From nursery to post-secondary schools, Change Her World is helping to make a difference in Malawi.
The Stratford-based registered Canadian charity was founded by retired teacher Linda Willis and Carol Hamilton, a nurse consultant and minister, after they visited the African country and were impacted by the realities of life, particularly for females.
"We address poverty, help provide medical supplies and help build wells but our primary (focus) is the education of girls and women, and addressing barriers that prevent them from going to school," Willis told StratfordToday.
Upon returning from the trip in 2006, Willis and Hamilton decided to make a difference and the charity was started four years later.
Since then, Change Her World has embarked on projects that are focused on improving lives.
The charity doesn't build or run schools, with the exception of a nursery school founded in 2014. Their help also extends into higher grades and even post-secondary school students are getting assistance.
"We have a team that goes out to the community and does assessments to get kids in school," Willis said. "They have to commit to sending the child to school on a regular basis and not keep them at home to do other things. We pay fees, provide uniforms and sometimes provide food and medical care."
If families have money, Willis said, boys will go to school and girls will often stay behind to work and help with chores.
There is a lesser value on girls and education for them in some African countries, Willis noted.
"We have probably the best equipped nursery school in Northern Malawi. We have shipped resources from here to there."
They have also helped build a library, one of the biggest accomplishments of the last couple of years, Willis said.
Hamilton said the charity relies on more than 75 volunteers who help with various facets of support including the support of over 200 hundred girls from nursery school to college and university programs.
Fiskani Chirwa, project advisor and Wezzie Moyo, project coordinator, have been instrumental leaders in the establishment and development of Change Her World in northern Malawi, including the recent construction of a library to serve the entire community.
Hamilton said Chirwa was instrumental in setting up volunteers on the ground and chaired the project committee for several years before moving away. She continues to be committed to the work of Change Her World and is now advisor for the project committee, which carries out their work in northern Malawi.
Moyo, she said, has worked diligently with the other committee members in carrying out the mandates of work as well as overseeing the building of the library in Chilumba.
"We could not possibly do our work without the capable leadership of these two women," Hamilton said.
Chirwa and Moyo are flying to Stratford to appear as guest speakers at the Change Her World 13th annual fundraiser dinner. Coming up on April 15 at the Best Western Plus Adren Park Hotel, the fundraiser features a social hour, dinner, music and addresses from the guests about the work getting done in Malawi.
Tickets are available at Blowes Travel and at changeherworld.ca for $60.
