MRF-UK equips 38 youths with tool kits for plumbing, bricklaying, carpentry & joinery
Charity foundation, Malawi Relief Fund-UK (MRF) has empowered 38 youths with starter pack tool kits to support their vocational skill they attained from their training at Maone Vocational Training Centre.
This is in line with MRF-UK’s objective of supporting government’s efforts to empower young people with vocational skills that will enable them secure sustainable livelihoods and support themselves and their families.
At the graduation of the first cohort of students at Maone Vocational Training Centre, MRF-UK Country Coordinator, Yakub Valli announced that they are supporting the graduates with complete starter pack tool kits for all who pursued courses in carpentry & joinery; bricklaying and plumbing.
Valli said this has been done in collaboration with Issa Foundation (UK) in their efforts of supporting young people to attain vocational skills, empower individuals and address the root causes of poverty.
“We have invested K600 million to train young people for free, providing opportunities for self-sufficiency and help individuals break free from a cycle of dependency,” Valli said, adding that they are identifying rural communities where they can set up vocational skills training centres.
He stressed that their focus is to improve access to education, health, provide clean water & sanitation and to relieve poverty by building capacity through empowering programmes aimed at improving livelihood opportunities.
“The past three years have been extremely challenging through difficult economic conditions in the country following the CoVID-19 pandemic and cyclones, whose consequences increased costs that hindered our efforts to enhance areas of support.
“But we are focused to to provide meaningful project deliveries that include provision of vocational training centres in rural areas,” he said.
Just last month, MRF-UK provided wheelchairs at Chiradzulu District Hospital upon discovering that patients were being carried on guardians backs for medical services due to lack of the mobility equipment.
Vialli said they came to detect this worrisome challenge when two of MRF-UK officers, project manager Munira Abdullah and administrator, Aisha Missi visited the hospital to check on one of their patients there where they observed that patients needing services of the casualty department were being carried on guardians backs and upon enquiry they were told that the whole hospital do not have wheelchairs.
This deeply moved Munira and Aisha and immediately engaged management at the hospital to ask if MRF-UK could provide them with some, to which they instantly agreed.
Chiradzulu is one of MRF-UK’s catchment areas where they assist vulnerable people by building them low cost houses as well as providing food relief in times of disasters.
In 2021, the charity donated washing machine with a 8.0kg washing capacity to the district hospital’s laundry room — whose five machines and a dryer had broken down — easing the burden of its laundry staff, who had to manually wash bed linens and other necessary medical cloths.
MRF-UK also repaired the hospital’s mortuary’s cold room by replacing a compressor and its accessories to cater for six of the 12 corpse drawers.
The charity also donated 30 wheelchairs to six hospitals in the Eastern Region of the country with referral Zomba Central Hospital receiving 10 and four each for Mulanje, Phalombe, Machinga, Balaka and Mangochi district hospitals.
In March this year, MRF-UK — also in partnership with Issa Foundation (UK) — officially handed over 200 climate change-resilient houses which were constructed for the benefit of the vulnerable elderly women in the areas of Traditional Authority (T/A) Maganga in Salima District.
The houses were complemented with boreholes that were sunk around the communities where they were built and were handed over as the two charities were reviewing their annual house project assessment.
So far, MRF-UK has drilled over 80 boreholes in different areas of Malawi from 2022-2023 from the several catchment areas that vulnerable people are assisted, more especially elderly women who support orphans and so far.
Also in partnership with Issa Foundation (UK), over 1,957 low cost but climate change-resilient houses have been built and handed over — accounting to over 3,800 in different areas of the country.
Apart from houses and provision of clean water, MRF-UK with funding from Issa Foundation have constructed a faith and learning hub for the Salima community.
In November last year, MRF-UK handed over 142 decent houses in the villages of Mchiliko and Malowa in Namwera, Mangochi District through the that was initiated in 2015.
MRF-UK started building low cost houses since the floods of 2015 in Chiradzulu, Mangochi, Ntaja, Nselema, Namwera, Zomba, Phalombe and Salima that became the charity’s catchment areas for assistance.
The houses come along with latrines and the beneficiaries are also provide a starter pack of items that include mattresses, blankets and kitchen utensils and sinking of boreholes in such communities.
Provision of clean and safe water is one of MRF-UK objective in assisting humanitarian needs of vulnerable people as well as food handouts and the gift of sight, among many other projects.
The charity also manages a Talha Scholarship that reaches out to more 240 students in various universities and colleges in which over a 100 females are in teacher training programmes.
Though its catchment areas are Zomba, Chiradzulu, Phalombe and Mangochi, MRF-UK swiftly moved in to assist flood victims of Cyclone Ana in 2022 with relief items that included food, clothing, blankets, safe water and shelter in the Lower Shire.
The charity also assisted when Tropical Cyclone Freddy-induced floods devastated the Southern Region.
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