Eden.co.uk & World Vision - A Child a Day

Eden.co.uk is committed to providing support for Children in Malawi through World Vision's Child Sponsorship Programme. We are aiming towards supporting  'a child a day'.

World Vision is a Christian, child-focused, relief, development and advocacy organisation dedicated to working with children, families and communities to overcome poverty and injustice. Motivated by a faith in Jesus Christ, World Vision serves alongside the poor and oppressed as a demonstration of God’s unconditional love for all people. World Vision serves all people regardless of religion, race, ethnicity or gender.

Why support work with vulnerable children and poor communities?

The need has never been stronger or more urgent. The global economic downturn, coupled with the global food crisis, compounded by the effects of global warming is hitting the poorest of the poor the hardest. Vulnerable children are the group most severely impacted by these deepening disasters. World Vision believes that though children are born into poverty, they don’t have to live their lives that way. By sponsoring children through World Vision we are are joining in a global movement to tackle and end child poverty.

Malawi

The Republic of Malawi is a landlocked country in southeast Africa. It is separated from Tanzania and Mozambique by Lake Malawi. Malawi has eleven ethnic groups; the official languages are English and Chichewa, with other regional dialects spoken.

Recovering from an oppressive single party political system that forced millions of its people to settle in neighbouring countries, Malawi faces serious challenges related to food insecurity, poverty and the impact of HIV and AIDS.

Malawi’s economy is based on small-scale farming. But unreliable weather -- too much or too little rainfall -- frequently threatens harvests, and as a result, millions of people face food shortages. More than half of Malawi’s population live in extreme poverty.

Children in Malawi

Children in Malawi face many challenges:

Plus 91,000 children under 14 are HIV positive or living with AIDS. 14% of the adult Malawian population are also infected.

More than 500,000 Malawian children have already lost one or both parents to AIDS and many families are now headed by children

One in eight children in Malawi die before the age of five

Nearly one third of children aged 5-14 provide cheap labour, mostly in tobacco and tea estates

Namachete Area Development Programme, Malawi

This programme, in a remote part of the Zomba district, south of Lake Chilwa, supports 40,000 people who are mainly subsistence farmers, growing maize, beans and vegetables on small plots of land. However, poor and erratic rainfall often causes crop failure and food shortages.

When World Vision began working in Namachete in 1995 there was little access to clean water, too few classrooms and teachers, and not enough healthcare facilities. Through sponsorship things are changing. Many new school blocks are being built. Children receive regular health checks and young people are becoming aware of the dangers of HIV/AIDS.

The livelihoods of farmers are improving through irrigation, provision of better seeds and livestock, and training in new business skills and farming methods, such as growing fruit trees. The people of Namachete take an active interest in their own development and have elected a committee to lead the activities of the programme. This committee will ensure that all the transformations are long lasting, and will keep the project going when World Vision’s work is phased out.