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January Newsletter
Lake trip, ECD classrooms and more!
BAHASI Organisation
February 10, 2025
Table of Contents
BAHASI’s Plan of Action
Our main focuses at BAHASI for February are:
Fundraising to buy a bus for BAHASI.
One of our goals BAHASI 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 busses. During February we will be focusing our efforts on writing letters to potential donors for this project and applying for grants
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
Girls hostel progress
Our girls hostel is almost done. We only have a few tasks left to do, 2 of which we aim to complete in February - the water tank and inside wall. After these are completed we will be even closer to the grand opening!
ECD training Implementation
In January we started implementing the ECD training course some of the teachers took part in! This February we aim to have a clear structure and schedule for our children and continue to effectively follow the new methods of teaching so our children get the most out of their education. This involves having a morning circle and indoor and outdoor activity each day.
Feeding Programme
This February, as a part of our feeding programme, we are trying to diversify our OVC’s meals. Providing the kids with a balanced and healthy diet will increase energy, motivation and health. As some of our OVC’s already have existing health conditions a balanced diet is especially important!
Classrooms Renovation
One of our aims during February is to start fundraising and renovating our classrooms! We want to provide a safe place where the children we support in the community can come and learn. To be able to do this we need to resurface the steps, floor and paint to brighten up the learning environment! Please consider supporting us in the project
Updates
We are happy to share that our ECD programme is now in full swing and our team has been working hard to decorate the classrooms with learning materials and educational posters ensuring the kids have a bright and productive work environment. More on this in our struggles section.
Hostel update- construction for the water tank is underway and we are one step closer to completing this project!
2 years ago the Mckinley Tech High School African Library Project Club donated hundreds of books to our library programme and this month we have put the last of them out for distribution.
With having over 300 beneficiaries it's been difficult to have order with this programme, but hopefully by implementing ways of regulating the books, we will be able to keep this distribution thriving.
A massive thankyou to our supporters over at Mckinley Tech High School African Library Project Club!
Shout-outs!
A big thanks to our Donors and Visitors this month:
Mckinley Tech High School African Library Project Club
Malawi Travel
Atol Solutions
Tol Family
Airlop Lions Club, via Mr Rajoo Goutam
Kelfoods
Capital oil refining industries LTD (CORI)
Gift of the Givers
Steven Phiri
Prophet AO Festus
Mercy Ndawala
John & Anna + iMind
Fiona Rockford
Stuart Presly
This month we have celebrated the Birthdays of :
Annie Justin- Annie turned 18 this January! Visit her profile on BAHASI’s website to learn more.
Sellah Fatch- Sellah turned 20 this January! Visit her profile on BAHASI’s website to learn more.
Priase Nkumba- Praise turned 16 this January! Visit her profile on BAHASI’s website to learn more.
Lisa Nkumba- Lisa turned 16 this January! Visit her profile on BAHASI’s website to learn more.
Shaffe Chisakaniza- Shaffe turned 11 this January! Visit his profile on BAHASI’s website to learn more.
Ibrah Saladi- Ibrah turned 13 this January! Visit his profile on BAHASI’s website to learn more.
Activities
Bible Believers Church Visit
On the 25th of January we had the pleasure of visiting Bible Believers Church! Bible believers had an amazing church service for us filled with worship, dancing, singing, and community. We so appreciated them inviting us and being able to thank them for all their support at our Christmas Party.
Swimming Programme
Sadly our swimming programme has not taken place during the month of January. This is due to us not having the funds to provide our children with a healthy diet, so the money previously put towards swimming was put towards ensuring our children get the nutrients that they need to be healthy. To find out more about this check out our struggles and how to support section.
Cooking Programme
This month our children made zamphungonkati, which are fried rice balls! They started by cooking the rice, then forming them into balls and covering them in flour and water and then frying. The cooking programme allows for more variation in our children’s diet which is something we love to promote at BAHASI. The OVC’s are used to having the same foods on repeat so it is a real treat to have something different!
Visitors
We are so thankful to have had Prophet AO Festus and his family visit BAHASI during January! They brought monetary donations as-well as drinks, sugar, oil, laundry soap, and of course sharing God’s love with us! They hope to become regular donors of BAHASI and to visit often which is a huge blessing for all the children.
We also had a visit from iMind and partners John and Anna from the UK. We had an amazing afternoon of mental health talks, dancing and games with our kids and they also brought us a clothing donation which we have distributed!
Highlights
BAHASI Lake Trip
A huge Highlight of January was going on a lake trip to Mangochi!
We stayed at a beautiful resort called Kingfishers Inn from the 2nd to the 5th of January, where the children enjoyed dancing, playing football and volleyball, eating delicious food and swimming in both the pool and lake. This holiday allowed our children to relax and have a well deserved break from school and the daily work at BAHASI. The children loved having a ride on the speed boat and also the movie night where they watched Moana 2.
Thank you so much to everybody who donated towards this vital trip, it has had such a positive impact on our children and has meant they can have a new experience to cherish forever. And of course a MASSIVE thank you to Kingfisher Resort who took amazing care of us and donated so many resources to give us a wonderful trip!
New Year Hapuwani Trip
On new years the kids got to experience an awesome day trip to Hapuwani! This was such an exciting experience where the children got to swim in waterfalls, take part in fun games and activities and have lots of yummy snacks! This trip was funded by Malawi, Dirk and Abraham Tol and Atol Solutions, thank you so much for making this adventure possible and brightening the lives of our children!
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. 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 - We are also struggling to maintain a healthy and balanced diet for our OVC’s. At BAHASI we believe a balanced and healthy diet is key to productive and proactive children. Currently we are succeeding in providing our OVC’s with three meals a day which consist of nsima and some source of protein, weather that is egg, soya pieces, goat, chicken, beans depending on what is available. This, however, is neither enough food for growing children or enough nutrients.
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 (£45).
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.
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
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.