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December Newsletter
Christmas shows, parties and more!
BAHASI Organisation
January 10, 2025
Table of Contents
BAHASI’s Plan of Action
Currently our main focuses at BAHASI for 2025 are:
Fundraising and buying a bus for BAHASI
In 2025 we are hoping to focus our efforts on making BAHASI a self sustaining charity and an environment that can thrive regardless of Malawi’s economic situation. This means making steps to buying our own bus instead of relying on the hire of local mini busses.
In the long term this will allow BAHASI to save money and use it to improve other projects we are working on. This will also mean that our OVC’s have secure transport each day that is reliable and doesn't compromise their safety. A bus for BAHASI is crucial to ensure our children's protection and schooling. Read more about this in our struggles section.
Completion of the girls hostel
Our girls hostel is so nearly completed and we hope within the next few months we can have a grand opening and get the girls moved in. This project has been a long time in the making and our girls are so excited!
ECD training
At the beginning of the month some of our staff participated in an ECD training week held by Gift of the Givers. In the new year we are holding a course of our own to train the rest of our teachers in the skills learnt.
The educational kits are being provided by Gift of the Givers and with their generosity our hope is to start to improve the quality and structure of our preschools education.
Updates
We are so thankful, here at BAHASI, to have received donations from lots of individuals, schools and organisations over the course of December. Thank you to everyone who made the trip to BAHASI and took the time to visit and support us. We have loved dancing, sharing activities and making speeches with you. We love showing you a slice of what our life looks like at BAHASI and conveying just how much your support means to us.
We are happy to announce that all the children who attend BAHASI’s free pre-school and standard 1&2 have received a brand new school uniform this December!
Great news - The new girls hostel is now very close to completion! We are so thankful to have been gifted wardrobes and bunk beds by DDD & PC Charitable Trust which have now been moved into the rooms and hopefully the girls will be moved in soon too!
At the beginning of the month, three of our staff had the amazing opportunity to participate in a week long ECD (Early Childhood Development) Training held by Gift of the Givers. It was a massive success and, as mentioned in the Plan of Action, in the new year we are starting to put into place everything we have learnt.
Shout-outs!
A big thanks to our Donors and Visitors this month:
DDD & PC Charitable Trust
Fountain of Victory Kids
Soul Sisters
Bible Believers
Alan Joffe
Gift of the Givers
Fiona Rochford
Malawi Travel
Atol Solutions
Tol Family
Mr Kachale
Chisomo Chikunkhuzeni
Amulike Kiamaka Phiri
Mrs & Mr Chaphemsengo
Mai Sumani
St Andrews international School
Mr Dheeray and Mr Rajoo
Hillview International School
This month we have celebrated the Birthday of :
Patuma Kwinda - Patuma turned 12 this December! Visit her profile on BAHASI’s website to learn more.
Activities
Fashion Show
Every month we aim to host a fun activity for the BAHASI children, this month it was a fashion show! Everyone got dressed up and showed off their best outfits, making for smiles all round!
To see some of the awesome outfits check out our Instagram reel
Swimming programme
At BAHASI we take our children swimming every 2 weeks as a great way to learn a new skill, have fun and exercise! All the children love this programme, but sadly due to rising fuel costs and lack of transport not all of the children can come. If you want to help change this, please donate towards a bus for BAHASI by visiting our linktree or donate straight to BAHASI to help us pay for daily transport.
Cooking programme
Our cooking programme is very popular here at BAHASI, the children love to make traditional Malawian foods and learn how to cook foods from other cultures as well. During December we only managed to do our cooking programme once due to all the preparations for BAHASI’s Christmas party, but we still had a great time making samosas from scratch!
Highlights
BAHASI Christmas Party
On the 25th of December we had the pleasure of hosting a huge Christmas party for our OVC’s (orphaned and vulnerable children) and wider community. It was a day filled with music, dancing, good food and lots of presents. Over the past few months BAHASI has been fundraising for gifts to give to our children, pre-school and the elderly in our community. Due to the kindness of donors we were able to give over 250 gift packages, including clothes, soap, sugar, salt, sweets, crisps and biscuits to spread joy to those around us.
We are so thankful to Bible Believers for making this party possible by donating their time, efforts and resources and also to Abraham and Dirk Tol; who funded all of the BAHASI children’s presents and Christmas decorations. We could not have done it without you!
Christmas day started early with lots of Aunties from BAHASI and the community preparing a delicious Christmas lunch, including a goat, cow and 25 chickens. The official party started at 10 O’clock and consisted of lots of activities, including: poems and songs, an excellent preach, Christmas lunch, speeches, gift presentations and a live band! We are so thankful that we could host this event and help those in need this Christmas.
If you would like to hear more about BAHASI’s Christmas party from our staff and guests who were interviewed, please watch the video linked here.
Jacaranda Christmas show
An amazing highlight of December was visiting Jacaranda, the school most of the BAHASI children attend, to watch their Christmas performance! It was truly magical to see all the different clubs our OVC’s are involved in, including percussion, guitar, dance, traditional Malawian music, choir and to see some of them act in the school nativity, which was fantastic. We are so proud of all the children at BAHASI and a special shout out to Doubt Wilson, Morris Gabriel and Mirriam Chinangwa who all got a special prize for their efforts in school.
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.
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.
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.
Within our very own preschool we also have some issues. As mentioned in the Updates section; our ECD teachers have been in the process of widening their knowledge and skills so our preschool can flourish. As our teachers continue to give their all to BAHASI we are failing to pay them fair wages. The 5 teachers, 3 guards, 3 aunties and 3 executive staff at BAHASI are currently sharing wages meant for 4 of them. If we continue to expect our staff to bring their all to BAHASI we must create an appreciative an fair work environment.
How you can support us
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.
To help us pay our staff please contact us or visit our donation page. To pay the monthly wage for one teacher it costs us 98000MKW ($56).
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.