Thursday, December 01, 2011

2011 REPORT TO THE PARISH

Malawi Support Group Annual Report 2011


On behalf of the committee I am pleased to report another excellent year in fundraising. Once again we received very generous donations and continued on with the theme of fundraising independent of the parish with the sausage sizzle at Bunnings a major contributor. The celebrating of St Kizito's feast day gave us the opportunity to present the CD to the parish which has resulted in generous donations. We also made a presentation to OLHC schoolchildren preparing for confirmation who submitted drawings afterwards for later judging. This was very successful in providing future interest from the children and the school.

Extension of the support to our sister parish.
Our fundraiser continues to support the children attending the Catholic School of Mt Silize (40 of whom are orphans) for their daily school breakfast, the nursery school at Ntandire and school books and fees. Fr Taylor informed us in his letter ‘The feedings programme at Ntandire and Mtsiliza for the children is going on well and breakfast is provided for over 200 children during the week. It encourages the parents to send their children to school. Also the school fees for the children attending secondary school is a real blessing. This term I paid school fees for 35 boys and girls. They are so happy to be going to school. Some do very well, others poorly but all are grateful to have time at school.’

Activities this year
• Our Crazy Whist night held in the gathering area continues to be an enjoyable social event.
• The Bunnings BBQ was a great success as a consequence of good planning and hard work.
• Raffles continue to provide very good outcomes in terms of funds raised and in the delight of ‘winners’.
• Donations continue to blossom and the collection this year in conjunction with presentations to the parishioners were indicative of the generosity of parishioners.
• The Theatre night ‘Private Lives’ was superb entertainment supplemented with further donations.
• On Saturday 5th November we were again entertained and danced to the wonderful music of the "The Degenerates" who donated their services for yet another dinner dance and we look forward to the event continuing on again next year. Our hall resplendent in streamers and balloons in Malawi colours was a catalyst to engendering a real party atmosphere. It turned out to be a relaxing enjoyable night where the band members and their families all joined in together. Each person contributed to the supper shared on a common table. Whilst only 28 tickets were sold at $10 to total $280 the total raised was $1090 due to unexpected donations on the night and beforehand.

Once again I would like to thank everyone for support throughout the year and to those who individually recently gave very generous donations. A little money goes a long way and your generosity makes possible many projects that otherwise would not happen for these very poor yet burgeoning joyful communities.
The warm heart of Africa says thank you.

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