History 2000 - 2014

2009

March 2009

Tom Eckersley completed the Bath Half marathon in 2 hours 15 minutes. He raised £720 from this event (doubled to a final figure of £1440 by Tom’s company Npower) and this went a long way towards finishing the school build in Mutu Village, Lilongwe. A big thank you must go to Npower for their generosity and obviously to Tom for all his efforts.

April-June 2009

Received funding from National AIDS Commission of 1.4million Malawi Kwacha (MK). This was used to conduct training for care givers and also youth training on behaviour change. Purchased footballs and netballs for the JCT sports teams. Distributed piglets to a number of families for income generation in Mutu Village, Lilongwe, Chief Tengani’s village in Nsanje and Chitipa, Isharikira village. Received 600,000 MK from Action Aid for the establishment of community groups called STAR (Society Tackling AIDS Realities).

July 2009

School in Mutu Village, Lilongwe completed.

August 2009

Opening of Mutu primary school, Lilongwe – The JCT first primary school was handed over to the Mutu village and local community on Wednesday 12th August, 2009. The ceremony was attended by the Minister of Gender, Children and Community Welfare from the Malawi Government, Mrs Patricia Kariate. Also in attendance were Mr Charles Kalanda, District Education Commissioner of Lilongwe and representatives from the St Andreas Evangelical Assembly of God, Sao Paulo, Brazil, who fundraised and contributed generously to this particular build. Media coverage was carried out by Television Malawi, Malawi Broadcasting Radio Corporation and a private national company, Zodiac Radio.

September 2009

All documentation to gain Charity Registration Number in the UK despatched to the Charities Commission.

September 2009

One of our employees, Ivy Nthara met the district commissioner of Mangochi, Mr Thomas Chirwa, and agreed to run as secretary of the committee that will be running the new centre in Mangochi Traditional Authority Nankumba.

October 2009

The Friends of John C Thomas Children’s Foundation becomes a UK registered charity, number 1132414 which raises funds for The JCT Children’s foundation (Malawi).

December, 2009

Hays plc held a national fundraising dress down day for the JCTUK.

2010

March, 2010

Received funding from JCTUK which was used for the following:

• NGO Board Fees, and Council for Non Governmental Organizations in Malawi (CONGOMA) fees
• Audit fees, purchase of footballs, Ground/fixed phone, camera, bicycles and cement

March and April 2010

With funding from MUMS

• Procurement of soya beans flour for Malili, Nasala and Zama program areas.

May 2010

Received funding from JCTUK and Action Aid International that was used for the following: follows:

• Social Audit training
• Treatment Literacy training
• Star review meeting
• Land rights training

Social Audit training

This training was conducted to empower the community in measuring the impact, understanding and reporting what is happening in the project carried out in their communities. The training was conducted at area 25 Lilongwe and it was a residential. The facilitator was from Ministry of Gender, Women and Child Development and all sessions were handled by Mrs M.Kanjirawaya a Community Development Assistant.

The training involved 20 participants. These were from Community Based Organization and star circle leaders (reflect cycles) from T/A Mtema, Chitukula and Kabudula.

The objective of the training were;

• To equip the participants with knowledge on how to carryout social audit within the project.
• To enhance ownership in projects in the communities
• To impart skills on how to measure project impact.
• To promote accountability and transparency within the project participant

Treatment Literacy training
The training was for 5 days with the aim of giving knowledge to people living with HIV on how they can eat the six groups of food and how to take ARVs. The training took place in Nsanje district it has been discovered that Nsanje is the leading in having high cases of HIV/AIDS compared to other district we are operating.

Star review meeting

JCT conducted participatory STAR facilitators meeting of 24 participants from our catchments areas of T/A Mtema, Chitukula, Kabudula in Lilongwe. The participants were boys and girls, men and women who are potential exchange agents of the project. The meeting was aimed at improving skills of participants in facilitating STAR approach. The facilitators were identified by our partner Action Aid and they employed participatory methods in the meeting and some of the methods were group work, discussion, case studies, lecturing question and answers, role play and drama. The total number of participants during the meeting was 10 women and 14 men. The training ran for 5 days.

Land rights training

In Malawi, land is a basic resource for sustainable livelihoods.  The training was aimed at empowering the Malawians with knowledge that will reduce the selling of land to foreigners. The training also helped government extension workers to enforce land rights laws that favour poor people in the communities.

June 2010

Received funding from Honourable Aipira used for purchasing soya beans flour for a project in Mangochi.

With funding from MUMS

• Procurement of soya beans flour for Malili, Nasala and Zama program areas.

July 2010

With funding from MUMS

• Procurement of soya beans flour for Malili, Nasala and Zomba program areas

August 2010

With funding from JCTUK – procured tree seedlings.

With funding from Action Aid International – held a ‘star’ review meeting. The star review meeting aimed at sharing experience to all ‘star’ committee members on how they implemented some programs and discovered solutions where they did not do well.

With funding from MUMS

• Procurement of soya beans flour for Malili, Nasala and Zama program areas.

September 2010

With funding from JCTUK – Procurement of vita meals for Nsanje and Chitipa and transportation of the same.

With funding from JCTUK – Procurement of seedlings and polythene tubes and procurement of legume seeds.

With funding from UNFPA conducted the following events:-

• Treatment literacy training on HIV/AIDS
• Sensitization meetings on HIV/AIDS

Treatment literacy training on HIV/AIDS.
JCT with support from UNFPA conducted training in treatment literacy for the people living with HIV/AIDS virus in order to equip them with knowledge on how they can take medications and food. The training was attended by 30 people living with HIV in Chitipa. After the training everyone was given a task of establishing a support group for people who are living positive with HIV/AIDS in their villages.

Sensitization meetings on HIV/AIDS

Female condom training – JCT with support from UNFPA organized a three days training on female condom for 22 volunteers and 8 staff. The aim of the training was to ensure that sexually active persons at risk of HIV/STIs are motivated to use condoms, have access to quality condoms, and can use them consistently and correctly.  JCT with support from UNFPA trained sex workers and male and female motivators on the use of female and male condoms but have seen that there is a need to have a training on female condom so that participants should know how to address both the supply and demand for good quality condoms, as well as the environment, which is the critical operating framework through which access to and use of condoms is ensured.

https://www.unfpa.org/webdav/site/global/shared/documents/publications/2005/condom_prog2.pdf

Training – The training took place at Mutu village T/A Mtema in Lilongwe district.  The target groups were JCT staff and volunteers from T/A Kabudula, Mtema and Chitukula. The workshop was participatory mainly – questions and answers, case studies, lecturing, role play and drama.

October 2010

With funding from MUMS

• Procurement of soya beans flour for Malili, Nasala and Zama program areas

With funding from Action Aid International had a capacity building training in project management

November 2010

• Procurement of herbal garden materials with funding from National AIDS Commission and JCTUK

With funding from MUMS

• Procurement of soya beans flour for Malili, Nasala and Zama program areas
• Procurement of shallow well materials

With funding from Evangelical Assemblies of God.

• Procurement of plastic chairs for JCT primary school.

December 2010

With funding from MUMS

• Construction of feeding shelter at Nasala and Zama program areas

2011

February and March

The following activities were supported with funding from Concern Worldwide:

• Data collection for trees, verification of doe goat kraals.
• Procurement of farm inputs such as common beans, ground nuts and soya beans.

Data collection for trees, verification of kraals

To promote agro forestry in order to improve soil fertility and reduce cost of production. All beneficiaries were encouraged to participate in agro forestry activities. Soil fertility improving agro forestry species and fruit seedlings were provided under this intervention. Fruits improve nutritional status of the beneficiaries and promote household income. The fruits promoted per household were; 5 seedlings of improved mangoes, 5 seedlings of oranges, 5 seedlings paw paws, 5 seedlings of peaches and 5 seedlings guava.

Each of the targeted beneficiaries receives soil enriching trees which they plant in their individual fields. The types of tree species provided are:

Tephosia Vogelli
Moringa Moringa
Faidherbia Albida
Acacia Polycantha
Albisysia Lebec
Senna Spactabilis

The John C Thomas Foundation, Malawi (JCT) provided doe goats on loan to increase livestock assets at household level, so that beneficiaries can sell offspring following breeding campaigns.  The finance raised contributes to school fees for these vulnerable children.  After loan recovery, JCT will pass the goat to another waiting beneficiary household. JCT staff visited beneficiaries and verify whether the kraals are productive and in decent working order. This verification was conducted in all the villages we are working in Lilongwe.

Procurement of farm inputs such as common beans, ground nuts and soya beans.
To promote food diversification to 500 vulnerable household who are keeping orphans and vulnerable children, JCT provided each household with a loan of soya beans, common beans and groundnuts to plant.  After harvest the household repay the same amount back to JCT so that they can be passed to another waiting beneficiary household within the same village in Lilongwe.

April and May

The following activities were supported with funding from The Friends of The John C Thomas Children’s Foundation in the UK (JCTUK):

• Group dynamics training
• Right to food training
• Meal planning training

Group dynamics training

The Group Dynamics was carried out in order to equip new elected village committees.  They were trained on the election of the leaders, development of a constitution and the definition of the constitution. Five beneficiaries were selected from 25 villages making a total of 125 beneficiaries trained. The selection assessment was done by the office bearers of the village; Chairperson and Vice Chairperson, Secretary and Vice Secretary and the Treasurer.

The selection took place at an open forum. The training was conducted at Ukwe EPA and Nankumba Primary School in Lilongwe. At Nankumba we had 40 participants, 19 male and 21 female; Khudzumba 45 participants, 19 female and 26 male; Chinyama 40 participants, 20 female and 20 were male. The training was conducted by Government Extension Workers.

Right to food training

The training was one of the activities proposed by JCT aimed at building the capacity of the beneficiaries on their human rights. The participants were trained to understand their roles and responsibilities of right holders in the fulfillment of rights to food and participation. They were also trained to understand the roles of duty bearers in the fulfillment of right to food and participation. The training group was attended by 81 females and 94 males.

The trainings were facilitated by the JCT Field Officers.

Defining terms (right holder and duty bearer)
The participants were trained that right holders are all people who had valid claims, while the duty bearer is anyone who have duties or obligations to ensure that the right is realised.

Responsibilities for right holders to fulfil right to food
The participants were asked to think of the responsibilities of right holders to ensure they have enhanced fulfillment of these rights:

Right to Food

Carrying out all farm operations on time (e.g. planting and weeding on time), asking and following services from extension workers and buying fertilizer and making manure.

Right to Participation

Attending community meetings and participation in relevant community leadership.

Responsibility of Duty Bearers in fulfilling right to food and right to participation
The participants were asked to find out what they think are the roles of duty bearers in fulfilling two rights and the answers were as follows:

Ensuring that farm inputs are available on time.
Inviting poor people to the meetings.
Including poor people into local leadership.

Meal planning training

The training was one of the activities proposed by JCT, aimed at building capacity of the beneficiaries on food planning, meal diversification and positive strategies to be used during the times of food insecurity. The training was attended by 163 women and 124 men, making the total of 287. The training covered the following topics:

Household food requirement.
Causes of food losses.
Strategies used during food insecurity.
Meal planning.
Food storage and preservation.

Before training, beneficiaries knew only three groups of food required for their households instead of six groups. The participants discussed some of the main causes of food losses in their communities which lead to food insecurity, and the following were some of the common causes:

Over dependence on maize for consumption and for selling.
Traditional ceremonies.
Poor storage practices.
Over preparation of food at one time.

After the training, participants knew how they could preserve and store some foods like vegetables, maize, fruits and meat. They were also trained on how to develop a work plan.

The training took place over three days at Ukwe EPA and Nankumba Village, Lilongwe. The first training session was attended by 77 beneficiaries, the second by 135 and the third by 95. The training was facilitated by the Government Extension Worker from Ministry of Agriculture.

June

The following activities were supported with funding from JCTUK and Action Aid:

• Child rights training targeting 30 volunteers.
• Held 3 campaign meetings focusing on prevention of violence against women and girls.
• Established 20 girls’ clubs and a girls’ conference.
• Sexual reproductive health training for 60 participants.
• TOT in treatment literacy.

 

Child rights training targeting 30 volunteers

The training aimed at increasing the capacity of JCT volunteers to support the rights of children. Lilongwe was chosen as one of the districts worst affected by child abuses in form of child labour, cultural practices, forced marriages and tobacco farming.

The training helped to reduce child abuses in the families and community at large, while promoting child rights to equitable access and quality education. The training empowered participants to build capacity of the children to recognize and report cases of abuses taking place in and around the community.

Held 3 campaign meetings focusing on prevention of violence against women and girls. Women in the areas JCT support are fully dependent on the males within the villages and are therefore subject to abuse due to this unbalanced status.  They are subjected to violence and are unable to defend themselves against disease and HIV/AIDS.

This is a common occurrence among girls from traditional authorities of Mtema, Chitukula and Kabudula.  Girls seek employment to support their families and some are sexually abused by their employers, but they suffer in silence for fear of losing their job.

JCT know how imperative it is to support these women and girls and hold campaign meetings such as these to eradicate violence within the villages.

Established 20 girls’ clubs and a girls’ conference
Girls in the rural areas of Malawi, especially adolescents,are facing sexually transmitted diseases at a much higher rate than their male counterparts. They are simply not aware of the consequences of infection and HIV/AIDS, yet the boys are knowledge of these facts.

The girls clubs organised by JCT enable them to share their experiences, discuss circumstances and situations openly, enabling them to understand and be aware of the serious effects.

Sexual reproductive health training for 60 participants
JCT with support from Action Aid trained participants in sexual and reproductive health.

TOT in treatment literacy

JCT with support from Action Aid conducted Trainer of Trainers training in treatment literacy for the people living with HIV/AIDS virus in order to equip them with knowledge on how they can take medications and food. The training was attended by 20 people living with HIV in Nsanje and Lilongwe. After the training everyone was given a task of training people who are positive in their villages.

July

From funding provided by JCTUK a program for the growth monitoring and weighing of children in all of the four districts was established.

Growth monitoring and weighing of children

This program enables JCT to understand the type of food and quantity to give to each child.  Most of the children we support are very young mainly below the age of six years old and are from child headed households. We do have a large number of children who have HIV/AIDS are in desperate need of Anti-Retroviral Therapy.

August

With funding from JCTUK, the Community of Mutu village mould bricks to construct a kitchen at our school.

September

Employees of JCT across Malawi are advocating for the elimination of child labour in tobacco farms.

Many of Malawi’s estimated 80,000 child tobacco workers suffer from a disease called green tobacco sickness, or nicotine poisoning. Symptoms include severe headaches, abdominal cramps, muscle weakness, breathing difficulties, diarrhea and vomiting, high blood pressure and fluctuations in heart rate, according to the World Health Organisation

Below is a photo of a shelter used for drying tobacco that is being used as a temporary school.

November

With funding from JCTUK high-grade piglets were distributed to farmers across our four districts and some additional large households have also benefitted from the project.

December

From funding provided by JCTUK a program has been established across the four districts to establish a children’s register which includes their name, age and a photograph of their face.

JCT child registration is extremely important for monitoring an analysis purposes of the charity and for Malawi governmental statistics. The JCT exercise started in Lilongwe, Nsanje and Chitipa respectively.

This is not only a vital program for the children supported by the JCT across Malawi, but will also benefit the universal birth registration campaign.

2012

January

The following activities were supported with funding from The Friends of The John C Thomas Children’s Foundation in the UK (JCTUK):

• Procurement of vita meals for Chitipa and Nsanje feeding centers.
• Updating profile in district social economic profile.

These meals often feed 25-30 of our malnourished children who are missing key nutrients in their diets, which can hinder brain, bone and immune system development.

The John C Thomas Foundation, Malawi (JCT) is looking to establish closer links with global Vita Meal producers in order to distribute greater numbers to the children of all ages across all four districts on a weekly basis.

March

With funding from JCTUK, the Community of Mutu were able to restore a borehole next to Mutu school.  The photo shows the borehole in an non-functioning condition.

May

The JCT received a visitor H.A Harris from UK who visited some of JCT centers and donated clothes and shoes.

Received 33 Mission Malawi members from the UK who were in a fundraising tour.  They visited two centers of JCT, as one the benefit organisation through Action Aid.

JCT received a team of Mission Malawi members from London, UK, who support Action Aid in its programmes.  Since JCT has been receiving funds from Action Aid the team decided to visit some centres as part of monitoring projects of Action Aid partners and they also donated gift such as t-shirts and ball pens. The community entertained them with traditional dances. Finally the leader of the delegation thanked JCT for the good work they witnessed on their visit.

With funding from JCTUK, vita meals for Mangochi and Lilongwe feeding centers were procured.

June

A choir festival activity that raised funding for the maintenance of a borehole at Mutu school.

July

ICT training

The training was organised by JCT in order to equip staff in Lilongwe with specific Microsoft Package computer knowledge, covering packages such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Internet Explorer.  The training company were Chishamiso Training Consultancy.

August

Following the choir festival and donations from JCTUK, funding has been spent on the borehole maintenance next to Mutu school and children are now able to drink safe water.

With remaining funding and JCT also purchased rabbits for selected vulnerable households as their food source and income generating activity. In Malawi, rabbits are produced in for meat consumption.  Many households are too poor to raise other animals such as goats or chickens to provide them with the appropriate nutrition, so a solution has been rearing small animals such as rabbits.

A fully functioning rabbits kraal.

September

The foundation has introduced farming to ensure food and nutrition security in the homes of the beneficiaries. There are plans to have a maize meal owned by JCT. This will be used to prepare flour from maize and soya beans grown by the communities to be distributed to the children.<

The families will be encouraged to grow soya and will be taught how to make flour from soya beans and maize. This will in turn be used to prepare porridge for the children this practice will be passed on to others to ensure sustainability.

December

The JCT received visitors Brazil who organized the party for 1000 children of Lilongwe and donated 100 school desks.

2013

January

Funding has been spent on the borehole maintenance next to Mutu school, following the initial repairs that were made in June 2012.

April

The JCT received donation of 200 packets of soya flour 2kg each from the Evangelical Assemblies of God Lilongwe to feed the orphans and vulnerable and was distributed to Lilongwe and Mangochi centres.

May

This is a graduation ceremony at Mutu primary school, Lilongwe where final exams results were published and the children spent the afternoon playing games and celebrating for the selection of children into different classes.

The school had six children selected to join secondary school/high school – 2 boys and 4 girls. The JCT is continually encouraging and supporting girls to continue with their higher level education.

The below is taken in the class room where children are enjoying normal lesson time at the school.

June

The currency devaluation of the Malawian kwacha (49%) has resulted in the JCT trying to cater for significant increases in the cost of basic items for the foundation such as procurement of flour for all centers and plant seed.

JCTUK looking into cost of acquiring grinder.

With funding from Evangelical Assemblies of God the JCT has embarked with a programme to support computer training to the children on a weekly basis.  In order for the children to succeed in this technological world, it is imperative they are educated about technology at any early age and have access to computers at grassroots level.

July

Due to the challenges and problems that were being caused by not having accommodation for carers at each of our four feeding centers (Chitipa, Nsanje, Mangochi and Lilongwe), a large proportion of funding and donations have been used to build these houses.  This enable the carers to be residential at the centers, providing easy communication and preparation for the children.

Below is a picture of Michael doing his ‘Bob the Builder’ impression at the Lilongwe feeding center.

 

October

With the relevant Health Association guidance the JCT built an effective sanitation system for the Mangochi center in order to maintain a high level of hygiene due the amount of congestion from so many children attending on a weekly basis.

December

With funding from the Evangelical Assemblies of God (Brazil) the JCT bought paints and painted all of the classrooms at the Mutu School.

Below is a picture of Michael at the Mutu School.

2014

January & February

Following on from the project the JCT started in July 2013 to build residential accommodation for carers at each of our four feeding centers (Chitipa, Nsanje, Mangochi and Lilongwe), JCT has decided, with the funding from JCTUK and other sources, to embark on building habitable kitchens across these centers.

Children below are getting ready for one of their meals at the Nsanje center.

Land has been and will be purchased or donated adjacent to each of the centers.  Everyone in each of these communities supports the feeding programme and take turns to prepare, cook and serve the meals for the children.

The kitchens will provide the volunteers and children with good sanitation when cooking vita meals, along with protecting them from the wet weather during rainy season.   It will also provide the children with a safe and comfortable learning environment for singing, alphabet or basic counting.

The picture shows a kitchen under construction in Lilongwe.

These meals often feed 25-30 of our malnourished children who are missing key nutrients in their diets, which can hinder brain, bone and immune system development. JCTUK is continuing to establish closer links with global Vita Meal producers in order to distribute greater numbers to the children of all ages across the four districts on a weekly basis.

January to March

Action Aid Project was conducted over a 3 month period in the Mtema, Chitukula and Kabudula in Lilongwe districts.

The project focused on training women living with HIV/AIDS in village savings and loan methodology

March

With funding from JCTUK, JCT procured soya flour for the centers and below are some bags ready for distribution to Nsanje, Lilongwe and Mangochi centers.

Playing materials were procured with funding from JCTUK. Below children at the Lilongwe center are playing as part of their learning.

Below are children attending classes at one of the Mangochi center and the ages are ranging from 1-6 years.

Children outside their classroom and are ready to receive their daily meal.

Below are some children receiving their daily meal at one of the centers in Mangochi.

April

Caregivers from all 21 Lilongwe centers attending a growth monitoring and de-worming training at JCT Lilongwe center.

This training helps caregivers to know more about the health status of the children and is carried out once a month.

The district health officer is demonstrating on how the growth monitoring is done at JCT center Lilongwe.

May

A caregiver cooking food procured with funding from JCTUK .for the children at the center in Nsanje.

With funding from JCTUK plates and spoons were procured for children’s use. The picture shows one of the Lilongwe center.

June

The JCT managed to construct this facility with funding from JCTUK and well-wishers. This will be used as a nursery school where young children will be attending classes

Below, a pit latrine being built in Mangochi

July

As our part of our daily feeding with fund from JCTUK these are some of our children eating porridge at one of our centers in Lilongwe.

August & September

JCT with funding from JCTUK procured paint to decorate the kitchen as one way of good sanitation and is ready for use.

There are plans to expand the site into an orphanage, so that JCT can facilitate the residential care of some children, starting with 50 at this particular center.

The new block and a kitchen at the back being used at the JCT Centre in Lilongwe.

This is a free time where children play music, drama, football and traditional dances – it is a chance for the carers to truly learn about the personalities and behaviour of the children.

October

With funding from JCTUK JCT Malawi procured shoes, toys and distributed to all the children in three centers across Mangochi, Nsanje and Lilongwe.

Below we can see the distribution of shoes to the children.

November

Soya flour and sugar with funding from JCTUK was procured for two centers in Mangochi and Nsanje. During this time of year it is rainy season where food become scarce and expensive, so it is essential to ensure there is an abundance stored for the children

Some of the food items in the JCT warehouse are ready to be distributed to various centers in Lilongwe.

December

Children in a classroom waiting for food to be distributed. With funding, JCT continued procuring soya flour for porridge as it is shown below and also procured extra plates and spoons.

Children have finished eating ready for break time to play

The JCT appreciate all funding from JCTUK. These donations have brought a different level of hygiene to the children and they are able to use the utensils and wash their hands before eating. As you can see they are enjoying their food, have gained weight and are healthier because of the support. This has been revealed by monthly growth monitoring report.