Latest News

Donations, Healthcare, Malawi, Volunteers

Donation of supplies for the Ruarwe Health Centre

Phunzira

The Ruarwe health centre has received a wonderful donation of much needed medical supplies. Volunteers Kartik, Leo and Aurelien have brought with them a box of fifty pregnancy tests and a new battery operated sphygmomanometer (blood pressure meter). These will help with vital diagnostics and blood pressure management for the communities served by the clinic.

The realities of rural healthcare are that often even the most basic supplies are lacking and a government strapped for cash is not able to supply such items to rural health facilities. While it is important that Phunzira does not take over the role of the government in providing supplies for the clinic, it is a delight when one-off donations such as this can make a real difference on the ground in diagnostics and treatment. With such a large part of the population visiting the clinic being women of child-bearing age pregnancy tests are vital in quickly establishing whether a patient is expectant and therefore being able to provide antenatal care. We are also seeing a rapid increase in hypertension within the community, and so the sphygmomanometer will allow for easier management of this condition at hypertension assessments.

Thank you so much for the kind donation!

Medical Supplies Ruarwe

Community, Healthcare, Malawi, Volunteers

Student nurse joins Ruarwe Clinic team

Phunzira

Student nurse Emily has been with the team at Ruarwe Health Centre for 4 weeks undertaking her elective placement. Learning all about healthcare challenges in such rural communities, the different medical conditions encountered in Malawi and treatment with very limited drugs and resources.

Nursing electives are a great opportunity for students to really experience a completely different working environment and health system from the western systems they are training in. The staff at Ruarwe Clinic also absolutely revel in the opportunity to both share their knowledge and learn in return. This exchange of knowledge is absolutely key to any elective placement.

Student nurse Emily

Emily was a wonderful student, who really got stuck into Malawian life. it was a pleasure having you with us Emily, we really look forward to hosting you again soon!

Community, Education, Malawi

The Maize Mill moves into its new home

Phunzira

The maize mill has been moved into its shelter in the heart of Ruarwe village. Once completely up and running this mill will save community members the 20km hike south to the nearest mill in Usisya with their heavy bags of maize to be milled and back with their bags of flour. This walk takes locals approximately 4 hours each way and the vast majority of the time this task falls to women who predominently carry out any household and farming related tasks. Often with a child on their back, they will undertake the journey to the mill and back in one day as the finances are just not there for any kind of overnight stay away from their own home.

The mill will also help to make Nyumba ya Masambiro financially self-sustainable to allow community members continued access to free education projects. This has been an important part of our ethics and aims since the beginning of our projects. Watch this space for updates when the mill starts running!

Maize Mill

Malawi, Nursery, Volunteers, Youth

Nursery and Youth Volunteers Assist at NYM

Phunzira

We were very pleased to have two nursery and youth volunteers joining the Nyumba ya Masambiro team at the end of March. Cara Marsh and Sabina Trojanova cleared out the youth and nursery cupboard to make it easier for staff to make use of the wonderful equipment we have there, worked on teaching the alphabet to the children at nursery, and played musical chairs, hoola hooping, and sang and danced with the kids at the centre. Cara has already expressed a desire to return to NYM and the staff and kids would be absolutely delighted to welcome her back any time!

Volunteers with both qualifications and no qualifications are great additions to the team at Nyumba ya Masambiro, coming with fresh ideas, new motivation and injecting some drive into the staff. We all really value the effort that volunteers put in when they come out to Malawi and the kids, the staff, and the wider community absolutely love having volunteers around.

Donations, Malawi, Sports, Volunteers, Youth

Donation of Footballs and Netballs To NYM Youth Club

Phunzira

We would like to extend a huge thank you to former volunteer Phillip Zheng, who donated three footballs and two netballs to the NYM Youth Club. Having made the long journey from the UK out to Ruarwe, we now very much look forward to setting up some youth sports tournaments using these new balls, and we are sure that the Ruarwe Youth will very much enjoy these generous gifts. Yewo Phillip!

Sport is such an important part of Nyumba ya Masambiro’s activities, giving both younger and older youth members the opportunity to relax, keep fit, play and socialise with friends and for the older youth it helps to prevent the temptation of falling into excessive drinking as well as it keeps them entertained and motivated to keep fit. Football and Netball are hugely popular throughout Malawi and Ruarwe village has 2 teams alone who can regularly be found at the top of the hill either training or playing vibrant matches against surrounding village teams. The atmosphere is fantastic and it is great to be able to support the next generation of players through this fabulous donation!

footballs and netballs

Community, Donations, Healthcare, Malawi

Ambulance boat back on the water

Phunzira

The beautiful Ruarwe ambulance boat is happily living in the village again after its full maintenance and repainting made possible by our wonderful donors. We would like to extend a huge ‘thank you!’ on behalf of the community to Richard Gray for his very generous donation and repeat volunteer Leah Desmond for her very successful fundraising. These funds allowed a complete overhaul maintenance of the Ruarwe Ambulance Boat, completed by the boat builder Zero in Usisya. The maintenance was carried out between September and December 2017, and the repainting completed at the end of February 2018.
Since its maintenance it has carried critically ill patients to Usisya for life-saving treatment and it has been deployed in a large scale public health program to treat an outbreak of scabies in our catchment area lakeshore villages.

A huge thank you to the donors that have made this maintenance possible and kept this life-saving transport afloat.

Community, Malawi

Maize mill income generation scheme underway!

Phunzira

The staff at Nyumba ya Masambiro have begun – in January 2018 they purchased a maize mill and husk remover, as well as constructed a separate kiosk to run the business from. The mill will be up and running by the end of February, and has already become the talk of the whole community.

The aim is to provide a vital service to villagers, who rely heavily on maize as a primary staple and currently have to travel extreme distances to the nearest operational mill. The profits are expected to fully sustain the costs at the centre (project materials, staffing, maintenance of buildings, etc.) and any surplus funds will be re-directed to existing health/education projects in the catchment area.

A big thank you to everyone who has contributed towards this scheme! If you wish to make a donation it is not too late – please go to www.totalgiving.co.uk/appeal/ruarwemaizemill

 

 

Donations, Malawi, Volunteers

Donation towards the expansion of chicken business

Phunzira

Thank you so much to volunteers Emily Morris and Leo Bedford, who came to volunteer at Nyumba ya Masambiro to assist the staff with the micro businesses. During their time they analysed the existing businesses with the staff to look at financial sustainability at the centre, and provided some further training in order to use existing data collections to understand how the businesses may develop in the future.

They also very kindly donated some money to the centre for the expansion of the egg sale business. We look forward to the arrival of the new chickens and community members will have better access to fresh eggs. Thank you so much for your generous donation!

Donations, Malawi, Volunteers

Donation of youth and education equipment

Phunzira

We would like to extend a huge “Thank you!” to repeat volunteer Chris Spring and his friend and colleague Kai Gregus, who undertook some fundraising in Germany to provide equipment to Nyumba ya Masambiro. With the money raised they were able to buy footballs, netballs, ball pumps and pins for the youth club as well as exercise books, notepads, pens, pencils and chalks for the tutorials, nursery and youth club. In addition they brought out some much needed high quality toners for the media room, just in time for printing the school exams.

Thank you Chris and Kai for arranging the fundraising and bringing all the donations out, and to all the well-wishers in Germany who donated money to this wonderful endeavour – Yewo Chomene!

Fundraising, Malawi

Maize mill income generation project

Phunzira

We are raising funds for a maize mill income generation project in Ruarwe, to be run and managed by Nyumba ya Masambiro. The initiative will provide a vital service for villagers, who rely heavily on maize as a primary staple and currently have to walk nearly six hours to the nearest operational mill. The income generating activity will be fully owned and managed by NYM and will be used as a means of ensuring its long-term financial sustainability.

All funds raised will go directly towards funding this initiative. We have zero administration costs. For full details of the project proposal (including budget) click here,  or to make a contribution please click here.