Manna for Malawi 2021
The Johnny Holm Band will perform at this year’s Manna for Malawi benefit fund raiser on Sunday, August 15th at the Bridge Tavern north of Crosby, Minnesota. The regional band has been attracting audiences for nearly 40 years in the United States, primarily in the five-state area. Holm began his musical journey just down the road from Cuyuna in Brainerd. Manna for Malawi 2021 runs from 2:00pm to 6:00pm. In addition to music, those who attend get to eat pulled pork sandwiches, beans, coleslaw and chips while they’re checking out the raffle ticket and silent auction items. Charge for the event is a free will offering.
Pastor Paul Mattson said his heart was touched when he saw first hand what Manna for Malawi has done and continues to do, helping to feed and educate the orphans. Malawi is in southeastern Africa, one of the poorest nations in the world. Average income is less than $2 a day.
“When we were invited to help the mission which began 14 years ago, volunteers fed nearly 400 hundred children, once a week. Currently, feeding takes place six days a week and up to a thousand African orphans get their only meal of the day,” Mattson added. Last year’s virtual event without band and food raised more than $28,000 to help feed and educate orphans. This year, with food and music should be better. Money raised this year will go for the feeding program, farm equipment, and education for orphan children.
Skills Center
The latest project at the Kanyenyeva Orphan Care Ministries location is a new Skill Center Building. The Skills Center currently houses the Days for Girls (DfG) Enterprise, which is a registered DfG business called Kanyenyeva Wala (Kanyenyeva Shines). Thanks to a grant from Westwood Community Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, along with many individual and corporate donors, the new Skills Center has an office, storage room and approximately 1200 square feet of open-air, covered space as a multipurpose area for the women to sew, students to read, or children to use as shelter and shade from the weather.
The DfG Enterprise, Kanyenyeva Wala is now up and running, using the secure storage room to house their sewing machines, materials and worktables, and using the open space for sewing production. We have learned that Kanyenyeva Wala is the only DfG Enterprise in Malawi that has its own building!
The new structure was also upgraded with a fresh coat of paint that was donated by the Kanyenyeva Ministries Board of Directors. The Skills Center now makes the third structure at the orphan care ministry to go along with the outdoor kitchen and meeting hall.
Now that the building is functional, we are raising funds to complete Phase 3. With the additional funds, the existing community water well will have an electric pump added, a tower and water tank will be built, and plumbing and septic system will be installed for the Skills Center room designated as a bathroom. Solar power will be added to operate the well pump and provide lighting for the building. The availability of solar power at the Skills Center will also allow caregivers to charge their cell phones without having to walk to the market and pay for a charge.
Phase 3 for the Skills Center power and plumbing installation already has $2,500 received toward a goal of $10,000. Donations made for this project can be sent to the MOCP address or through PayPal accessed here. Please indicate “Skills Center” with your donation.
We thank God for everyone who has donated to make this Skills Center a reality. Please prayerfully consider donating to complete the work on the Skills Center.
Education for Orphans
Education in Kanyenyeva, Malawi
For many years Malawi Orphan Care Project has supported sending High School aged boys and girls to school. In Malawi, public school only goes through eighth grade so if a child doesn’t have a benefactor sending them on to High School their education ends at eighth grade. Education is the cornerstone of economic development. It is the key to ending the cycle of poverty in Malawi. Donations for education consistently send sixty-seven (67) children on to High School. These are all children who are connected to the Orphan Project, learning about Jesus and the Bible and getting other very special interactions among which would be their free meals. Often an orphan will be enrolled in school but if his/her care giver cannot afford the fees, the child will be forced to drop out. Sometimes it is a matter of the care giver being able to provide food and shelter for the family over education. The poverty in Malawi is such that the free meal may be the only meal they get several times per week.
Kanyenyeva Ministries sends girls who are at risk of underaged marriage to Boarding School, which gets them in a much safer environment. This is often necessary because many of the girls have lost both of their parents to HIV/AIDS and are then being raised by grandparents or other relatives who have very little funds to offer support. They are rescued from the vulnerability of abuse or from having so many chores and responsibilities that they cannot keep up with school work. Without continuing their education through High School, the girls cannot ever hope to go on to a good job or to college. Kanyenyeva Ministries focus on girls’ education is because according to their culture, boys are more valuable than girls, and girls often get educated last, if at all.
Because of the orphan projects focus on education, two of the young men qualified for the very prestigious National High School of Malawi. Donations for education have been able to secure support to send them on to the National High School, and one young man has gone on to college in his home area. He is thriving there. His name is Precious and one day he hopes to be able to serve his community in some outstanding capacity.
It costs $150.00 for one year of High School and it costs $1500.00 for one year of Boarding School. The National High School tuition is $250.00 per year. One year of college is $4500.00 plus some incidental expenses.
If you have a heart for education or a heart for orphans in Malawi, we would welcome any contribution that you might be able to send. Our mailing address is: MALAWI ORPHAN CARE PROJECT, 53 PARK AVENUE WEST, MANSFIELD, OH, 44902 Or you can donate through paypal on this website.
Court Annulled 2019 Election
MALAWI ELECTIONS CRITICAL FOR COUNTRY’S FUTURE
In May of 2019, President Peter Mutharika was elected to serve a second 5-year team as president of Malawi. Mutharika was elected with 35% of the vote total. The next two closest rivals garnered over 50% between them. Malawi has used what is called a ‘first past the post’ process for the office of president, where the top vote recipient in a field receives the victory, even if they do not receive more than 50%.
The election process was marred with problems, even though the international observers who were present stood behind it. Tally sheets were copied, tally sheets were ‘corrected’ with ‘white-out’, many went missing, and many others showed up in precincts, sometimes exceeding the number of registered voters in a precinct.
In January of 2020, a special Constitutional Court ruled that the election process was so flawed that the results were annulled, and a new election was called to happen within 150 days of the verdict. The new election standard is 50% + 1, meaning the victor must garner over half of the ballots cast to be elected.
Two voting coalitions have emerged in the process. One is centered around the President and his party, and the other around the top two vote recipients from last May. The campaigning process has been marred with violence, with gangs of thugs beating rival party supporters, rocks thrown at rival politicians, and rival political offices fire-bombed, killing those inside.
The new election is scheduled for Tuesday, June 23. The government has attempted to delay this date, placing the security and validity of the process in question once again. Ballot papers arrived in Malawi just this past week. A new Election Commission was seated at the beginning of June. There is much room in the process for corruption to occur once again.
Pray for the election process in Malawi. For many years, the country has been led by those who have skimmed international aid, received payments under the table from vendors, handed out government positions to unqualified cronies, and grown rich on the backs of some of the poorest people on the planet. The people are crying out for leadership that will serve them, and not themselves.
