. http://malawi-travel.blogspot.com/

Drawings on the Cave Ceiling Made by the Little People

Dirt Under My Fingernails

This is the time of year I can most often be found with dirt under my fingernails. I love spring. Planting flowers, putting in a garden, working along side God to accent some of the beauty that He has placed here for us to enjoy.

Today, instead of working in the garden and coming in with dirt under my fingernails, I decided to put on a pair of rubber gloves from a box high on the shelf in the back of the garage. They were still good and this would insure I could shower at the end of the day without having to spend 30 minutes digging and digging under my nails to be presentable.

Rubber Gloves for Garden

As I finished with the work I stripped off the gloves and hung them on the wooden fence I had built around the flower garden. For a moment I stared at them. Such a simple thing, at least in my part of the world, we can have a box of 50 pair for $9.79, and we can buy them at every drug store in town. That means the days work cost me around 20 cents for the gloves to keep my hands clean.

The reason I stared at them is because I spend time in a part of the world where even the doctors and nurses do not have these 20-cent pairs of gloves. That’s right, caring for sick (often HIV positive), and doing it without a pair of protective 20-cent gloves. Doing surgery on a critically ill patient (often HIV positive), and the surgeon not having any protection for their hands. Caring for serious hurt patients at an auto accident and not having the gloves to protect the first responders.

And it was so easy. I just walked over to my shelf and pulled down a pair of gloves to use in the garden. There is something wrong with this picture. If you’ll pick up a box of rubber gloves and send them to me I’m make sure they get to a doctor, nurse, or first responder in Malawi.

Gloves for Malawi

c/o Malawi Project

3314 Van Tassel Drive

Indianapolis, Indiana 46240-3555

How Many Dresses on a Trailer?

  Her excitement is contagious and when her and Suzi met for the first time the passion of each of them, for the children of Malawi, was a beautiful event and very contagious. Rachel O’Neal has formed Little Dresses for Little Girls, and has been sending dresses in small numbers to Malawi in the luggage of others who were traveling there. Then, her story hit the NBC nightly news with Brain Williams, and the number of dresses reaching her in Michigan has exploded.

Upon learning what Rachel is doing we made a trip to Michigan to discuss ways the Malawi Project and Little Dresses for Africa could work together. The meeting came at the perfect moment.

Rachel excitedly told us that dresses are coming into her Michigan home at a breathtaking rate. We saw a great opportunity to work together. Plans are now underway to work out details, and put together the plan for a first shipment of dresses to Malawi. It is estimated this shipment can hold as many as 45,000 dresses. You can view Rachel’s blog site at: http://www.littledressesforafrica.org/blog/

People Wait for a Wheelchair

Have you ever had to tell a handicapped person you cannot help him get around? I have.

Have you ever had to watch as a person who cannot walk drags himself away from your door after you have told him there is no help available? Wilson has.

Have you ever seen the hopelessness on a person’s face as they turn away after learning that you, their last hope for mobility, have no resources available for them? George is.

Wheelchairs last October

Yes, I have, Wilson has, and George, Wilson and I are at this very moment unable to fill the requests coming in for wheelchairs. It comes because of the downturn in the market, the recession, the lack of funds, the conservation of resources.

Why do the poor suffer first and the longest? Why do I have a car, and they don’t even have a pair of crutches, or a wheelchair, or a helping hand?

Warehouse today

Wilson’s hands say it all. Last October there were a large number of wheelchairs in the warehouse. Today there are none. The manufacturer has them available. Free Wheelchair Mission is ready to send them to the African coast. We just need the funds to get them on up to Malawi and distributed. $5,000.00 will do the trick. That is all we need, and 550 more people will be able to get around.

Classes on the Floor

Central Region, Malawi ... The buildings are among the best we have seen in most rural areas of the country. But when it comes to resources for the classes and children there is almost nothing. The students actually sit on the concrete floor the entire day, the library has only about 2 dozen books, and few students have even a single pencil and paper on which to make notes.

Students sit on the floor at school

In spite of this lack of supplies the students are eager to learn, and they excitedly put forth an unimaginable effort. They see education as the only way they will be able to advance out of the poverty of village life.

The Life of a Little Girl Near Thondwe

Wilson Tembo has sent us a great story about Doricca Somanje, a little girl from the Nyanja tribe. We have posted his story on the Malawi – Travel site. Also, if you missed the story about the overnight at the Cool Runnings resort on Lake Malawi, it is right below the story Wilson sent in.

You can read both stories at: http://malawi-travel.blogspot.com/

Some Days It Doesn't Pay

When you live in Africa there are days you may not want to get out of bed. This appeared to be true when we came across this hippo standing on the shore line of the Shire River all alone. From the looks of the 'battle scars' that covered his body it appeared he was not have a very good day. Our guide indicated this ol guy had gotten into a pretty big battle with another hippo. The other hippo won the battle and this guy was banned from the pod. He had spent several days up on the bank all alone nursing his wounds.

Imagine Walking Miles

Imagine needing to go to the hospital and having to walk 20 miles, ride the back of a bicycle, or if you can do neither of these how would you feel about laying in the back on an ox cart? This is what the people southeast of the Lintipi Trading Center have to do. They have no health-care facility around their villages, and the nearest district hospital is 20 miles south of them. To be sick, even with a minor illness, can be life threatening.

This is why the Malawi Project has set out to help the Dzidalire Community Development Agency, one of the non-profit groups in Malawi, to build a hospital near this poor area of the nation.

In the past couple of weeks the first $2,000.00 has been donated to this project. The village people in the area have already carved a road over the mountain so those on the other side can reach it. They should not have to wait too long. It's a long trip by ox-cart to the nearest hospital.

Three Things to Keep in Mind

When you set out to be of assistance to the people of Africa there are three things you might want to keep in mind if you do not want to create a welfare dependency.

1.    “It is not about the plan, the program, or the project. It is about the people.”   This principle helps keep you focused on what is important. It is the people.

2.    “Do not give a man a fish, but teach him to fish so he will survive when you are gone.” This principle keeps you focused on creating incentive programs, not developing programs that make you feel good, but will only lead to a dependency.

3.    “Do not do for us what we can do for ourselves.” This principle keeps you focused on having Malawians as equal partners, and doing equal work.

These have been foundation principles of the Malawi Project since its inception in 1999. In each case where these principles have been applied one can see great success taking place in the local programs.

First Funds for Hospital

We have now received the first $2,000.00 of the needed funds to build a new hospital in a very remote area about 35 miles south of the capital city of Lilongwe, and north-west of the Dedza Trading Center. Its the beginning.

Plans for a New Hospital

Can you imagine trying to obtain the funding to build a new hospital, even a small one, in an African nation during such a downturn in the markets in the U.S.? Well, that is what we are trying to do and its like pushing a chain uphill. BUT, by the Grace of God we will succeed. By faith we have posted the begin date as this year before the rains of the sub-Sahara start we will have the foundation poured for the hospital north of Dedza.

Keep watching and see it come true.