Of all the Lifeline Fund’s many life-saving projects in Malawi, the Namisu Orphan Village is arguably the most well-known. Although Namisu is the organisation’s flagship project – established in 1999 and providing hundreds of orphaned children with food, water, education and healthcare – many other projects have started to follow its example and are subsequently growing in importance.
An example of this is a village in Namarita, in the rural Zomba district. When the Lifeline Fund’s co-ordinator John R. Searle came across Namarita, he discovered that hundreds of children were being deprived of education, just because the nearest school was too far away for them to travel every day. The rest of the story is easy to guess – the Lifeline Fund built a new school at Namarita.
Since then, the school went from strength to strength, helping more children every year. In June 2005, the Fund reported that the school had 14 teachers, 385 pupils and even an expert sports coach (the former coach of the Malawian National Football Team!). The school had a sports field, a playground and also accommodated livestock and land for growing its own crops.
In 2010, Mr Searle announced that the school at Namarita now has the following additions:
• An integrated primary school
• A medical clinic
• a successful practical vocational training programmes
• A new irrigation system to support the growing of crops and self-sufficiency
The Lifeline Fund has thanked everyone involved in the Namarita project for their continued support.
