The Australian government is making a significant
contribution to our Malawi project which is bringing fresh
water,sanitation, education, farming assistance and shelter
for orphans at Msema.
The Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs,
Bruce Billson, has announced a lifeline worth some $30,000
to help The Australian AIDS Fund Incorporated ( a non-profit
charity) complete a school building dream project for between
300 and 400 African children in Malawi - most of them AIDS
orphans.
Funding is being provided through the Australian government's overseas aid agency AusAID, which plays an important international role in helping those in need around the world, and helping communities achieve their potential. "It's an upbeat project", Mr Billson said.
A desperate SOS tapped out to him in March last year from
an Internet cafe in rural Africa,prompted AAFI President
Brian Haill to undertake the Malawi Project which began
with providing shelter to some 3 dozen AIDS orphans and
then to undertake the school-building initiative in what's
billed as one of the world's 10 poorest countries.
The Australian AIDS Fund Incorporated is arguably
Australia's smallest AIDS care charity, that's also provided
vital assistance to both Papua New Guinea and other parts
of the world including China, South America and other parts
of Africa. It works without any paid staff.
(A former ABCTV newsman, Haill has been providing services
for people living with HIV/AIDS for the past 20 years, particularly
in providing supported accommodation facilities in Melbourne
- including Australia's first such facility for women and
children)
Last March, desperate villagers of Msema in outback
Malawi scanned the Internet in their search for someone
to help them cope with their rising number of AIDS orphans,
some of the more than 14 million that there are now worldwide.Finding
Brian's website (www.aids.net.au) they begged for help."Considering
their overall plight,and our own limited funds, they might
just as well have asked us to buy them 3 Jumbo jets"
Haill said.
First a small house was bought to shelter 32 orphans aged
between 8 and 15. Then a plot of agricultural land from
which they could help feed themselves once the present famine
breaks.
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"Things got fairly frantic, as the local picture there
unfolded in all its dreadful poverty and need. We later
discovered some parents in debt for as little as 20 dollars
had given their daughters away to those from who they'd
borrowed such little money to simply survive." Haill
said. "It was our biggest ever challenge."
The Australian AIDS Fund, which is based at Frankston,
appealed to local Mornington Peninsula schools to help build
a primary school at Msema to care for hundreds of children
who would otherwise have to trudge miles, barefoot and hungry,
to get themselves an education.It's already been named The
Australian Primary School..which the locals have also dubbed
'the orphans learning centre'.
Brian also sought assistance from Bruce Billson,
his local Federal Member, the Parliamentary Secretary for
Foreign Affairs, who moved quickly to help.
Grandsons James and William Deagan plugged the project at
their Frankston High School, which rallied to the cause,
while granddaughter Corinne also kept the Derinya Primary
School in the picture. St Augustine's Primary School helped
out quickly with two fundraisers.One night, a stranger gave
Brian a one thousand dollar cheque.
As the money and messages flowed from Frankston to Malawi,
brick and iron-roofed buildings quickly rose up on the Msema
village school site.
Sanitation and fresh water are critical.
Soon, five toilet blocks became 10..........
and smart urinary blocks soon followed ..
Drama struck the Msema village (population 2,561) towards
the end of 2005 when both its water bores failed, forcing
the villagers and the 3,000 people from the outlying villages
to trek some 3 miles to a fresh source.
But, before Christmas, The Australian AIDS Fund
sent money to sink a fresh well and to repair another, assuring
some 5,000 people in and around Msema of fresh, clean water
for years to come.Now, with the Australian government's
help, another well will be sunk on the school site to provide
for the children's needs. That same government assistance
will also see the number of classrooms will increase to
7, as well as also provide vitally needed resources and
equipment and furniture.
Such assistance has also enabled The Australian Primary
School in Msema to have its own modest clinic. Thirty village
volunteers have been trained by the local Red Cross in basic
first aid.
The Australian Primary School in Malawi will open its doors
this month.
Just before Christmas the long-awaited rains came..devastating
many villages in southern Malawi and displacing tens of
thousands of rural people.....Fortunately, Msema was spared
the flooding.
The land, the seed and the fertiliser bought by
The Australian AIDS Fund are now producing a welcoming sea
of green food.
Further land is also being bought for cultivation
and groves of fruit trees planted to help the Msema people
move towards food self-sufficiency.
They are tiny steps, but critical ones that will
change lives with the recognition that fresh water, good
sanitation, housing and education are all essential factors
for better living.
Those who'd like to also help can send their cheques (made
payable to The Australian AIDS Fund Incorporated) to Post
Office Box 1347, Frankston, Victoria, 3199.Australia
Stay tuned!
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