Friday, May 29

Malawi update


Around this time we celebrate the feast day of St Kizito, which commemorates his martyrdom on the 3rd June 1886, together with the 32 slain by King Mwanga II of Uganda.
Today Malawi remains one of the poorest and less developed countries in the world, but its reputation remains “as the warm heart of Africa”.
This year it suffered a contraction in agriculture because of the late rains and some pockets of flooding which has adversely effected 80,000 hectares of cropland. Even so the country expects modest gains in their economy. 

What is a sobering thought is that it is estimated nearly half the population still have to exist on 1 dollar a day. This makes any efforts to help even more essential in ensuring there is a future community buildup of leaders through improved education, who are better able to serve their respective communities.
Recently Fr Taylor wrote to us telling us the scholarship and students support program is running very well and making a real difference. Currently work is underway renovating the local community day school and we are funding the cost of the roof. 
You would be pleased to hear that Fr. Taylor tells us there remains a great spirit amongst the people so that for him it is both an honour and a pleasure to work with them. 
 Click on Malawi Support Group blog link for all the latest photos.
 

4 comments:

susan said...

While I'm sure you don't want to be congratulated for your work with the Malawi Support Group, Lindsay, I can't help but let you know just how much I admire your work and belief in these children. I have looked at the blog page dedicated to the effort and the children are beautiful - as is Fr Taylor's deep commitment.
All the very best

Lindsay Byrnes said...

thanks Susan -the future rests very much on helping the communities and their beautiful children with more opportunities -such as better education, so that from such small measures big things can happen. Fr Taylor has been instrumental in establishing a multitude of small communities, each with a secretary and chairperson who look out or the needy and are largely self sufficient , except on odd occasions. Around this model we help fund the infrastructure (mainly buildings ) to provide the community hub. The aim eventually, of course , is to be self sufficient. But a lot of very good work has happened and will continue - from a base of 30 years ago when there was nothing much at all
Best wishes

Gary said...

I'm with Susan on this Lindsay. I also know you are a humble guy and that's fine. But thank you all the same for what you bring to the world!

Best to you in all other ways too - I probably see your daughter's life via Facebook more than we connect. I need to work at improving my record!

Lindsay Byrnes said...

Hi Gary
Nice to see you here and I was thinking the book I purchased recently would be of particular interest to you as an avid reader. It is called "Beyond literal belief- Religion as a metaphor” and is written by David Tacey. I attended his book launch and I know him casually. I’m sure you would enjoy the read. Tacey is Emeritus Professor of Literature at la Trobe University and he has written many books on spirituality, religion, youth and mental health, but this one represents his lifelong quest –dedicated to enable future generations to make more sense of religion than the generations before. You can get the book through Garratt Publishing. Best wishes.