Forgotten Voices

REQUEST: $2,500 to implement cost-effective interventions to improve child development. 

MALAWI (BLANTYRE AND CHIKWAWA REGIONS)
  • Population: 20,300,000

  • Languages: English (official), Chewa (common), Lambya, Lomwe, Ngoni, Nkhonde, Nyakyusa, Nyanja, Sena, Tonga, Tumbuka, Yao

  • Religions: Protestant 33.5%, Roman Catholic 17.2%, other Christian 26.6%, Muslim 13.8%

  • Median Age: 16.8 years

FORGOTTEN VOICES

Forgotten Voices International demonstrates the love of Jesus Christ by partnering with local churches in Southern Africa to empower families and caregivers to meet the spiritual, emotional, and physical needs of orphaned and vulnerable children in their communities. Our hope is that every child will experience the love of God and the security of a family, church, and community.

Orphaned and vulnerable children often grow up in densely populated communities with extreme poverty, high unemployment, and illiteracy levels that place them at risk for exploitation. This environment provides limited opportunities to access critical resources or services they need to survive and thrive. Parents and caregivers are not always equipped with the necessary skills, knowledge, or resources to meet the needs of the children in their care in these volatile contexts. This leads to many children growing up with poor health, inadequate nutrition, delayed growth and learning, inadequate decision-making and social skills, and other destructive behaviors that trap them in the cycle of poverty.

We want to come alongside one of our church partners in Malawi to implement cost-effective interventions to improve child development. We hope to break the cycle of poverty through early learning skills, nutrition, and reproductive and adolescent health in our effort to build resilience and strengthen families. Ndirande Rocksprings Church has two programs for orphaned and vulnerable children in their community: 1) a free preschool for younger children, and 2) a program for adolescents.

Working alongside the church we want to provide:

  • 1 nutritious meal per day for one school term for 32 children (aged 1-6) that attend the preschool
  • Toys and learning resources, and supplementary teacher’s training to improve the quality of the educational experience
  • Improvements to the church vegetable garden to improve nutrition and opportunities for the children to play and learn
  • Reproductive health lessons, including training to make reusable sanitary pads for the older girls to reduce the school drop-out rate (girls are forced to miss school when menstruating without adequate sanitary supplies)

Image Copyright: Forgotten Voices International

Children after their childcare class

Forgotten Voices Caregiver Testimony Malawi

Image Copyright: Forgotten Voices International

Story

Linda attends the free preschool at Ndirande Rocksprings Baptist Church. She and her three siblings are being raised by a young single mom whose husband abandoned the family when she was pregnant. Desperate for childcare so she could do piecework to provide for her children, she brought Linda to the preschool, even though she did not attend that church. 

Since her enrollment, Linda has begun to thrive in a safe environment, and the whole family has been positively impacted. We pray that other children will have the opportunity to access such services and resources in their communities. Pastor Jambo, who leads this initiative at church said “She is just a child, who now has this safe environment where she is allowed to be a child. We have also been helping her mother by providing food packs for the family, among other things.”

HEALTH / HYGIENE

FAMILY / COMMUNITY CARE

FOOD

THEOLOGY

EDUCATION / TRAINING

INFORMATION / RESEARCH

EQUIPMENT / TOOLS

MATERIALS

RENOVATION / MAINTENANCE

ADMINISTRATION

TRAVEL

OTHER

* Highlighted budget icons apply to this grant

Budget
Description Cost
Supplementary meal for children at the center (Soya flour-porridge or tea and sweet potato) $880
Teaching and learning materials, toys, stationery, board games, sports balls $560
Supplementary teachers training workshop/materials $450
Reproductive health education/reusable pad making sessions (cloth, needles, thread, fabric) $490
Garden inputs, seeds, pesticides, tools  $120
Total Budget Requested: $2,500

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