Photo: Dr. Eric Borgstein

One of the individuals supported by Raising Malawi is Dr. Eric Borgstein (photo above), one of three pediatric surgeons working in Malawi, where there are an estimated 7.5 million children. Working with the staff at the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre, Dr. Borgstein treats thousands of children every year, performing hundreds of life-saving operations.

Dr. Borgstein also trains medical students in general and pediatric surgery at the Malawi College of Medicine. With financial support from Raising Malawi, he is currently training Tiyamike Chilunjika, a young Malawian doctor (photo below) to follow in his footsteps as a pediatric surgeon. The need for medical training is critical in Malawi, where there are only 15 surgeons, roughly 1 for every 1 million people. In the coming year, Raising Malawi plans to support the expansion of the pediatric surgery training program as well as the first ever pediatric intensive care unit at Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

Photo:Tiyamike Chilunjika

In April 2013, Madonna visited Dr. Borgstein in Blantyre, where she toured the hospital and met with the staff. Photos from this visit are below. To support Raising Malawi’s work with grantees like Dr. Borgstein, please click here.

Photo: Madonna at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Blantyre, 2013

Photo: Madonna at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Blantyre, 2013

“I was very happy to visit with the children of Malawi earlier this month and to see with my own eyes the ten new primary schools in Kasungu province that Raising Malawi and buildOn completed this past year. These schools are now educating more than 4,800 children with girls attending in equal numbers. These children who were formerly learning outside on the ground, in unsafe buildings or not at all, now get to attend classes on a daily basis. My children and I were overjoyed to visit these schools and see what amazing progress has been made. I will continue to follow through on my commitment to help educate the children of Malawi. I’m saddened that Malawi’s President Joyce Banda has chosen to release lies about what we’ve accomplished, my intentions, how I personally conducted myself while visiting Malawi and other untruths. I have no intentions of being distracted by these ridiculous allegations. I came to Malawi seven years ago with honorable intentions. I returned earlier this month to view the new schools we built. I did not ever ask or demand  special treatment at the airport or elsewhere during my visit. I will not be distracted or discouraged by other people’s political agendas. I made a  promise to the children of Malawi and I am keeping that promise” commented Madonna.

Madonna originally planned on building a Girls Academy in the impoverished country but realized that a more sustainable model would be to build smaller schools in villages around the country with buildOn who have had 20 years of success building schools in Africa. The original team that Raising Malawi first put in place included Anjimile Oponyo, the sister of Malawi’s current President Joyce Banda. Due to major organizational problems that occurred during that time, the original team was disbanded. President Banda has since appointed her sister to a senior post within the Ministry of Education. Madonna’s decision to change course on her education projects has subsequently been met by deep resistance from Oponyo, the President, and the Ministry of Education. But Madonna is not letting politics stand in the way of her deep commitment to help build schools there and educate as many children as possible.

In addition to the school projects, Raising Malawi has spent millions of dollars in Malawi to support orphans and vulnerable children through multiple community-based organizations. This includes Home of Hope which supported 595 beneficiaries including orphans, vulnerable children and their caregivers in 2012 alone. Raising Malawi also supports Dr. Eric Borgstein, one of three pediatric surgeons in Malawi. Dr. Borgstein performed more than 500 surgeries in 2012 alone and he sees thousands of children each year.

The Kabila School, Completed May 2012.

The Mkwayule School, Completed May 2012.

The Vigando School, Completed May 2012.

The Swaswa School, Completed July 2012.

The Kasumbi School, Completed August 2012.

The Chabuula School, Completed November 2012.

The Ndonda School, Completed November 2012.

The Mkoko School, Completed November 2012.

The Kazenga School, Completed November 2012

The Mkoma Chilolo School, Completed December 2012.

Earlier in the week, Madonna visited two of the 10 schools funded by Raising Malawi and constructed by partner buildOn. The schools are currently supporting more than 4,800 children in Kasungu Province. She also visited long-standing Raising Malawi grantees Crisis Nursery and Home of Hope, community-based organizations that provide critical support to orphans in Malawi.

Additionally, Madonna visited the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Blantyre and met with Dr. Eric Borgstein, one of the only pediatric surgeons in Malawi, and one of his pediatric surgery trainees, both of whom are supported by Raising Malawi.

“I am so grateful to the people of Malawi for their hospitality towards me and my family during our time here,” Madonna said.  I am proud of the programs we support here to assist orphans and vulnerable children, and look forward to continuing to provide them with the resources they need to thrive.”

In addition to her work in Malawi, Madonna will continue to expand her philanthropy worldwide. On 3 April 2013, it was announced that she will auction a painting from her personal collection to support girls’ education in Afghanistan, Pakistan and other countries. The painting is expected to raise $5 to $7 million.

About Raising Malawi
Raising Malawi was founded in 2006 to bring an end to the extreme poverty and hardship endured by Malawi's one million orphans and vulnerable children.  Raising Malawi supports community-based organizations that provide these children and their caregivers with critical resources including food, clothing, shelter, education, medical care and psychosocial support. http://www.raisingmalawi.org

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WHAT: Madonna Visits Consol Homes Orphan Care Center

WHEN: Friday 5 April, 2013 3:00PM

WHERE: Consol Homes Orphan Care Center, Namitete, Malawi

OVERVIEW: On 5 April, 2013, Madonna will visit Consol Homes Orphan Care center in Namitete, Malawi. Raising Malawi, a nonprofit organization founded by Madonna, has supported Consol Homes for more than five years and has recently funded the construction of a power grid to provide electricity for the children of Consol Homes for their safety and well-being. Madonna is currently in Malawi to visit the programs supported by Raising Malawi.

PHOTO OPPORTUNITY: Madonna will be available for photographs at this event.

Madonna will make a statement to the press. She will not be available for individual interviews due to time constraints.  Madonna’s philanthropic advisor, Trevor Neilson, will be available to provide additional information after the event.

CONTACT:  sarah@globalphilanthropy.com

Each school was built with a corrugated metal roof and poured concrete floor.The locations for each school were chosen in partnership with the District Education Manager’s Office in the Kasungu District. Each village that was selected had no adequate school structure; priority was given to villages with no school infrastructure at all. Prior to buildOn and Raising Malawi, children in these villages attended classes in either a temporary structure or outside under a tree.  Each classroom is built to hold 50 children at any given time.

Each school was constructed in partnership with the communities who will benefit from the structures. buildOn and Raising Malawi provided the construction materials, transportation, skilled labor, project management, and construction plans. Each partnering community provides a gender-balanced leadership team, volunteer labor, land, local building materials, and authorization from the government to have a school. Each community also agrees that boys and girls will attend schools in equal numbers. The District Education Manager’s Office in Kasungu has provided 44 educators for the schools who are now teaching the Ministry’s approved curriculum. Once completed each community & school leadership team manages the use of each structure.

buildOn has constructed 72 two-classroom schools Malawi since 1993. In 2013, we plan to build 23 additional  two-classroom schools in the Kasungu and Neno District of Malawi in partnership with each region’s District Education Manager’s office.

Statement originally posted here: http://buildonfromthefield.org/2013/01/17/buildon-schools-constructed-in-partnership-with-raising-malawi/

(NEW YORK, December 27, 2012) — As part of Madonna’s ongoing commitment to support orphans and vulnerable children in poverty stricken Malawi, ten primary schools have been completed that will serve to educate 4,871 children. These schools are located in rural villages across Malawi and are a result of the partnership between Madonna, her charity Raising Malawi and the global nonprofit buildOn.  The ten schools, which were scheduled to be built over 18 months, have been completed six months ahead of schedule. Six of the schools are already in use and all ten will be up and running in January 2013 for the first day of school in the New Year.

The project was originally announced early this year as a major initiative of Raising Malawi, which has already provided millions of dollars in support of orphanages, a network of orphan care service providers, health clinics, a scholarship program for girls, and the schools with buildOn.

The location for each school was chosen from a list of communities in need of new infrastructure. The Ministry of Education Office in the Kasungu District was an important partner, providing both the teachers and curriculum after each school was completed. 

“I am overjoyed that my commitment along with buildOn’s to help educate the children of Malawi has come to fruition.  In a country where girls have little opportunity for education, it’s additionally inspiring to know that more than half the students attending will be young girls.  The fact that more than 4,800 children in Malawi will get to go to school next year is a tremendous step forward for their individual growth and the growth of Malawi,” commented Madonna.

Consistently ranked among the world’s 20 least developed countries on the UN’s Human Development Index, Malawi has long been challenged by economic stagnation and a lack of access to education. With support from Madonna and Raising Malawi, buildOn was able double the reach of its school construction program within a year.

“Madonna’s commitment to the children of Malawi is inspiring,” said Jim Ziolkowski, founder and CEO of buildOn. “Through Raising Malawi’s support we were able to build 10 schools that will educate literally generations of children who need it the most.”

About Raising Malawi

Raising Malawi was founded in 2006 to bring an end to the extreme poverty and hardship endured by Malawi's 1 million orphans and vulnerable children.  Raising Malawi supports community-based organizations that provide these children and their caregivers with critical resources including food, clothing, shelter, education, medical care, and psychosocial support. http://www.raisingmalawi.org

About buildOn

buildOn is a non-governmental organization that is breaking the cycle of poverty, illiteracy and low expectations through service and education. Since 1991, buildOn has brought literacy to girls and boys and their parents and grandparents, in developing countries around the world. In the U.S., buildOn’s afterschool service programs mobilize urban teens to lift up their communities through intensive local service and change the world and by building schools in some of the poorest countries on the planet.  To date, buildOn has constructed 500 schools worldwide, including 73 schools in villages in Malawi. http://www.buildon.org

A doctor, a journalist and a banker are some of the diverse careers being pursued by ten talented girls in Mwandama Millennium Village in rural Malawi. For this group of students, the opportunity to continue their education beyond primary school has been a dream come true. Most of the girls are orphans and come from Mwandama’s poorest families, living in an environment where higher education is a luxury unaffordable to most.

In October of this year, for the first time in this community, Connect to Learn, a global initiative that provides scholarships for girls and boys in impoverished areas to attend secondary school, awarded scholarships to 50 young women in Mwandama Millennium Village. 10 of these scholarship recipients have been sponsored through a partnership with Raising Malawi, an established NGO which provides grass-roots support to Malawi’s orphans and voulnerable children since 2006. The scholarship will support the girls through four years until graduation, including school and boarding fees.

Tosungire Jaime is one of the girls sponsored by Raising Malawi, and exemplifies the transformative role secondary education can play. At 19, she is much older than her classmates. This is because she was forced to drop out when she became pregnant, and has only now been able to return. She is an orphan and mother to a two year old son. Considering her difficult circumstances, Tosungire’s return to school and good results are a testimony to her strength and pride.

Tosungire says that when she got pregnant, friends and teachers were critical of her. She was very concerned because she was very poor and didn’t know how she would look after her child, let alone continue with school.

Yet, she was determined to go back. “I knew if I didn’t go back to school, I couldn’t take care of the baby.” Whilst providing for herself and her son, Tosungire borrowed books from friends to keep learning on her own. When she heard about the CTL scheme, she applied, and was accepted.

Now, she is an example to others. “When I got pregnant, a lot of people mocked me, they spoke badly about me. But when I went back to school, and passed, I have set an example. Even some of my friends who have children have gone back to school,” she says proudly.

The girls’ moving life stories illustrate some of the overwhelming obstacles, which prevent millions of girls in rural areas of Africa from progressing through school. Traditionally, educating girls was not viewed by families as a priority compared to boys. This especially in rural families where an extra pair of hands that a daughter provides at home can help a family survive. Girls shoulder the burden of household chores, including fetching water and firewood, often walking for hours a day. They look after younger siblings when parents need to tend fields or go to market to sell their produce.

Even when girls do attend school, the dropout rates are higher than that of boys. School facilities are often inadequate to provide a quality education – overcrowded classrooms, outdoor lessons interrupted by rain, and perennial teacher shortages mean that girls often don’t get the attention they need in class, and are not motivated to continue. The dropout rate gets even higher with the onset of puberty. Many are forced into early marriage, either by tradition, family financial considerations, or falling prey to early pregnancy with the associated stigma. Inadequate toilet facilities become a matter of shame for girls as they get older, and a lack of sanitary towels mean that girls miss as much as one week of class per month.

It is true that most African countries, including Malawi, have made huge inroads in recent years in increasing gender parity in primary education, which is provided free. The challenge now lies in transitioning girls to secondary education – at this point, families are faced with fees – 600 USD per year – which subsistence farmers simply cannot afford.

The Connect to Learn program provides a solution, by providing scholarships and other support to keep girls in school across the Millennium Villages in Africa. In addition to the 50 girls sponsored in Mwandama, the scheme funded 342 scholarships in East Africa this year, with funding for a further 50 girls to begin in Ruhiira Millennium Village in Uganda in January 2013. The program also focuses on improving access to learning resources in secondary schools, by implementing mobile broadband connectivity in the schools attended by scholarship recipients. In Mwandama, computers will arrive at the end of year in the two schools attended by the girls. The partners in Connect to Learn recognize the role broadband connectivity and other ICT solutions can have in scaling up access to teaching and learning resources and enabling connections and cultural exchanges with schools in the US.

Mervis Chatha, 12, one of the girls sponsored by Raising Malawi, sums up the importance of girls education espoused by the program.

“It is important for girls to go to school because when you teach a girl child, you teach the whole world,” she says. When women are educated, they are more likely than men to pass knowledge on to their children and insist on schooling. In addition, educated women can earn incomes independently from their husbands, and are more likely to spend money on essential medicines, food and other basic needs for their family.

“I want to be a journalist!” says Mervis, “I want to be represented on the screen, and people who doesn’t know me to get to know me. I wish a long lasting life to the people who are paying my school fees and boarding fees. They are providing something that I need in my life. I pray to God that they can receive blessings and a good life.”

Connect to Learn and Raising Malawi are proud to assist girls like Mervis and Tosungire achieve their dreams. During the next four years, we will continue to share updates on their progress.

Click here to read original post on Millenium Villages website.

buildOn Country Director in Malawi, Maurice Muchene, has been emailing reports to buildOn, stating that the villagers in the communities where we are building are working hard and ahead of schedule. On October 16, we broke ground on the Kazenga School (our ninth school) in Longwe, a village with a population of approximately 3,500 people. Right now the students walk four kilometers (approximately 2.5 miles) every day to attend school, Muchene said. Once the school is complete they will no longer have to.

On October 18th, we broke ground on the Mkoma Chilolo School, named after the village. During the ground-breaking ceremony, Anas Banda, the 49-year-old village chief, said, “I am very willing and ready to build this school to ensure that our children have the best possible opportunity of completing their primary school.”

We spoke with Raising Malawi’s Sarah Ezzy to ask her about her recent trip to Malawi to visit the Mkwayule and Kasumbi schools for the first time with Muchene and Edmas Kayimba, one of buildOn’s Field Coordinators.

Raising Malawi's Sarah Ezzy (left) visited Mkwayule school in Malawi with buildOn's Maurice Muchene (center) and the headteacher of the Mkwayule school, Bester Kazilimbire (right).

What was the goal of the trip?

The purpose was to see the completed schools, meet the team on the ground, meet the community members… and see the impact of the schools on their lives. We spent a significant amount of time at the Kasumbi school which was still under construction. There were a lot of people there working on the school. It was wonderful to see the involvement of the community in the school project.

What did you learn from the community members?

It was just fantastic to hear from the community. The moms were talking about how great it was that their kids; eight, nine, and 10 years old, weren’t going to have to walk 10 kilometers to the nearest school. They were thrilled that they would no longer have to worry about their kids’ safety as accidents often occurred during the long walk, and were excited that they would attend a local school. As a mom, I could really relate to their concerns and the relief at the opportunity to have a safer option.

We then moved on to the Mkwayule community to see a buildOn/Raising Malawi school which was already completed and in use. We met the village chiefs and the community members who were all so warm and welcoming. They pointed out the area where the children had been learning before the school was built—it was a patch of the schoolyard, under the trees.

What were the people in the villages saying about the schools?

We spoke with the chiefs of the villages. They were so appreciative and thankful… For us, the gratitude was enormous. I was struck by the deep level of community engagement and ownership of the school projects. The involvement of the local community, including local government officials, is critical for these schools to succeed—because success involves more than just building the school – it involves maintaining the school and ensuring that there’s quality education and teacher training. Building schools that fill an immediate need and that will be sustained by the community is exactly what we want to be doing.

Take a look at the photos taken at the groundbreaking ceremonies in Longwe and Mkoma Chilolo:

A mother in Mkoma Chilolo waits eagerly with her baby to sign the school's covenant; a promise to contribute the volunteer labor to build the school and to send girls to school in equal numbers with boys.

A woman in Mkoma Chilolo thumbprints the covenant to represent her signature.

Children sit in front of the old school in Mkoma Chilolo.

Children dance to celebrate the groundbreaking of their new school in Mkoma Chilolo.

A woman with her baby help break ground on the new school in Kazenga.

Raising Malawi is pleased to announce its support for secondary school scholarships for girls at the Millenium Village in Mwandama, Malawi in partnership with Millennium Promise and Connect to Learn. As part of our ongoing commitment to education in Malawi, we will support scholarships for 10 girls to attend four years of secondary school.

The scholars will be selected based on academic and leadership potential, social-economic condition, and the determination they have exhibited in their community as assessed by a local selection committee. The committee is a gender-balanced group of local community members, school teachers and representatives from the Mwandama Millennium Village Project.

Raising Malawi believes that education is one of the most critical tools for supporting vulnerable children and families in Malawi. UNESCO estimates that in Africa 1.8 million children’s lives could be saved if their mothers had at least a secondary education. A child born to a mother who can read is 50 percent more likely to live past age five.  Additionally, each extra year of a mother’s schooling reduces the probability of infant mortality by 5–10 percent and women with post-primary education are five times more likely than illiterate women to be educated about the risks of contracting HIV/ AIDS.

We will share updates and photos of the scholars soon!

About Millennium Promise
Millennium Promise is the leading international nonprofit organization solely committed to accelerating achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and the eradication of extreme poverty, hunger, and preventable disease. The Millennium Villages Project (MVP) is a partnership initiative with core science and policy leadership of the Earth Institute, Columbia University, alongside Millennium Promise's operational leadership, that addresses the root causes of extreme poverty, taking a holistic, community-led approach to sustainable development.

The Millennium Village cluster in Mwandma where Raising Malawi will support secondary school scholarships is located in the southern region of Malawi’s Zomba district, and is home to about 35,000 people. To learn more, visit: http://www.millenniumvillages.org/the-villages/mwandama-malawi

About Connect to Learn

Connect To Learn is an initiative to provide students around the world with access to quality secondary education, with a special emphasis on girls. They provide secondary school scholarships and use the transformative power of ICT to connect students and teachers in remote villages to their counterparts in classrooms from around the world for cross-cultural learning, and to the best libraries and educational resources the world has to offer. To learn more, visit: http://www.connecttolearn.org/

Children outside of the newly completed Vigando School.

The interior of the Vigando school just after completion.

Exterior of the vigando school.

Kankhumbwa woman signs covenant with thumbprint. - Photo by Esther Havens

One month ago today, in the village of Kankhumbwa, buildOn broke ground on the first school constructed in partnership with Raising Malawi and Malawi’s Ministry of Education.  The two-room school will provide access to education for more than 100 children in the Kasungu District of Malawi.

Malawi’s Ministry of Education had identified the school as number one on its list of neediest villages in Kasungu District.  The location for the school was chosen because of the state of the existing school infrastructure as well as the deep commitment to education from the community.

“The village of Kankhumbwa was in desperate need of a new school,” said Jim Ziolkowski, Founder & CEO of buildOn. “The luckiest children in the community are learning in a dilapidated structure with only a poorly thatched roof for protection, the least lucky have their classes outside with no shelter but the shade of a tree. If the weather is poor, the students aren’t able to have class at all. The Malawian government identified building this school as priority and we are honored to fill this need.”

For every buildOn school, the partnering community and buildOn sign a covenant stating each party’s contribution to the project.  The covenant states that buildOn provides the engineering, materials, skilled labor and project supervision for the school.  The community provides a gender-equal leadership team, voluntary unskilled labor, land for the school, local materials and a promise that girls and boys must be sent to school in equal numbers. The teachers for the school and the curriculum are provided by Malawi’s Ministry of Education.

The response to the school from the village of Kankhumbwa was overwhelming.  More than 400 community members lined up to sign the covenant; nearly half were women.

“The school will bring one heart and soul to the entire village,” said Felicia, a grandmother and community member of Kankhumbwa.  “All will be dedicated to education.  I was so happy the day we signed the covenant. I wished I was young again so I could attend that school, but I know any day I can die.  I want to die in peace knowing that my grandson and granddaughters will have education and a better future.”

buildOn was privileged to be joined at the covenant signing by Malawian Ministry of Education officials Wiseman Moyo, Desk Officer for the District Education Manager; Isaac Phiri, Coordinator for Primary Education; Olive Panyanja, District Labor Officer; and Patrick Zintambira, the Primary Education Advisor for the Zone where the school is being constructed.

To date, community members have contributed more than 850 volunteer work days on the site and construction is three days ahead of schedule.

Since 2001, buildOn has completed 54 primary schools in Malawi. buildOn will build ten schools in partnership with Raising Malawi through Summer 2013.

The luckiest children in the community are learning in a dilapidated structure with only a poorly thatched roof for protection.

Original post on buildOn.org

Madonna who is scheduled to perform at this Sunday's Bridgestone Superbowl Halftime show, is about to release a new film and a new album still feels the passion to follow through on her vow to help Malawi's neediest children receive an education.

"This remains a very big priority in my life and I am excited that with the help of buildOn we can maintain our ongoing commitment to move forward efficiently. We now  will be able to serve twice as many children as we would have served with our old approach," said Madonna.  Raising Malawi, Madonna's charity,  previously ran into various difficulties in their original effort to build a girls academy.  "I have learned a great deal over the last few years and feel so much more confident that we can reach out goals to educate children in Malawi, especially young girls, in a much more efficient and practical way.  Constructing smaller schools in partnership with buildOn has restored my faith that we can accomplish what we promised we would" concluded Madonna.

Consistently ranked among the world's 20 least developed countries on the UN's Human Development Index, Malawi has long been challenged by economic stagnation and a lack of access to education. With support from Raising Malawi, buildOn will leverage their 19 years of experience in Malawi to construct 10 new schools with the capacity to educate at least 1,000 children per year, half of whom are girls. Malawi has over a half a million children orphaned from the Aids epidemic.  Raising Malawi has helped support many of these children for the last several years through various programs.

"Because of Madonna and Raising Malawi's support, we will be able to build schools for children that the rest of the world has left behind. Generations of children will have access to education and be empowered to break the cycle of poverty, illiteracy and low expectations," said Jim Ziolkowski, Founder and CEO of buildOn.

About buildOn

buildOn is a non-governmental organization that is breaking the cycle of poverty, illiteracy and low expectations through service and education. Since 1991, buildOn has brought literacy to girls and boys and their parents and grandparents, in developing countries around the world. In the U.S., buildOn's afterschool service programs mobilize urban teens to lift up their communities through intensive local service and change the world and by building schools in some of the poorest countries on the planet.  To date, buildOn has constructed 427 schoolhouses worldwide, including 54 schoolhouses in villages in Malawi. http://www.buildon.org/

About Raising Malawi

Raising Malawi was founded in 2006 to bring an end to the extreme poverty and hardship endured by Malawi's 1.4 million orphans and vulnerable children.  Raising Malawi supports community-based organizations that provide these children and their caregivers with critical resources including food, clothing, shelter, education, medical care, and psychosocial support. http://www.raisingmalawi.org

• Over 95% of the girls in the program were able to stay in school
• There is a waiting list of other girls interested in joining the program
• Girls report feeling more comfortable attending school during menstruation
• Teachers have noticed improved attendance, and optimism that more girls will reach their senior classes without having to worry about missing school

Samantha and Rosemary are excited by the progress and achievements of S.A.M. To date, they have raised over $12K for this program. They plan to expand the program to more girls and more schools throughout Malawi. Hopefully, S.A.M can inspire others to find and support solutions like this one.

Below is a photo of girls in the S.A.M. program from its initial launch in 2010.

Photo of Samantha in Malawi:

Read More: "1 person killed during violent Malawi riots" from the Associate Press

Since that time Global Philanthropy's team has helped the board of Raising Malawi make major organizational and management changes, and has also filed the necessary paperwork with the IRS to allow Raising Malawi to be an independent 501c3 organization.  The new strategy of Raising Malawi will be announced in the coming weeks once discussions with experts in the field and partner organizations have been finalized.

For any questions about Global Philanthropy Group's work with Raising Malawi please email contact@globalphilanthropy.com.

Madonna issued the following statement:

I remain deeply committed and am more passionate than ever about helping the children of Malawi — especially the girls. In a country where only 33% of Malawian girls attend secondary school, I realize that the plans we had in place for the Raising Malawi Academy for Girls simply would not serve enough children. My original vision is now on a much bigger scale. I want to reach thousands not hundreds of girls. I want to do more and I want to do it better. While I am grateful to all the people who have given me guidance and support up until now, we are in the process of implementing several changes and additions to the management of Raising Malawi in both the US and Malawi. I am also working with Trevor Neilson and his team at Global Philanthropy Group to shift the strategies that we had in place so that we can accomplish our goals with more efficiency as we continue to consult with our government partners in Malawi. This is a larger challenge than I thought, but I welcome it. We are focused on an approach, which builds schools within communities across the country. We are currently determining the size, location, staffing and curriculum of the schools. I will continue to monitor the process of reaching these goals here and through my ongoing visits to Malawi.

Neilson, whose company Global Philanthropy Group advises some of the world's leading philanthropists, was positive about the shift in strategy. "Raising Malawi's new community-based approach will provide the opportunity for many more girls to receive a quality education. We are focused on ensuring the most efficient implementation of this new strategy in collaboration with Raising Malawi's partners on the ground." Neilson also noted the many achievements of Raising Malawi including the construction of a model orphan care center in partnership with Malawi's largest community-based organization as well as assistance to thousands of HIV+ children and caregivers through life saving medical treatments and daily nutritious meals and nutrition supplements. Additional programming has also provided thousands of children and caregivers in the south of the country with access to clean water through the implementation of piped safe water and the construction of new boreholes.

The MCC, an agency created by President George W. Bush to promote growth and reward democratic governance in poor countries, has provided Malawi with the funds to renovate older power stations and improve distribution networks.  The move follows on the heels of President Obama's U.S. Global Policy, which focuses on economic growth, country ownership, sustainability, and accountability in developing countries.

According to MCC CEO Daniel Yohannes:

"MCC looks forward to continuing our work with Malawi as this compact program advances to implementation. Success of the program will depend on the Government of Malawi's continued commitment to good governance, accountability, and transparency."

The grant award comes after last month's announcement by Malawi's Energy Minister Grain Malunga of the planned construction of a new 300 megawatt coal-fired power plant. The construction project will be first step towards meeting Malawi's rising demand for electricity. As a country with large naturally-occurring coal reserves, infrastructure is the key element missing in securing a stable energy future for Malawi.

The MCC and the Government of Malawi expect nearly 6 million Malawians will benefit from the grant, both during and after the completion of its five-year contract.

A closer view of the situation reveals that the women of Malawi are disproportionately impacted by HIV and AIDS. Not only are they more likely to fall prey to the infection, they are also expected to shoulder the burden of acting as caretakers for those who are ill — a traditionally female role.

"A Voluntary Service Overseas Regional AIDS Initiative Southern Africa and World Health Organization study found that in six SADC countries (Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe) at least 72% of secondary care providers are women."

Thoko Mussa, a national coordinator for the Society for Women and AIDS in Malawi (SWAM), points out that in many cases women in abusive relationships are expected to take on the burden of caring for their husband when he becomes ill. When the situation is flipped and it is the wife who falls sick from HIV-related illnesses, the husband can go as far as to divorce his wife, and call upon his mother-in-law to take the role of caretaker.

These gendered norms need to change if the devastating toll on Malawian women is to be reversed. Men and women alike are joining forces to partner in the fight against AIDS, challenge gender disparities, and work to educate more individuals in communities scarred by violence.

National HIV plans and the 2008–2011 UN Development Action Fund (UNDAF) have highlighted the link between gender and HIV and AIDS and have received commendation from the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). Domestic violence legislation passed in Malawi in 2006, raising even greater awareness of the issue. But implementing these plans on the ground requires grassroots involvement to bring light to the issue community-by-community, home-by-home.

That's why bringing educational opportunities to the children of Malawi is one of the main goals of Raising Malawi. Paired with effective treatments for HIV and AIDS, educating children across primary and secondary schools can make a tangible impact on a new generation of leaders.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which convenes on December 13, will have the final decision to continue HIV/AIDS funding in many low-income countries in desperate need of continued ARV treatments. As the financial arm for the Millennium Development Goal, the Global Fund has the unique position to:

"Determine to a large extent how close countries come to achieving the health-related MDGs in the coming years," according to Michel Kazatchkine, Executive Director of the Global Fund.

Unfortunately with many donor pledges falling short, and government organizations pulling their own aid organizations from the field in several countries, the Global Fund may be forced to reject proposals.

This news worries many directly invested in the fight against HIV/AIDS, including Jerome Oberreit, MSF's Operational Director.

"Today's funding situation is nothing short of a crisis. If donors rely on the Global Fund to act as the last standing domino piece in the fight against HIV, they need to provide it with the necessary resources to respond according to needs ... in the absence of firm political commitments, the Global Fund will be forced to ration its funding and in turn, AIDS prevention and treatment."

Without the continued donations of past years, and the full commitment of world leaders, proposals will face greater scrutiny and may be rejected in the latest round of fund replenishments.

"MSF is seriously concerned that several low-income countries with high HIV-prevalence, such as Malawi, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Swaziland and Lesotho, risk being denied funding for HIV and TB in this round."

Malawi has made greater access to AIDS treatment a priority, and worked closely with the WHO to craft a forward-thinking plan to treat AIDS at all stages. With nearly 225,000 Malawians undergoing treatment countrywide, cutting funding short would take a disastrous toll on their forward progress.

Raising Malawi has worked closely to address the paramount issue of HIV and AIDS in Malawi, working to give over 66,000 children and caregivers living with HIV/AIDS, malaria, or other diseases life saving treatments and care.

Working one step at a time to increase global awareness, sustaining ongoing projects with your donations, and volunteering your time to tackle this difficult issue are just a few ways that you can get involved.

We're fast approaching 10,000 followers here on the official Raising Malawi fan page. Push us past this benchmark by urging family and friends to like our page.

Yes, it's only a number, but it's not a trivial number to us; more followers means greater awareness, and that leads to more support for Raising Malawi.

Thank you,
Raising Malawi staff

Raising Malawi is a proud supporter of the Millennium Development Goals and is heavily involved in the village of Gumulira. You can learn more about their progress in meeting MDGs here.

However, these programs often fail to reach sex workers, a high-risk population that must be engaged if we are to have any hope of containing the spread of the virus. This is problematic in countries mired in poverty and instability, where a sizable number of defenseless girls and women can become trapped in this nefarious trade, often against their wills.

Empowering Women to Leave the Sex Trade

To address this gap in fighting HIV/AIDS, Raising Malawi joined Partners In Health (PIH), whose founders include Paul Farmer, in supporting a Women's Empowerment Group at Zalewa, a trading center built on a heavily traveled stretch of road connecting Lilongwe and Blantyre, two of Malawi's major cities.

The program at Zalewa offers commercial sex worker the resources necessary to transition into safer lines of work, in addition to much-needed medical testing and treatment. The health programs available to women include: family planning visits, cervical cancer screening and treatment, syphilis testing, HIV testing, and sexually transmitted infection (STI) treatment. Additionally, women can obtain vocational training; work at Mtendere, an onsite restaurant co-op run by former sex workers; or take English courses.

Zalewa employees and volunteers have been sending Raising Malawi quarterly reports since we began supporting their work. The news has been encouraging—progress that we would qualify as a success.

Success of the Women's Empowerment Group at Zalewa

The developments over the past two quarters include:

• Contacts on the ground call the restaurant a great success, generating upwards of $1,300 a month.
• Because revenue has been so good, the restaurant workers decided to invest 20% of the profits back into the empowerment program and are considering expanding.
• There were 417 to the family planning clinic, an encouraging turnout.
• Women continue using screening programs and seeking out treatment when needed.
• The empowerment center has started an agricultural training program, planting soybeans and other crops.

In addition to this work, Partners In Health and the Women's Empowerment Group continue to work with the Social Welfare Department to get the group recognized as a Community Based Organization. Recognition will increase cooperation between PIH and the group.

Read this inspiring story about Zalewa on the Partners In Health site.

My birthday this week was such a blessing for me. I was surrounded by dear friends, my loving family, and by you.

The notes I received from the Raising Malawi family were simply beautiful—both in their kindness and their concern for the children of Malawi. Thank you for making my birthday so special.

The note from Sylvia in Great Britain is a message for all of us:

May Malawi, and its beautiful people, be raised through the generosity of those who share your dreams. Thank you for the work you do and the joy you give to your fans worldwide. We are all better people for being connected.

I love how Sylvia echoed the African philosophy ubuntu—I am because we are. We do share a common fate. And we must continue to dream of a better future.

That’s why it’s so important that we stay connected with each other. I hope you will help us raise awareness about Malawi by joining our Facebook community:

http://www.facebook.com/RaisingMalawi

Along with the birthday wishes, many of you took the opportunity to make a donation to our work in Malawi. Again, thank you all!

From Alvaro in Mexico City to Esther in Istanbul, your generous donations totaling over $18,000 touched my heart and will change the lives of so many children. I truly cannot think of a better birthday gift.

Thank you again for being a part of this community and the work most dear to my heart.

Gratefully yours,

Madonna

P.S. If you would like to donate to Raising Malawi today, I will match your donation—doubling its impact on the lives of the Malawi children.

The teachers from the Melete Foundation have posted photographs of their trip on Flickr (view them here). If you have not already, you should take the time to go through this amazing collection of images. It is truly heartwarming — very inspiring snapshots of their work with deserving children.

The teachers traveled to Malawi as part of the Melete Foundation's International Teacher Program. The program was a collaboration between the Melete Foundation and Raising Malawi.

You can read our first post about the program here.

Today is Madonna's birthday. Her dedication to the 2 million orphaned and vulnerable children of Malawi has inspired so many of us. So this year, for her birthday, we wanted to honor her by saying, "Thank you."
Join Raising Malawi in sharing a birthday message with Madonna now.

Send your message here.

The three fellows, all American teachers, are getting a first-hand look at the serious challenges facing Malawi's educational system. While in Malawi, the teachers are using a journal to record their thoughts, observations and experiences.

Fellow Zakiyyah Ali is a community organizer and history teacher at the High School for Global Citizenship in Brooklyn, New York. Working with students and teachers in Malawi fits perfectly into Zakiyyah's global philosophy: we all have so much to learn from the world that surrounds us.

Check out Zakiyyah's journal entry from August 2:

For the past two days, July 29th and July 30th, I have visited with the teachers of the Millennium Village in Gumulira. This is a primary educational facility, schooling students from Standards 1 to 8 (in the American system this would Kindergarten to 8th grade)... the teachers travel exorbitant distances to reach the school by 7:30 AM, usually by local bike riders. There is no government transport system to provide for its teachers. The pay is very little and the teachers are extremely overworked. During the regular school year, the class size can be as large as 75 students or more! With this increase in the amount of students, there is still only one teacher, very few, if any resources, and yet the expectation remains the same — to educate. While there are teachers who are able to demonstrate minimally good methodological practices to engage a particular class, school-wide there is not the demonstration of best practices.

To read all of the journal entries from Melete fellows Ian, Jebediah and Zakiyyah, click here.

Find out how you can get involved and help raise Malawi here.

What was the situation like at the start of the project in Gumulira?

The project was launched in September 2006 to address a major challenge of food insecurity caused by limited access to improved hybrid maize seed and inorganic fertilizers. Maize production was as low as 1.2 to 1.5 metric tons or less. As such, food insecurity was prevalent during some months of the year. The project area also faced a challenge of limited and difficult access to medical services, with the nearest health facility being over 10 kilometers away. Access to clean water was also a prevailing situation, with a majority of the people using unsafe water drawn from shallow and open wells, predisposing the people to various water-borne diseases. There was a poor learning environment for primary school pupils, with inadequate or no classrooms (learning under a tree and borrowed church facilities) in one of the schools in Gumulira. Deforestation due to tobacco production and other environmental mismanagement practices continues to threaten Gumulira, making it vulnerable to devastating climatic changes. There is no electricity in Gumulira, neither is there a piped water system.

How has the village benefited directly from the project / Raising Malawi support?

Gumulira has implemented a number of development interventions to close some of the development gaps described above. For example, there has been the provision of hybrid maize seed and inorganic fertilizers, thereby realizing increased production of maize from an average of between 1.2–1.5 metric tons per hectare to 4.27–5.6 metric tons per hectare. This has created a food surplus situation and, the surplus production has been used as a source of income and contributing to the school feeding program in the project, currently reaching up to 1,864 pupils. The project also benefited from the distribution of 700 female and 30 males goats on a “pass-on scheme,” and just over 130 goats have been passed on to secondary beneficiaries.

Although the project has had no physical structure in the form of a health facility, access to health services has been significantly improved by conducting integrated outreach clinics twice per week and a school health intervention. Over 6,000 people have been treated over the past four years and distance to access health services has been reduced from 10km (over six miles) to about 2km (just over one mile). The project drilled six new boreholes and repaired 16 non-functional ones and, therefore, providing clean water to over 5,000 people. Community members were trained on maintenance of the water points to ensure continuous availability of potable water.

Gumulira has also benefited from the construction of a new school with four classrooms. As a result, the government upgraded the school from standard 2 to standard 4. Gumulira has also benefited from improved communication through the erection of a tower by Zain Malawi under Millennium Promise partnership with Ericsson.

What is the most memorable story coming from the village?

One of the memorable stories is that community members in Gumulira harvested more maize per unit area than the national average production. Therefore, households have had adequate food over the past four years and were able contribute two bags of maize (100kg) for the school meals program and the surplus was used to purchase a US$17,000.00 truck to support the construction of the community center in Gumulira. The truck is being used as a business venture for the Gumulira community and is also used to ferry various materials including bricks, sand, quarry, stone, cement and irons sheets for community projects. Another story concerns the improved access to medical services saw the reduction in travel distance from 10 km to a maximum 2km through the introduction integrated outreach health services. This has provided easy family planning services with an increase in contraceptive prevalence rate from 20%–62%. And for outpatients services over 6,000 people have been treated with an average of 40% of those treated coming from outside Gumulira. The provision of health services gave rise to the formation of a Community Based Organization (CBO) and an HIV and AIDS support group providing group therapy.

If more support / resources were to become available, how would these resources be used, what would be the expected impact?

Additional resources would be applied for completing the construction of staff houses for a health facility and construction of additional school blocks and teachers’ houses. The additional support would also be applied towards scaling up the project from only covering 5,000 people to 20,000–25,000. This would mean more people having access to safe drinking water, directly improving health by reducing illness cause by water-borne diseases; more people with access to opportunities for agricultural inputs on loan and other business loans for economic empowerment and for food production.

Additional support/resources would also be applied for improving energy supply for the village by connecting the village to the national electricity grid and giving more business opportunities in the village, including processing and pumping water for irrigation purposes. A gravity-fed piped-water system is another project for additional resources.

How has the support from Raising Malawi changed the long-term outlook for the community at Gumulira?

The support for Raising Malawi has indeed changed the long-term outlook of the Gumulira community. For example, the community school now has a new school and six additional classrooms, complete with school meals kitchens. The community now has a multi-purpose community center, the meeting place for Gumulira. The Gumulira community is now connected to the world through the provision of a network cellular phone within a 15 km radius (over nine miles). The number of cellular phones is ever on the increase from ZERO in September 2006 to over 400 in July 2010.

The provision of agricultural inputs and hybrid maize seed has completely changed the food security situation and the maize planting technology of one seed per planting station has changed the production system. Access to clean water has now assured that the various water committees entered into maintenance contracts of their water points with an area mechanic.

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