2018 – changes at the Feeding Centers

Dear all,

By God’s grace we have entered into a new year and, interestingly enough, now we also mark exactly 2018 days since the beginning of the work with the orphans. In an effort to make the ministry with the orphans in Kachere and Mpyupyu more efficient, and to better communicate with you, our valuable sponsor and prayer warrior, we have decided to implement some needed changes that will come into effect at the beginning of February.

The ministry with the orphans and malnourished children started in 2012, when I was informed of the sudden passing of one of the children in Kachere. The news shocked and upset me, and I promised the Lord to do something that would help the most unprivileged children in the villages where we work. I truly felt, and still feel, that I was called to be His mouth, hands, and feet for these little ones.

At the time we started with 16 children, all orphans of both parents. We didn’t have money – I actually borrowed 2 weeks’ worth of food. We didn’t have supporters. We didn’t have a building, but what we had was a passion and a desire to fulfill God’s Word as found in James 1:27: “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” Like Isaiah, I feel it is our duty as Christians to protect the fatherless and the widows, to do them justice, and to be a voice for them, in a world that does not hear them.

God has been faithful and immediately put people in our path, ready to help us help these children. Before we knew it, 16 became 51, then 102. From one Feeding Centre, in Kachere, we increased to 2 and from 102 children in total, we’ve reached more than 230.

Through the years, many things have happened, and the number of children we help kept growing. It became increasingly difficult to keep track of all the children, their needs and their stories, so we saw the need to hire teachers, while praying for a volunteer missionary to come and help us.

You see, the ministry with the children is a full ministry in its own rights. It requires 100% of time, energy and focus, and it is not something we can do by ourselves at such a large scale. Our ministry in Malawi also includes a Bible School, a Primary School, almost 40 pastors with just as many churches, Pastor’s Conferences and many other aspects. Of course, we also have our 3 children, who need our time and discipleship as well.

Here are some of the changes we are planning to implement, while we continue to pray for a volunteer.

Reduce the number of children

One of the biggest problems we are facing is the large number of children we currently assist – as compared to the facilities, staff and initial vision.

You see, Hope for the Future Orphan Care & Feeding Centre in Kachere was built to accommodate 100 children, but there are now over 130. That means the place is overfilled, and the teachers have a hard time properly caring for them as each and every one of them deserves.

Then there is the vision that God gave me: to take care of the orphans. You see, throughout the years, children left and new children came and sometimes not all who came were real orphans. Some of those we are now helping have parents, while others who are full orphans, cannot be assisted due to lack of space. As my duty is first towards my Lord, I feel this change is very important for my obedience to Him.

Quality rather than quantity

This is a well known principle that we believe is important in our ministries. While I am not saying that we did not deliver quality until now, I am saying that more can be done.

One of the plans I have for the Feeding Centers is a *school of arts* where orphan children can learn a trade to prepare them to be able to support themselves later. Together with the education that we provide, this will give them many more opportunities in life.

Train the staff

Hope for the Future is a growing ministry, and people that work with us are not professionals. They have a sincere desire to serve the Lord, but they are not trained for the work we have given them. The work with the children is so important on all levels that we feel like, in order to be even more efficient, we need to train those that have the desire to serve the Lord.

The Social Welfare office in Zomba provides training for social workers, and we plan on having all our teachers and cooks attend.

Updates for you

Now I am going to mention a few of the changes that will affect you, as our valuable sponsor.

We are well aware of the importance of proper communication with you. We are in the process of assigning Tendai, one of our teachers in Zomba, to this work of collecting information about the children. We will be able to update you via email and through our website if your child gets replaced by someone else. Children leave for various reasons: they grow to the age limit of 18, they get married, their relatives move, etc.

Also, every year we will update all the pictures on the website so that you can see the progress of your child.

If your child is not on the updated list, we ask that you would consider continuing to be a blessing to this ministry. There are many expenses at these 2 Feeding Centers, all of which play an important role in making the entire ministry work. Some of these include: the daily needs of food, clothing, and education for the children, salaries for the workers, training fees, transport money, maintenance needs, medical expenses, and many more. Your $35 or more contribution is vital to the ministry in Malawi.

In conclusion, we will be focusing again on only the orphans of both parents and those without a father. We will be investing more in these little ones, preparing them for the life ahead of them. We will train the staff and bring you monthly and yearly updates.

How will the updates get to you?

We want to use one simple and efficient means of communication: online registration on our website. www.mission2malawi.com will now contain a special section accessible only to you. Since we are required to protect the privacy of the children, this section will only be available once you register on our website. You will need to choose a username and a password, and they will grant you access. The registration and access will be free.

We pray these changes will strengthen the ministry as it continues to honor God and serve the poorest of the poor.

As we partner with God in helping the fatherless (Ps. 68:5), we trust your partnership with us will continue.

“Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation.”

Instructions on how to register

Depending on which of the villages the child you sponsor comes from, please head over to either: Orphans in Kachere or Orphans in Mpyupyu. Once you have this page opened on your computer, you will be welcomed by a “Login” or “Register here” form. Since you are just creating the account, please fill in all the information required in the “Register here” section.

Username – a username of your choice. You will use it for logging in purposes.
Password – a password of your choice. You will use it for logging in purposes.

First Name, Second Name, Country and Email are self-explanatory.

Who do you sponsor? – the name or names of the children you currently sponsor.

Once all the fields have been filled in, please press the button “Register.” A confirmation page will be presented to you, informing you that your registration was successful.

At this point, please check the email address you provided so you may receive a confirmation email. At this stage, your account is being created. Upon receiving a second email that confirms your account has been created, you can then proceed to log in. This may take up to 24 hours.

Instructions on how to log in

Once you register with our webpage and receive the 2 emails, you are ready to log in and see the latest information on the child or children you sponsor.

Please go back to the page Orphans in Kachere or Orphans in Mpyupyu and fill in the two fields on top, under Login:

Username – the username you chose when you registered.
Password – the password you chose when you registered.

When done, press the button “Login” and you will be presented with the list of the children we currently feed at our Feeding Centers.

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Observations

The email you provide upon registration will be used to update you whenever there are changes with your child.

Should you need assistance when registering or when logging in, please contact us right away.

If you do not find your child in the list, please contact us immediately. Your child may be listed under another name, there could be a mistake, or he/she may no longer be a participant at our Center, in which case, there is a high possibility a replacement has been found.

The Government of Malawi has just recently implemented IDs for all its citizens, and the process is still ongoing. Please note that none of the children we currently feed have any sort of official papers, so names and ages are not always easy to nail down. We know this is not something our culture finds easy to understand, but it is simply the fact here on the ground. A child may go about one name at home and another one at school or in public. Some children are embarrassed of their names which can sometimes have odd meanings, and at one point in their life decide to change it. This creates further difficulties for us, especially when we deal with hundreds of children.

For instance, one of our workers, Misozi, goes by a different name at school. In Chichewa, “misozi” means “tears”, so at school she goes by “Omega”. If you were to ask for Misozi at her school, you would not find her and nobody would know her by that name. To make things more difficult, many Malawians take English names but spell and pronounce them differently, so “Friday” becomes “Fulaide” and “Edwin” becomes “Ediwini”. It is our duty to clear things up and we only ask you to have patience as we do it, should any confusion arise.

At the same time, orphan children rarely know their birthdays, thus making it very difficult for us to know their real age. Almost all the time this information is estimated, so don’t be surprised to find your child has the same age for 2 years in a row. As new information comes to light, we will do our best to keep you updated. We can promise you they do grow 🙂

We will do our very best to keep all the information on our site up-to-date. We rely on the teachers who know these children the best to update us whenever there is a change. Every month we will update the list of the children, and once a year we will update all their pictures.

When you send extra money for your child, please know that we cannot give a gift to only him or her while ignoring the rest of the children. All the gifts will be equally shared among them all, unless there is a special need.

Should you require more information or details, please contact us or the designated contact from your church.