Thank you from Fr Alfred and the ladies in Matumba
25th September, 2019 Briefly, I wish to thank the SALUT – Malawi Team for the underwear and bras you sent for our needy women and girls. Our women and girls are very grateful for such wonderful gifts and they appreciate so much for your generosity and kindness.
You can tell from their smiles their gratitude and happiness
It’s not an easy thing for poor Malawian women and girls in typical villages like Matumba to get a bra / underwear on their own if they have nobody to give them. A woman / a girl who has no bra / panties is likely to be abused by men or boys who are financially stable. Some men take the advantage of their money to abuse poor women / girls by offering their money in exchange for sexual activities.
I, therefore, commend and appreciate for this particular awesome present offered to our vulnerable women and girls. You can tell from their smiles the gratitude and happiness they have:
Finally, I am wishing the SALUT- Team the very best as they are geared to help our needy women and girls.
Yours in Christ & Mary,
Fr. Alfred
The Parish Priest Matumba Catholic Parish
Update from Jacqueline Nunes, SALUT team co-ordinator
October 2019
Dear friends, supporters and well-wishers of SALUT-Malawi,
Warmest greetings to you today, the International Day of the Girl Child! Yes, that’s right, there is such a day!
In 2012 the United Nations declared 11 October an international observance day to draw attention to the inequalities, barriers, prejudices and harmful practices that continue to hold far too many girls back from realising their full potential. (To find out more, just click on https://www.un.org/en/events/girlchild/)
So what better day can there be to thank you for all of your efforts and donations this year and share with you the first response we have received from Malawi following the arrival of our boxes of undies, soap and reusable sanitary pads. We have been overwhelmed with your efforts, especially those who have taken the initiative and organised collections on our behalf through facebook or a box at work.
This first report comes from Father Alfred, parish priest of Matumba parish, the newest parish to be welcomed into the Malawi-TWIN Container Project. This is Father Alfred’s first parish and his studies at school and the seminary were actually paid through Malawi-TWIN’s Sponsorship Programme which supports the education of promising students from poor families.
His report lets us see “first hand” the truly valuable impact your donations are having on so many lives. Sadly it also reveals one more reason why your simple donations are so vital to our sisters in Malawi. Not only do bras and panties help girls attend school and protect women and girls from sexual violence, your donations also protect them from sexual exploitation. For the report makes clear that the gift of underwear reduces the vulnerability of women and girls to richer men in their villages who prey upon their poverty.
Imagine for a moment not having enough money for the most basic necessities. Consider the desperation of a mother to feed and clothe her children; or, the despair of a young girl forced to be a mother to her siblings after the death of her parents. Without an education to sustain their efforts to earn money, they have very few available options. It is easy from that point to imagine their cold fear, their raw anguish when an offer of help comes with the demand for sex. While this sad reality can be found everywhere, a recent BBC article has shown what it looks like in Malawi https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-49164356?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/clm1wxp5pert/malawi&link_location=live-reporting-story
It is a centuries-old story of the powerful taking even the little that the powerless possess.
And yet today it feels like, perhaps, the times they may finally be changing. In the 21st century the internet, facebook and WhatsApp are are helping to improve projects like ours. Technology may be enabling the emergence of a global female solidarity that transcends borders and distance to tangibly help those in need.
So again, on behalf of our sisters in Malawi, we say thank you for caring, thank you for sharing, thank you for doing. Thank you to all those who have knocked on our doors or emailed or texted to say, “I’ve got some bags for you…”
We hope that seeing the result of your generosity today raises your spirits and gives you hope for the future.
All our best wishes,
The SALUT-Malawi team