Click
for main Mzuzu pageRaising funds for Malawi.
Lead partner: Rotary Club of Irvine Seagate
For other Irvine links, click here
|
Click
for main Mzuzu page Raising funds for Malawi. Lead partner: Rotary Club of Irvine Seagate For other Irvine links, click here |
Stage
1, the 2004 ZipSlide, was a great success, thanks
to Seagate Rotary International committee and Rotary members, Irvine Sports
Club, the McFadden & Harkin families, and all the Sliders and sponsors.
The event raised over £8000 for our "Meeting
Needs in Mzuzu" project.
Stage
2: Rotary District 1230 (West of Scotland) are
supporting us, and we were granted US$12,499 by The Rotary Foundation.
The Rotary project will now be worth GBP 19,500 to Mzuzu.
Stage 3: Monitoring
the project in Malawi.
| International
YouthWrite details to follow
|
|||
ZipSlide
2004 - across the river Irvine -
from the Burns Statue to the Sports fields
Photo
shows Fr Nazarius about to cross the river
Two more photos on the
who did it
page.
Why Mzuzu? The community, in this northern town, many miles from the capital Blantyre, is in a country which ranks as the 6th poorest country in Africa. We are continuing the tradition, set by David Livingstone, of Scots helping those who have fewer resources but the will to succeed. The personal links already forged are ensuring that your help goes directly to where it can best be used.
-oOo-
| 1 In October 2003, Bernadette McFadden, a young Maths teacher at St Michael's Academy in Kilwinning, spoke to the Rotary Club of Irvine Seagate about her year teaching in the northern Malawi town of Mzuzu as a World Exchange volunteer. Her description of the conditions of life and of the need for education and of the gratitude of the people for the help they received, prompted the Rotary Club to invite Fr Nazarius, currently in Scotland for one year, to speak at a November meeting. | 2 The Rotary Club members were inspired to "lend a hand", realising that the personal contacts already existing between Irvine and Mzuzu would ensure that whatever assistance they could give would reach the people who needed it. Contacts were then made with the Rotary Club of Mzuzu. The Irvine Club's International Service Committee readily accepted responsibility for developing the project. | |
| 3 One of the Irvine members, Patrick McGlinn, suggested a ZipSlide across the river to raise money. This would be the most costly event in the Rotary Club's history, and members were concerned at the initial outlay. | 4 The Club boldly gave the go-ahead, and committee chairman Ian Dickson and his committee worked hard to fill all the slots and ensure a smooth event. The weather on the day was superb, the amounts raised by the sponsors exceeded expectation, and the event made over £8000 to set the project in motion - the highest total raised from one event in the Club's history. St Michael's added £800 to the project, and another source added £2200, bringing the locally raised total to £11,000 by the end of summer 2004. | |
5
Over August-December 2004, Rotarians prepared and submitted an application
for matching funds to The Rotary Foundation, Rotary's
international charity body, and in March 2005 received the requested grant
of US$12,500, which, with £1500 from the West of Scotland Rotary
District 1230, makes the whole project worth £19,500.
This is the biggest project the Irvine Seagate Club has ever undertaken.
The project is now under way. Latest news appears on our main
Mzuzu page. |
||
-oOo-
Where
is Mzuzu? Mzuzu lies at the northernmost end of the Viphya Mountains.
It is essentially a hub for timber products from the extensive plantations on
the mountains, coffee and tea from closer by, and rubber down by the lake. The
University's first faculties were of Education, Health Sciences and Forestry,
to be followed by Agriculture and Energy. Life there is very different from
that of the capital, Blantyre, 400 miles (600km) further south. The other countries
which appear on the map shown here are Zambia to the west, and Tanzania and
Mozambique on the far side of Lake Nyasa/Malawi.
-oOo-
Project Partners and relevant links:
Rotary
Club of Irvine Seagate (the international lead partner)
Rotary Club of Mzuzu (the project
host partner)
St Michael's Academy, Kilwinning
(initial contact with Mzuzu community, 2002-03,
Youth Exchange with Mzuzu, 2005)
Cadecom,
the Catholic Development Agency, organising new boreholes for water supplies,
and vertical gardening projects
St Peter's Secondary School, Mzuzu (no Web link)
Mzuzu University (founded 1997, first students admitted
1998)
The Altrusa
Inc. Club of Ayr (instigating a literacy project with Mzuzu)
for
further information or sponsor forms, or to offer your assistance in any other
way,
please contact Ian Dickson at dickson@zoo.co.uk
for
more information about Irvine and its organisations,
visit www.irvineayrshire.org
-oOo-
Message from Peter Mwanza, Vice-Chancellor of Mzuzu University:
I am most pleased with your efforts to assist us. Our needs are indeed numerous . . Our University is the Center of Excellence in Information Technology and for us to fulfil our objective we need to expand our present narrow base of computers so that we can effectively meet the needs of growing numbers of students. The other area of need is science laboratory equipment. The two items are very difficult to provide for through the regular budget."
Mzuzu University was founded in 1997 and admitted its first students in 1998. It is Malawi's second national university, the idea being to serve the Northern Region of Malawi, and has Faculties of Education, of Environmental Sciences, and of Information Science and Communications (established in 2003); six more faculties are planned for the next five years (2004-2009).
As a Rotarian of the Rotary Club of Mzuzu, it will be a great pleasure to work together with the Rotary Club of Irvine Seagate. The ZipLine event sounds most exciting. I wish I was there to participate.
.