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April Newsletter
Clay dolls, MUBAS student visit and much more!
BAHASI Organisation
May 10, 2025
Table of Contents
BAHASI’s Plan of Action
Our main focuses at BAHASI for May are:
Fundraising to buy a bus for BAHASI.
One of our goals BAHASI has is for us to be a self sustaining charity so that we can thrive regardless of Malawi’s economic situation. This means making steps to buying our own bus instead of relying on local mini buses. During May we aim to apply for some grants for the bus.
Having a bus will significantly improve the lives of our children and increase our positive impact on the community, read more about this issue in our struggles section
Female Empowerment Tailoring Programme
We aim to have our tailoring programme up and running in May! We are so excited to be able to share valuable skills that promote self-sustainability and will majorly benefit the lives of women in our community. Read about what we have been doing to prepare for this project and more about what this project is in our updates section.
Youth Development Club
Our Youth Club is officially back up and running! Throughout May, we want to maintain consistency and implement a clear plan and structure to ensure every young person learns, grows, and has fun. We hope that by focussing on this project during May we will be able to contribute to the community's development and create meaningful opportunities for the youth. Read more in our highlights section!
Updates
Classroom Renovation
The classroom renovation is now complete! We are so happy that we can now offer a bright and welcoming environment for our children to learn and grow in. The roof, floors, walls and stairs have been repaired and a fresh coat of paint and amazing illustrations means that the classrooms are looking better than ever! BAHASI would like to thank Dirk and Abraham Tol for funding the majority of this project and also Amit Kakkad for buying paint.
Women’s Empowerment Tailoring Programme
This month we have been working on repairing 3 sewing machines that will be used for the tailoring programme. We are so excited to start this project next month and to be able to teach women in Bangwe skills that will empower them to be self-sufficient. Without your kindness and support those in our community taking part in the training wouldn’t have this amazing opportunity. If you are interested in continuing to empower the vulnerable women in our community check out our how to section.
Jacaranda School Show
We are so happy to inform the BAHASI supporters that The Lion King, a musical performed by Jacaranda school (where many of the BAHASI children attend) has been incredibly successful and has been performed not once, not twice, but three times and will hopefully be going on tour! This is a very exciting prospect for the BAHASI children involved in the Lion King as BAHASI does not have the funding to take our children on many trips. If you would like to find out more about the Jacaranda school musical please read about it in our March Newsletter.
Shout-outs!
A big thanks to our Donors and Visitors this month:
Abraham Tol
Dirk Tol
MUBAS
Mr Rajoo
Danny White
Amit Kakkad
Reena Purshotam
Harriet Woodward
Stuart Presley
Fiona Rochford
Oscar Otero
The Gray Family
Gift of the Givers
Malawi Travel
This month we have celebrated the Birthdays of :
We are incredibly grateful to Mr. Rajoo for his generosity in providing black school shoes for our children! At BAHASI, education is one of our highest priorities, but without proper footwear many of our children have been unable to attend school. This challenge has affected their ability to learn and grow, limiting their opportunities for a brighter future. Thanks to Mr. Rajoo’s kindness this issue has finally been resolved ensuring that our children have access to an education. Mr Rajoo’s donation has sparked joy among the BAHASI children and they are all so pleased with their new shoes!
Visitors
We were privileged to have the Civil Engineering Society from MUBAS (Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences) come to visit BAHASI this month for a day full of activities and fun! They arrived early in the morning and started off the day with welcome speeches and introductions followed by a tour of BAHASI. Then the MUBAS students led inspiring activities including drawing a future self-portrait of ‘who you want to be when you’re older’ which all the kids loved! The BAHASI children then performed some dances, songs and poems followed by the gift presentation. We of course ended the trip with an iconic BAHASI dance party! It was such an amazing day, thank you so much to the MUBAS students for coming to support us! Go follow their Instagram @mubas.ices!
A big thank you to the Gray family for coming to visit BAHASI! We loved showing them around and sharing dances and songs. The children had so much fun making bracelets and eating the sweets you brought! Your support means the world to us and we couldn’t continue without the generosity of people like you helping us.
The BAHASI children and staff had a lovely time meeting Andrea and Beren Aldridge, parents of one of our very own volunteers, Haviva Aldridge. It was so special being able to give them an insight into the work that goes on at BAHASI and show them what BAHASI is all about. The children enjoyed an amazing meal of rice, meat, oranges and a for a very special treat some cake! The afternoon was spent playing games, chatting and lots of dancing!
Highlights
Zomba Music Festival
A few of the BAHASI children had the opportunity to perform at Zomba City Festival with Jacaranda school. Taking part in singing, dancing and playing instruments on stage is such a great opportunity for our children to expand their horizons and improve their confidence. The school put on an amazing show of traditional music and dance and we are beyond proud of our children who performed outstandingly.
Clay Doll Making
In April, some of the girls at BAHASI had a wonderful time crafting their own clay dolls! Since BAHASI doesn’t have the resources to purchase many toys, this project was extremely meaningful and allowed them to have fun and be creative. Everyone had a great time playing with the dolls throughout the month.
Youth Club
We are so happy to announce that our youth club is up and running once again! This is a great time that allows teenagers and young adults in the BAHASI community to have educational discussions on difficult topics such as mental health. This is really important for our kids to break down barriers and destigmatise sensitive topics. A big thank you to ‘I Mind’ for speaking to our youth and making this possible.
Struggles
Our on-going struggle at BAHASI is having a reliable income to keep the charity running smoothly. Because of our lack of funds we struggle to sustain the programmes which are essential to the wellbeing of those in BAHASI’s care and those we support in the community.
Buying a bus - Currently our biggest issue is that we do not have a consistent and safe way for our children to get to school each day. Due to the fuel crisis in Malawi we no longer have sufficient funds to get the children to school. Per day, the hire of a mini bus, to the school, costs us between 40,000MKW-60,000MKW (depending on fuel pricing), which is around 1,000,000MKW ($575) per month. This expenditure is not feasible for BAHASI and we are really struggling to get the kids into school every day, especially with exams approaching as some of the older children need to go to school on Saturdays. Education is so important to us here at BAHASI and our OVC’s not being able to access the very thing we guarantee is heart-breaking.
Feeding Programme - With the rising prices of food in Malawi donors are becoming less able to donate to our feeding programme. This is meaning we are having to provide our kids with less filling and less high quality meals. We have tried reaching out to local stores and businesses but we are receiving very little support. Some of our younger children are even getting sick from lack of nutrition.
Staff Allowances - This devaluation is also impacting our staff incredibly. With most of our staff having families of their own to feed, and an almost 250% raise in prices on some produce, the allowance, that is shared between 13 staff members, is no where enough to even buy a bag of maize. Just this month we have lost two Caregivers for our OVC’s because they can no longer work and feed their family. If you want to help please check out our how to section.
How you can support us
Transport- A long term solution to our transport problem is to buy BAHASI our own bus so that we no longer need to rely on small minibuses to take our kids to and from activities. As mentioned in the BAHASI’s Plan of Action, a big goal of ours in 2025 is to really push fundraising for this bus. So, a great way to support us with this project would be to contact us if you: know of any capital grants that would fund transportation projects; are interested in supporting BAHASI in holding some kind of fundraiser event; are able to help us source a bus; want to donate towards a bus for BAHASI.
However; to ensure that our children continue to get an education we need short term support. If you are able to help please visit our donation page or contact us to set up a donation. Our OVC’s have a bright future so please consider helping us out monthly to get our kids to reach their full potential.
Staff Allowances- To become a regular donor for our staff wages please contact us or visit our donation page. To pay the monthly wage for one teacher it costs us 98000MKW (£45).
Activities- The swimming programme costs around 40,000 MK per month with is around £20, if you would like to fund this programme, please donate here.
Feeding Programme- To support our feeding programme please get in contact with our staff if you’d like to donate produce (rice, beans, vegetables, meat, etc), or if you’d like to sponsor a child’s food for a week you can donate £2 here
Community Empowerment- If you are interested in checking out our other programmes that support the wider community and give our OVC’s new and exciting experiences please visit our linktree.