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Pope Francis in a video message for Holy Week said that what is needed today is some ‘Creative Love’, without elaborating he states: “Even if we are isolated, thought and spirit can go far with the creativity of love. This is what we need today: the creativity of love. This is what is needed today: the creativity of love”. At a time like this when we ourselves are so vulnerable it is difficult to comprehend how our friends in Zomba, Malawi, whose lives are full of vulnerability at all times may be coping.

We hope and pray that their normal resilience prevails. Communication is difficult and we await an update from them since the announcements of their first 3 cases.

We continue to fund all their education and nutritional needs and maintain the Campus as a place of creativity for our 70 students. (Gatherings of up to 100 are still allowed there). These Easter weeks will, we hope see the Craft workshops for tailoring and carpentry continue, the library will be open and IT and other creative activities will happen.

Our big challenge is that as with most other outreach groups much of our fund raising events are cancelled and we will be stretched. Any contribution through this web or directly will be greatly appreciated.

However, not much can be done in the short term as we accept the challenges before us. What we must reflect on and be open to, is how each of us cancreatively support the project as we recover from this Virus here, and ensure that our project to educate the poorest of the poor to achieve their full potential continues.

May we say a special thank you to the many of you who have expressed your good wishes and offers of support into the future. Also, you who contribute regularly to the support of all.

Happy Easter

We express our sincere thanks to GeoScan Subsurface Surveys Inc. & Xradar BC Inc. The Vancouver based companies have come together and approximately 14 members of staff will be taking part in the BMO Vancouver Marathon on the 3rd of May to raise funds for Chifundo.

The team are well into preparations for the marathon with each participant taking a distance to challenge themselves. Distances vary from the full-marathon, to half, to team relays where 4 members contribute to the full-marathon distance together.

Fundraising is also going well for the group with some fundraisers planned in the near future. If you would like to contrubute to their efforts you can do so here; https://www.idonate.ie/fundraiser/11383866_geoscan-xradar-s-page.html

All funds raised will contribute to the educational costs of the foundation.

Every little helps in Malawi!

Friend of Chifundo Aoife Cryan has come up with a unique opportunity for the Charity at Oxford University where she is studying for her Doctorate. As well as her academic prowess Aoife is also captain of the University Gaelic Football Team.

In preparation for their annual match with Cambridge Aoife persuaded her Dad, Paul to sponsor the jerseys for the ladies team. Paul and Niamh who have a long association with Chifundo decided that rather than using a Company’s Logo they would offer this valuable opportunity to Chifundo to use our Charities Logo on the University Jerseys for all their games. (See Oxford University new strip)

Unfortunately the Inter Varsity game planned for the 23^rd Feb had to be postponed and now Aoife and her team are awaiting their next fixture. They will inform us of the planned date and hopefully some Chifundo friends will be present in Oxford as will Paul, Niamh and other family members. This is a wonderful opportunity for the Charity, particularly at a time when our first students are entering University in Malawi.

Many of you will remember Paul and Niamh who have both served as Directors of the Chifundo Foundation. Any of you who followed our Annual Golf Classic through the photo gallery may be surprised to know that Aoife and her sisters were the photographers for all the early years.

Thanks Aoife and good luck to Oxford.

Below are some words from Eric a member of the Chifundo Foundation. This year Eric will become our 2nd studet to advance to Third Level Education. We hope to have an update on that shortly. In the meantime, please take a look below at what life with Chifundo has meant to Eric.

Located in Zomba, Malawi is a foundation that has raised a smart platform to my education. It further touches many souls every year. My school life has been so amazing since I joined Chifundo Foundation in 2008.

My name is Eric Phiri and I am 16 years old. I would really love to express my total feelings of gratitude Chifundo Foundation has positively impacted to my education. To begin with “It’s heaven to me”.

A flicker of hope began when I started my nursery school at Chirunga private school, located behind the Great Hall of University of Malawi. The foundation did all the best it could to make me excel. I was given a pair of black shoes, 2 pairs of school uniform, writing materials, school bag and plenty of food, and drinks to eat whilst at school during break times. A bright future was indeed cooked for me because hunger wouldn’t be a barrier to my education. If my memory serves me correctly I was on position 5 in the last of nursery.

In class 1, I was performing extremely nice until teachers decided to move to the next class 2 I still remained humbled because the foundation kept on with its Godly support. I maintained position 1 in all the three solid terms in class 2.class 3, 4 and 5 was so lit and marvellous because I still maintained position 1 and 2 only. Besides that the foundation kept on showering me.

In 2013 I was moved to Chesa private school to pursue class 6 and 7. I became so worried when I came on position 17 in a social studies test whilst in class 6. I urged myself to work hard until I attained position 3 in the first term. Bearing that worry in mind I worked hard all the time until I would be on position 1 and 2 only. Hard work really pays.

In the last term of class 7, I sat for the Malawi National Examination Board Exams. I was successfully selected to Loyola Jesuit Secondary School. Mathematics was downfall whilst at secondary school, but I still remained good in science subjects.

I learnt at Loyola Jesuit form 2015 to 2019. I also sat for the Malawi National Examination Board Exams from 18^th June 2019 to 2^nd July 2019. I have a distinction score of 11 points. The foundation was providing for my bus fare too for me to travel to Kasungu district because it’s far away from Zomba.

Well that’s my primary and secondary school life I now look forward to more greater love as I move to University. However I also hold a good vision and plan for the future Chifundo Foundation.

My vision after I have successfully finished my university with a master’s degree is to run any form of entrepreneurship activity besides working so that I direct 70 % of the gains to the foundation. Secondly, I would be happy to help teachers from Ireland by teaching my fellow friends while they are away in Ireland so that learning is done throughout the year and seasonally.

My plan is to visit Ireland at the age of 27 to represent the perfect team of Mr and Mrs Chilewani.

Lastly, thumbs up to John Cogavin and his massive tireless and hardworking team in Ireland, you really deserve Gods award and blessings. Thanks again to all those in Ireland who greatly support us but have never seen them before. To Mr and Mrs Chilewani team right here in Zomba God will never let you down.

The Farm showed some great signs of progress this year. Not only had there been renewed efforts in terms of planning but also more and new produce had been grown and successfully sold at local markets.

As always, some of the nutritional farm produce is given to the children as part of their food packs & some of the produce is sold. This all the while helps foster a growing entreprenurial spirit, while also ensuring the nutritional well-being of the children.

One of the initiatives introduced this year was to involve parents more in the campus. An outcome of this saw some land set aside for the parents to grow some maize. Parents came to the centre to help grow & harvest the maize. They decided that these crops will be given out to families most in need should there be a poor harvest.

It is a long-term goal of the foundation to have the campus and its running costs on the ground in Malawi become a self-sustaining exercise. Renewed efforts like this will continue to help us reach that goal, while also providing for the children and their families in times of need.

Join us on Friday the 6th of September for the 10th Annual Chifundo Golf Classic.

Once again the wonderful Greystones Golf Club will play host to our biggest fundraiser of the year. This year the event has kindly been sponsored by Gerry McNamara.

We want to express our thanks to Gerry for this incredible gesture. This means that all entry fees & donations on the night will go directly to Malawi to help those most in need. The funds from this event will help pay for school fees, food packs, school clothes and many more things in between.

On Sunday 30th June, first time Chifundo volunteers, Laura and Josie, set up a stall at their school’s annual ‘Family Funday’ in Regent’s Park, London.

Having already received incredible support for this year’s trip from the pupils, staff and parents of their school, Ecole Jeannine Manuel, the event was a chance to continue to raise awareness about Chifundo as well as get a bit silly for a great cause!

Teachers from both the primary and secondary school gave up some of their Sunday to be at the mercy of the ‘Wheel of Fortune’ where kids could spin the wheel for a chance to sing karaoke with their teacher, challenge them to a hula-hoop competition or dress them up for a ridiculous selfie.

Congrats to Laura, Josie and all the staff for a fantastic day of family fun for the whole family!

In an effort to provide the children with valuable life skills, the Trust (the team of locals who run the day to day activities of the Foundation) recently held some workshops for the children to develop skills in two key areas; Tailoring & Carpentry. These are two important life skills to learn and the value in these week long workshops cannot be understated.

The Trust sought the involvement of a local tailor & carpenter as well as some parents proficient in both areas to impart their skills, knowledge and expeirence to the next generation. As always, the children were eager to learn and the outputs they created are amazing!

The campus has been lacking desks and the carpentry workshop set out to fix this! Over the course of the workshop the children learned some valuable skills in this area, learning to use a saw, hammer & nails and other tools.

Initiatives like these are incredibly encouraging to see. It is vital that the children learn these valuable life skills. Similar to Ireland, not all children will be suited to, or chose to pursue higher education so the chance to gain experience and pick up some basic skills could help them get a job in these areas and ultimately allow them to provide for their families.

Perhaps the most encouraging thing is seeing the ideas for workshops being developed by the Trust and carried out with the larger Chifundo Community in Zomba. It is this sense of ownership and committment within the Chifundo Community on the ground in Zomba that will ensure the programmes untimate success – Make sure each child reaches their potential, whether that be in academia or learning a skill and advancing to the workplace.

We got some recent additions to the Chifundo Farm! And it looks like the new chicks are growing fast!!

In Malawi, a lot of care is required to successfully raise chicken as they can be quite susceptible to illness.

Most of these will go on to lay eggs, some of which will be set-aside to be included in the childrens food packs and the rest will be sold at the local market.

The revenue generated from the sale of all our farming outputs go right back into funding the running of the campus on the ground in Zomba