IN 2002, Robyn Casey, mother of four adult children, from Ocean Grove visited Kande Beach on the shores of Lake Malawi, Africa.
Robyn was immediately confronted and challenged by the poverty and societal conditions impacting the local people but at the same time was amazed by their warmth and resilience in spite of these conditions.
Mphatso Children’s Foundation came from Robyn’s awareness that children in this district were often going for up to three days at a time without a proper meal.
Initially Robyn began a small nursery school in Mkuonda Village to ensure that the primary school aged children in the village received a nutritious meal a day and a pre-school education.
From this small start in 2004 Mphatso has grown and now feeds and educates over 1000 children a day through 12 nursery schools, and is now spread along a 40km stretch of Lake Malawi.
Mphatso is a registered NGO in Malawi and a registered charity in Australia.
Mphatso now employs over 60 local staff in Malawi and runs numerous programs alongside the nursery schools including a baby feeding program supporting up to 30 of the most at risk infants and a HIV women’s support group providing hope and a purpose.
Mphatso also provides limited emergency care and transport and supports the local soccer and netball teams.
The vision of Mphatso Children’s Foundation is to Feed the Children, Grow the Community and Impact the Future.
In 2016, based on data from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, Malawi was ranked the poorest country in the world and is arguable the most underdeveloped nation with its 16 million people struggling to improve their economy with limited access to health care, education and primitive agriculture procedures.
Mphatso is funded purely by donations of which 100 per cent goes directly to the work of the foundation at Kande Beach.
Local Ocean Grove friends of Mphatso are running a car boot sale to raise funds for this valuable work.
The carboot sale will be held on Saturday 29 October at The Wave, corner Wallington Road and Lake Avenue, Ocean Grove, from 8.30am to 1.30pm. Sites cost $20.
For more details contact Liz Pounder at liz.pounder@hotmail.com or 0467 969 544.
For more information on the Mphatso Childrens Foundation go to www.mphatso.org
