This involves paying school fees for secondary school, college or university. Not only do we pay school fees every year, we also pay for stationery.  Malawi currently offers free primary school education. Many children complete primary school but drop out thereafter due to lack of fees for further education. Due to financial constrictions, we currently just support students from the area and those who have attended the local village school, Mkama Primary School. We have assisted over 100 students to date; some of them are now working as teachers, and we also have one clinician.   

This is an ongoing project as we take on new students every year. 

Many rural areas in Malawi do not have clean water facilities, relying mainly on open wells dug in the river beds. This poses a big risk to their health because these types of wells are used by animals as well. To resolve this, we paid for four water boreholes to be done in the area.  

Most households in rural Malawi do not have toilet facilities and those that do use pit latrines.  These pose various health risks as they attract flies due to the smells that emanate from them. They can also collapse, especially during the rainy season. People have been known to die when they fall through the unstable floors. Pit latrines need to be frequently replaced as they fill up, thus needing a new site to dig a replacement. 

We have provided the village with eight eco-friendly toilets which are solar powered. These are very good for the environment, as one such structure will last a lifetime. Smells are eliminated via a vent built into the dome that the sewage goes in. The contents of the dome are heated by the sun, which dries it up and, when the dome is full, every three to five years, the contents are emptied and can be used as fertiliser.   

More of these are needed so that, eventually, there is one dome for every household. 

Mkama Primary School had a dilapidated building for a classroom in 2007. The pupil intake was about 100 with just two teachers. No one wanted to teach at this school then. 

However, with our help, they now have three school blocks with eight classrooms The intake is now over 500 with eight teachers! The school is also being used as an examination centre, and many teachers are vying for a chance to teach there. The drop-out rate for primary school children decreased dramatically. 

We commissioned a local carpenter to make desks for the school. The children were really excited with their new learning environment. This, plus the new school blocks, encouraged more children to go to the school, some even from outside the catchment area.   

Primary school teachers reside on the school premises in Malawi. The responsibility for building the teachers’ houses normally falls on the local community. They could make the bricks but building expertise and other materials for the houses is often beyond their means. 

UCP paid for all the materials needed to build four houses for the teachers. Two of the eco toilets were built for the teachers. 

We need more houses so that all the teachers can have one. We also need to build a hostel at the school to cater for trainee teachers when they go there for their practicals.  

The community asked us to build a clinic for them and we liaised with the local hospital to assess the need. The hospital confirmed there was a genuine need for a health centre that they could also use, as an outreach centre. We managed to build one for them, plus a house for the health assistant to live in.  A water borehole and an eco-toilet were also built on site. The centre is widely used for antenatal check-ups and under-fives clinic, and also for malaria testing. The locals can get simple medication and quick advice should they need to go to the main hospital. Furnishings are yet to be provided, due to lack of funds. 

We have identified the need for a library and a staffroom at the primacy school. We had intended to raise enough funds for this by now, but the COVID-19 pandemic has had an adverse effect on our fundraising efforts, which had to be suspended. We are optimistic that we will manage to raise the necessary funding to do this project soon.  

We would like to install solar power in all our future projects, and the existing ones. This would provide lighting for evening studies, and power computers within the school.   

As mentioned above, we also need to do more of the projects that we have already done, to meet the needs of the area. We have recently turned down applications from potential students for help with their education due to lack of funds. We sincerely hope that the situation will improve, to enable us to meet the demand. 

We donated 150 mosquito nets to Embangweni hospital.

We also pay for the students’ school uniforms .