Thank you from Lydia’s Nursery School Lilongwe
Thank you from Fr Alfred – Kanyama
Thank you from Fr Alfred – Holy Trinity
Thankfully the container has been unloaded – 10th November 2023
As you are aware our container has been delayed by MRA, asking for duty on 289 items that we had been sending for the past 14 years. Many appeals were lodged with the MRA, but all of our appeals rejected.
It would seem that communications this year failed, in more than one area, and the first I knew of the containers unloading was from Fr Boniface, who is friends with Bishop Godfrey (who holds the import licence). He informed Fr Boniface Sunday that the container was moving warehouse & would unload on Monday (6th November). Fr Boniface checked with the other beneficiaries who collect from Blantyre, but none of them were aware of this, but all managed to be at the collecting point.
The arrangements were most unsatisfactory as the container started to unload at 5-15pm Malawi time & finished at 7-20pm Malawi time, as we are aware it gets dark at 6-00pm so most of the unloading was done in the dark.
The Malawi shipping agent (Mcknight Banda) was present at the unloading at Blantyre, I managed to talk with him to check the arrangements for the unloading at Lilongwe which he informed me would take place the following day (Tuesday 7th November). None of the beneficiaries collecting from Lilongwewere were aware of these arrangements! Thankfully they all managed to be at the collection point, with the exception of Maggie. Fr Alfred took care of Maggie’s items & acted as coordinator.
So as you can see all communications failed this year, it could have been a disaster, but in the end we only lost two cartons, one being a carton of school materials & the other a bundle of gardening tools.
20th September 2023
The container is at Fortunes warehouse in Blantyre, where it is undergoing customs clearance. The Malawi Shipping Agent advised that the clearance process is still underway and they are awaiting a letter from MRA.
14th container safely loaded on Saturday 17th June 2023
A few facts of the items sent in this years container:
- Shipping Cost £4,900 (700 cubic feet @ £7 per cubic foot)
- Desktop computers 35 (360 to date)
- Laptop Computers 11 (151 to date)
- Printing ink cost £806 (purchased by donations)
- Cartons of School Materials (cost £2,506 purchased by donations)
- Fabric & Bedding 74 cartons
- Children’s Clothing 31 cartons
- Reading Glasses 19 cartons ( containing 1000’s of glasses)
- Toys 17 cartons
- Tools 31 cartons/items
- Sewing Machines 12
- Sports Equipment 13 cartons
- SALUT 49 cartons
- 100’s of other cartons containing adult cloths, shoes, kitchen ware, masks etc.
Extra Space June 2023
I am delighted to inform you that we have obtained a further 100 cubic feet of space (as previous years). This means we shall be able to send all the stacking chairs suitable for the primary schools, also there are some items at Sevenoaks to ship to Fr Boniface & hopefully we will be able to send many of the cartons that were packed as overspill.
Packing underway April 2023
What a fantastic packing session last Saturday (15th April 2023). The team packed 91 cartons using a total space of 119.70 cubic feet, the weight = 607 Kg. Our total to date = 249 cartons – 315.00 cubic feet – total weight = 1616 Kg. (So just over half of our allocated space. We packed our first batch of 20 desktop computers. Hopefully we have another 15 desktop computers & a few laptop computers. We have ordered via the internet £2,500 worth of school material, which we hope will arrive this week.
So a massive thank you to all our wonderful helpers.
