Dear friends,
This is our first Kudimba newsletter. Our plan is to publish a Kudimba update four times per year, one for every season and this Christmas edition is the very first one.
Here are our recent project updates:
The big news is that our new Kudimba film is finally ready, Fred did a great job filming and editing the movie and we are very proud to present it.
We also have continuously worked to improve our website. Please have a look around, we will keep updating it as our project progresses.
Another way to stay in touch with Kudimba is via Facebook, here is the link.
We have bought some beautiful land right by Lake Malawi and we now need to develop it for Kudimba. The work will be done in several phases so that we can budget and raise funds and also so that it grows organically and will serve our needs. Unfortunately we have some delay with our building works on site in Malawi, but we hope to continue with phase one of our plans soon.
The first phase will be a home for Cornelio and his family, our on site manager of Kudimba.
Cornelio will build a traditional house and will also dig a water borehole and a composting toilet. He will also build a store room to safely keep all the construction materials for the next phase.
We will initially connect up to the mains electricity supply but it is very expensive in Malawi. In the future we would like to explore sustainable energy sources such as solar energy and wind turbines.
Phase two will entail the construction of our large education centre, an open air kitchen and bathroom and a fence around our property to protect our permaculture garden from goats and cows. Our garden will be developed gradually throughout the construction works. Cornelio has a background in agriculture and has done a permaculture training, so we are confident that the garden will bloom under his supervision
We have two students participating in our education fund, which is great as Kudimba hasn’t even officially opened the doors yet. Austin is currently preparing for his nursing training and Jimmy is learning to be a welder at the Salima technical college.
Our yearly hospital uniform collection has now expanded and we are also collecting second hand laptops and phones. Our Trustee Judy Sweeney is in charge of this collection. She is an ITer and her aim is to renovate all laptops and teach young people how to work with a computer. Later on Judy also wants to teach how to repair a computer, a rare and precious skill in Malawi.
A big thank you to everyone who has donated to Kudimba this year.
Your donations are very much appreciated and will help the development of Kudimba. Please find our account details below.
Monthly contributions will go to our education fund, to support young people to study and learn a profession. One off donations are equally welcome as they will go towards the development of Kudimba, we still hope to open our doors officially in 2018.
With this first newsletter we also send our warmest Christmas wishes to everyone of you and wish you all a very happy and healthy new year.
The Kudimba Team