What's happening at Bahasi Jan 2023

An overview of activities on our programs for 2023. Of course things are defined for the now and we can never know what will or may happen this year. As you will see it is very challenging and hope you will help us and support us,  a donation is always appreciated. Thank you!

Home Based Care

Home based care will be active all year. BAHASI will be giving support to people in their homes which, the people responsible for it would be Fraser, Phoebe and Tabia.

Feeding Program

The feeding program will continue to feed the 150 preschool children who learn at the BAHASI nursery school, 2 meals a day all year. This program is really important to the community as without these meals the children would go hungry. This programme will be supported by Katie and Chifundo.

Support Group

The BAHASI support group will be active all year. It will use activities such as cooking, football and netball to help people feel supported and give them the chance to have some fun whilst having a place to get aid and assistance. Each month there will be a different activity to do each month. These activities will be decided by Friday and will cover what activities will be performed by the support group each month. This program will be headed by Mrs Paul, Rodney and Smart.

Construction

BAHASI plans to construct a new girls’ hostel and a new kitchen to cook in. The plan for the hostel is to start construction in March, after the rain stops slightly. The project should take approximately 5 months and run from March until July. Currently, there is not enough funds to be an led to finish the project. We have been able to buy the bricks to start the project but need extra funds to be able to start the building project. As we continue the build we will need more funds. Because of funds we are unable to start the construction of the new kitchen, before finishing building the new girls’ hostel. Mercy, Phoebe and Katie will be responsible for overseeing the construction of the girls’ hostel and the kitchen.

Youth Club

The Youth Club will be running once a month for the whole year. This will help the youth in the community to focus on something positive, there will be activities that will help them feel supported and get involved and be surrounded by positive influences. The Youth Club will be spearheaded by Lonijezo and Chifundo.

Library

The library will be open all year for people to come and access the books. There is going to be a new shipment of books in September. BAHASI was approved for a shipment of 500 books from America, this will give the library an opportunity to be a place for members of the community to come and increase their knowledge and a chance for people to increase their English abilities. Mercy and Katie will be responsible for the BAHASI Library.

Garden

Rodney and Smart will be responsible for the upkeep of the BAHASI garden which will run all year. They will also help organising the rent of a maize field and the planting of the maize. We are aiming to plant the maize in August.

Farewell Party

On the 29th July, our Project Trust volunteers will be leaving BAHASI. On the night of the 28th July there will be a dance party to say goodbye. This event will be organised by Smart and Chifundo.

Trip

Katie and Phoebe will be responsible for organising a trip to Mangochi for the BAHASI orphanage. This trip will be supported by ex volunteer Jake and other ex volunteers but we will be fundraising through Facebook and other social media platforms to gain the funds to go. We need to research how much this trip would cost. The trip will take place from the 28th April to the 1st May.

Fundraising

A fundraising event is taking place on the 29th of January to raise funds the buy maize for the preschool families who are not getting food from our feeding program currently. It will be a birthday party for one of the orphanage children. There will also be another fundraising event on the 5th of May to raise money for the construction of the girls’ hostel. The event will be a walk from BAHASI to Blantyre. Letters need to be written for people to support this event. Mercy and Phoebe will be in charge of fundraising.

Income Generating Activities

Rodney and Marget will be in charge of these. We hope to do some of these in April but need to check this.

Sport

There will be a Bangwe football and netball league starting in February and lasting around 3 months. We have already found funding for the men’s football league but are still looking for people to donate to the netball league. The orphanage also swim at Hillview school each Saturday during term time. We thank Hillview for their kindness. Katie and Isaac will be responsible for sport. The BAHASI orphans are also planning to take the children each Friday to play football and netball at the local pitches.

Women Empowerment Program

BAHASI’s Women Empowerment Program is going to run from June to December. It will be a chance for women within the local community to gain training in sewing and dress making. Mercy will be responsible for running this program and Katie and Phoebe will be there if help is needed.

New Staff Needed

BAHASI plans to hire a new guard which will help improve the security of the compound. But they have a problem with money to be able to pay a new guard. Because of the increase in the price of a bag of maize the guard’s salary doesn’t go as far as it used to and BAHASI can not afford the increase in salary. We are checking BAHASI’S annual budget to see if we can support an extra guard.

School bus

BAHASI are currently looking at buying their own minibus. Having their own minibus would cut down the costs as we would no longer have to pay to rent a minibus. It costs BAHASI 460,000K a month for the minibus which takes the children to school each day. We also pay for general transport and with our own minibus this would be greatly decreased. In total our transport costs us around 500,000K per month. A lack of money for transport can mean that we are unable to do home assessments.

Flooding

Due to flooding, one of our Caregiver’s houses have fallen down. It is really important that BAHASI supports their care givers during the rainy season.

Training

BAHASI plans to fully train their staff in Child Protection, Psychosocial Care and Early Child Development. We hope to do this with Yamikani to be able to share the cost and ensure that all staff are fully trained.