AUGUST 2017

After leaving Tonbridge on Saturday June 10^th our ninth container was taken via Birmingham to the port of Felixtowe.  From there it sailed down the Atlantic to Durban (South Africa) then on to Beira (Mozambique).  It was then taken by road to Malawi and arrived safely at its first stop in Blantyre on Monday August 21^st.   All recipients have now received their cartons.

Photos of the unloading and distribution have now started to arrive and are shown below  …:

FIRST STOP BLANTYRE …

THE NEXT STOP IS LILONGWE …

The whole operation at Lilongwe is co-ordinated by our friend Maggie Nyoni, whoe is the Headmistress of Mkomachi secondary school.   We sent cartons to the school plus toys and other equipment for a new play group which a friend has recently established.   Some photos below …

FOR THE SCHOOL …

FOR THE PLAYGROUP …

The following is a report from Maggie concerning the unloading at Lilongwe …

Date             24 August,   2017

From            Maggie   Nyoni, Mkomachi Day Secondary School, P.O. Box 40212,                          Kanengo, Lilongwe 4.

To                 Brian Robert Wilkins & the Corpus Christ – Malawi Twinning Team

Re;                A REPORT ON THE OFFLOADING OF CONTAINER NO.9 IN                                  LILONGWE

Dear Brian,

I am writing this report so as to give you an insight on how things went on the day of unloading container number 9 which took place in Lilongwe on the 22^nd of August.

To begin with, I arrived at the offloading destination   a bit late because the Lorry that Frank had organized to carry our load did not turn up on time. However, Kondwani Mimu was proactive and very helpful.  He had already started unloading the containe  by the time that I arrived at the place.

Almost all the beneficiaries were present at the unloading site. Work was easier because there were many people to help with offloading.  By 9 o’clock in the morning, the container was empty of its load.  We started verification of cartons  using  the printed information of the carton summary  sheets prepared and sent to us by Brian Wilkins. We were indicating a tick mark on each carton that has been counted.  This is where I had tough time trying to locate some of the cartons which were not found among the load.

The most notable cartons which I did not see during that exercise include carton 2/4 AG.no. 63 for Fr Dennis”s  load ,  2D.no.6  and 2D no.55, which were meant for Mkomachi Seco. School and they both contained electric sewing Machines.  I must confess that I really felt bad because ever since I started handling these things , this has been my first time to suffer such a terrible loss in terms of missing cartons.  While still verifying the cartons at the unloading center, I called Fr. Dennis to let him know about the missing cartons and help me in cross-checking at their unloading centre in Mzuzu in case I did not check properly. I also asked him to give me feedback on the same, which he did through BRIAN.

It is sad to note that up to now we can’t trace the missing cartons.  However, my assumption was that maybe ou  friends in the earlier centres may have mistakenly thought that they had offloaded their cartons if the code numbers were not  clearly legible. I came up with this assumption upon noticing about 5 or 6 cartons also meant for Blantyre, Malosa ( St. Luke’s )  as well as Mangochi being offloaded in LILONGWE.  These stray cartons were taken to a temporary store room by Kondwani Mimu and his team, waiting for owners to be notified to come and get their cartons.

I am hoping that whoever finds these missing cartons among their load during the carton opening ceremony will remember to send them to the rightful destinations.

All in all, the unloading exercise, though hectic, went well.  Most of the things were collected from the center on the same day and before noon time.

The Lorry from Mzuzu Anglican diocese which was initially booked to collect all the load for the northern region beneficiaries had a breakdown, therefore  Jacob and myself opted for other means of transportation. We hired a big van from the Malawi posts courier services which charged about 305, 500 Malawi Kwacha as the hiring cost. This cost was to be equally shared by the three well known beneficiary codes in the north ( Fr. Dennis, Fr. Sam, Mzuzu Anglican Diocese).

Finally, let me also report to you that the beneficiaries here are all smiles because of the increased number of cartons this year. They are all very thankful to  you BRIAN AND THE ENTIRE TEAM PLUS ALL VOLUNTEERS WHO WORKED TIRELESSLY FOR THE SUCCESS OF CONTAINER NO. 9 & FOR THE BENEFIT OF US MALAWIANS.

To sum up, we pray that GOD must keep on blessing all the hands that have given towards container no.9.  Friends, your sweat is not taken for granted.  To god be all the glory.

MAGGIE L. NYONI.

And one from the lady who established the Playgroup 

Date:            26 August, 2017

From :          Lydia Mathala,  Lyma Nursery school, Kanengo Lilongwe4 , Malawi.

To:                Maggie  L. Nyoni, Mkomachi Seco  Sch,  BOX 40212, Kanengo,                            Lilongwe 4.

cc                  Brian Robert wilkins,  Corpus Christ Church.

RE:               VOTE OF THANKS

I write to thank you for the valuable sent to me. Maggie, through your recommendation to your friends from  Corpus Christ Church in England, my family and nursery school has received several cartons of clothes ( babies clothes), school materials and to my surprise, a durable gift which I never dreamt of ever owning in my entire life time ( A Laptop Computer).

I don’t know what and how to thank you and all those friends of yours from England  (whom I call my God-send Angels), who worked tirelessly to send me these cartons full of expensive gifts. I thank you once again for what you did to me. I will never forget you as a God fearing lady whom God connected to England ANGELS for my benefit. Those friends and you are doing a great job to many Malawians in need of help.

With this help my Nursery school will change for the better.  Now, all the information about my school will be kept safely in the laptop I have received.  How I wish my husband had not died a few days before this glory arrived in Malawi and into my hands!!

Well, since my school has kids of ages from three to six years, the clothes sent are too small to be worn by them. However, I have decided to  donate them to a hospital. I have chosen  AREA 25 Health Centre  CLINIC which is just close to LYMA nursery School, about a kilometer  or so. I am happy that all newly born babies at this clinic will have something to put on as they get discharged from the  hospital. Above all, together we are making a difference to the needy.

Lastly, I thank  God for your hospitality. May God bless you and all your parteners from outside the country for the good gesture.

THANKS FROM :       LYDIA .

FOR ST PATRICK’S SEMINARY IN MZUZU…

FOR KARONGA PARISH …

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8^TH JUNE 2017

This message was sent by Brian to everyone involved in the Container project…

This is my last update before our items for container depart from Tonbridge:

I managed to secure a further 100 cubic feet of space in the container.  We had a small number of our packing team in the warehouse on Saturday, sorting the very best from our overspill.   

This makes a total for our ninth container of 800 cubic feet, compared to last year’s total of 470 cubic feet.  This will greatly enhance the aid to our friends in Malawi.

May I thank everyone for all your help this year, it has been quite a task, with having to move warehouses and the amount we have sorted and packed; what a wonderful achievement!

Our last and very important task is to help with loading our lorry this Friday evening (9th June), this will be quite a mammoth task as everything must be carried down from the first floor.   There is a total of 490 cartons: some very heavy and the total weight to be loaded is 6501 kg – or 6 1/12 tons.

 I am counting on everyone’s help this coming FRIDAY 9th June at 6 pm, if you are able to bring with you any strong young men, this would really help.

Fr Peter will be present to bless our project for a safe onward journey and we will then start our loading.   Once complete we shall celebrate with cake & bubbly.

Please try your utmost to be present, even f you have not managed to help this year, we would be delighted if you would join us on Friday. If you have not been this year, we have moved warehouses, so direction as follows:

Park in the normal car park as in previous years; at the end of the car park you will see a metal gate.   On the right- hand side of this, there is a pedestrian gate.  Once through the gate turn right and we are on the right.

I have attached the figures from our Saturdays packing & the final totals ready for dispatch on Friday.

Lastly a big thank you, for making container 9, another success story.  I look forward to seeing you all on Friday.

Lots of Love to you all,

Brian  

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All our packed items for Malawi loaded at our warehouse on Friday evening onto an 18 tonne Lorry.  Our load this year consisted of 490 cartons/items = 797.45 cubic feet weighing 6501 kg (6 1/2 tons) for trans-shipment to Birmingham the following day. (Last year Corpus Christi sent 470 cubic feet) 

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Photos of the loading …

11^th JUNE 2017

Brian’s follow up message …

Yesterday (Saturday 10th June) we transferred our cartons into our shared container at Birmingham.  All our items were successfully loaded and the container was 100% full. 

We spent seven hours in the loading, which proved to be a very hard task.  My grateful thanks go to Anthony, Tim, Rachel, Ashley & Liam who travelled to Birmingham with me, to help with the loading. 

This shipment will help many thousands of our friends in Malawi. 

Our ninth container was only possible, because of all the help I received from our parishioners and our dedicated team of packers and helpers, who have given so much time and effort over the past 11 weeks. 

I have received a lot of support over the past five months with our move to a different warehouse.  We had the planning and the physical moving of all our overspill from last year combined with much printing and technical work carried out behind the scenes with preparing many computers.

There are far too many people to thank individually, but without all your efforts this tremendous project would not be possible.   

I am also pleased to be able to report, that this year we have had so much help from the younger members of our parish, many have become very involved with our container project and their help has been very much appreciated.

I will attach some photos of both the loading of our lorry at Tonbridge and photos of the loading of the container at Birmingham.

Photos dated the 9th June is Lorry loading at Tonbridge & photos dated 10th June is container loading at Birmingham

The container is due in Blantyre Malawi late August early September, I will keep you updated of the progress of the container as I receive news & updates.

ONCE AGAIN –  A VERY BIG THANK YOU.

Photos of the unloading and transfer at Birmingham

 

MAY 2017 – Our cartons are now all packed and ready to go!  The photos below were taken on Saturday May 20th and a full report on the total send will be displayed here shortly….

MAY 2017 -The latest packing session…

 

APRIL 2017 – Packing for the container has started!

Each carton is lined with plastic bags to protect the shipment from dampness whilst at sea.   Breakable goods are wrapped in clothing and stowed firmly to avoid damage.

AUGUST 2016

We have just received a donation of computers from St Gregory’s Comprehensive School, Tunbridge Wells.  Brian Wilkins, our project co-ordinator, has now stored them in the warehouse until packing commences.   See photos below….

 

 

 

 

 

 

JULY 2016

We have now started planning for a further container, to leave on Saturday 10^th June 2017 and we are off to a great start….

An offer has just been received from staff at Swadelands Secondary School in Lenham, Kent.   They are upgrading their IT equipment and have offered to us the following items:  There is also some sports equipment.  Figures approximate at the moment.

72 PCs with flat screen monitors.

10 ceiling projectors

8 interactive whiteboards

20 white marker boards (of various sizes)

2 pull down projector screens

A supply of Sports tops an PE kits.

We are now arranging for collection of these items, which will be adapted for use in Malawi and then shared between a number of schools and parishes.