When Mayankho returned home his father thanked Open Arms and commented with tears in his eyes that “he couldn’t believe that Mayankho was not only alive but big and strong too.”
After a short stay at our infant home, he moved back to his village once he was well enough, right in between Chikwawa and Nsanje, to live with his aunt. She was also caring for his older sister while his father lived in the same village supporting the family with his vegetable sales.
Sadly, when cyclone Idai hit Malawi in March this year, Mayankho’s home was very badly damaged and his family could no longer live there. Their maize garden was also swept away by the rains, leaving them with no harvest for the coming months and nowhere to live.
Mayankho is on our outreach programme and so he gets visited by a matron each month. Following the floods, the team began to work with his family straight away, providing food, advice, basic medication, and ongoing support during an incredibly difficult time.
Under the watchful eye of Kondwani, a project to rebuild Mayankho’s house started on 12th July. Bricks and river sand were purchased as well as other materials needed. Kondwani reported that ‘it takes me about 2 ½ hours to drive to the house after buying materials so the job took some days’. He visited the project twice a week during the build to check on progress and make sure the family were kept up to date.
Mayankho’s family have thanked Open Arms and Kondwani told us ‘I personally thank those who took part for donating their money towards these projects as it was not easy for us to do it without those who donated their money to us.’
Thanks to your help we have rebuilt a much stronger house for Mayankho that will withstand the strong rains and floods that can occur. It is more than a house though as we have been able to give security to the family and enable them to focus their attention on providing support for Mayankho and their other children.
Last week, we were delighted to receive a shared commendation alongside 13 other charities for our response to the Cyclone Idai disaster.
The event, hosted by the Scotland Malawi Partnership, was presided over by HRH The Princess Royal who took a great interest in all the work happening in Malawi and was very generous with her time, stopping to find out more about each charity.
‘It was an absolute pleasure to receive this recognition and we would like to send out a huge thank you to everyone that supported this work. Our team in Malawi have been able to go beyond their day job and offer additional help to the children that we support in the areas impacted by the cyclone. Most of these families are living in the most remote communities and caring for many children, the disaster completely destroyed houses and harvests so we are extremely grateful for all the support we received.’ Claire Collins
You can donate by visiting https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/cyclone-Idai-campaign or find further details of our response to the floods at www.openarmsmalawi.org/floods.
Your donation will help children in Malawi grow up healthy with the love of a family
Donate