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What's going on in Charm?
What a year it has been for Charm with a number of highs and sadly some lows. All our efforts centred on despatching a container to Malawi and opening a bakery in our new building. Despite incredible logistical problems – with the help of two MP’s, Hilary Benn at the Foreign Office, and High Commissioners in Malawi and the UK – we eventually got the container through. To quote a director of Concern International, representing many independent charities working in Malawi, “I am amazed. I don’t know how you did it !!!!!!!!!!” (and the number of ! marks is absolutely accurate.)
The shipping container had been impounded for weeks by the Malawian Revenue Authority as we resisted their demand for excessive import duties. Then one morning Emily Redmond, the founder of Charm, arrived in their Blantyre office direct from Chesterfield - and the container was released !!
This was so important to us as the container was crammed full of bakery equipment and items for Thawale School such as desks, blackboards, bicycles, sports equipment, clothes and even glasses. This is a very promising project which we hope to keep going in the future with a business tailoring school on the site.
However, the bakery currently remains a problem. After the initial issues with the container we finally got the equipment to Mulanje only to discover that the building had no electricity and one wall in the bakery building had to be rebuilt. Following a review of the site by one of our partners, Ann Scarborough, we received the hard news that it would probably be a bad investment to plough any more funds into the bakery project in it’s current form. As a result, we have decided that we shall instead use the building for other means. However the bakery lives on, as we intend to develop a bush bakery whilst donating the equipment to a needy institute in Malawi.
So in spite of all the challenges we have faced in the last year Charm is still moving forward. With the Thawale School projects, the Bush Bakery and also returning a focus onto our micro-loans scheme, Charm aims to continue it’s work to help the people of Malawi help themselves.
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