Mbewe House Appeal!
I promise you that this is not your typical fundraising plea for the most unfortunate, downtrodden, suffering, Malawian family. Rather, it is a request for help for one of the most positive, spirited, hardworking and hopeful Malawian families that we have met.
The Mbewe family, is a family of 8 children. The father had passed away in a motor vehicle accident, and the mother is working hard doing odd jobs to keep her 8 children in school. When the father passed away, they became victims of "typical Malawian culture" where the father's family took all the possessions from the family, including their house, leaving them with nothing. Forced by circumstance, the Mbewe family moved into a relatives house, where all of them are currently sharing one mud walled room with no electricity or running water, and living on borrowed time as they have been asked to leave already. The oldest son, Ligton, has left highschool to also find piecemeal work to support the family, while Maureen, the oldest daughter has overcome all odds to enroll herself into secretary college where she hopes to one day get a proper job to support her siblings.
Members of the Mbewe family, outside their relatives house
The Mbewe family inside their mud walled one room place
It was through the generous and thoughtful efforts of our friends Mark and Maggie ( from Toronto) that led us to meeting the Mbewe's. After their visit to Malawi, Mark went back to his company and raised $1200 dollars for a Malawian family through a Christmas toonie drive, and asked us to identify a needy family to whom it could be donated to. As 90% of Malawians could qualify as "needy", we approached our Pastor, Fr. Sax at Church to help us find a family to give the money too, and he immediately identified the Mbewe family, and their wishes for support for a house.
So with Mark's $1200 donation, and some personal donations from Fr. Sax himself, the Mbewe family and Fr. Sax started planning for constructing a new house. In Malawi, a house can range from a cardboard box, to a government state mansion with the average rural house constructed from mud bricks and a thatched roof. However, in the city, the average house is made from bricks, with a tin roof. With the small amount of resources we had, it was difficult to plan for a big enough house to fit the whole family, and we struggled with our decision on whether to build a small 2 room house with no electricty and plumbing, or to think big, and build them a proper, and adequate house, where the family could start a new life, and hopefully lift themselves out of poverty.
So armed with the Mark's inital $1200 donation, house plans were drawn up, and a local contractor was hired. After two months, many many hours of hard labourious work by all members of the family (including carrying bags of cement on their bicycles, fetching water and sand, etc) and some financial support from other parishoner's (totalling over $6,000), the structure of the house has been completed.
House as it currently stands
It has truly been an inspiring two months to see how much support from the community there has been to contribute to this project, the time and dedication that Fr. Sax has put into this project, and the efforts of the family themselves. Since all of the money has been finished (and carefully accounted for) it will require at least another $5000 to fully complete the inside of the house (including windows, doors, plumbing, electricity, ceilings, floors, and walls), the project has come to a standstill. While we have been discussing with Fr. Sax on other ways to find money to finish the house, news came in that he was to be tranferred to Zambia, where he was given the post of Chaplain for one of the universities.
Inside of the house - future living room
Inside of the house - future hallway
Since Fr. Sax is now gone, and our financial resources used up, we are really trying to find enough money to complete two rooms of the house, and basic electricity before we return to Canada. Our goal is to assist the Mbewe's move into part of the house, with the hopes that over time, they will be able to finish off the rest of the house themselves, room by room.
One of the rooms we are trying to complete so the family can move in
Our hope is that some of you would be able to assist us assist them to finish off two rooms of this house so they can move in before we return to Canada. This will cost around $1500. Any amount of money ($20, $50, $100, etc) will go directly to the construction and material costs for this project. If you are interested in helping us out, please drop us an email (tess.jim@gmail.com) and we will send you our bank details in Canada where you can transfer your donation. This money will then be collectively wired to Malawi.
If you have gotten this far through the blog, thanks for reading, and thanks for your consideration.
Jim, Fr. Sax, and some members of the Mbewe family
posted by Tess and Jim O @ 7:53 PM
2 Comments:
Thanks for sharing this story. I will definitely help.
What an inspiration. We would also like to donate.
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