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WorldHope Corps Project Update for 3rd Quarter 2018



As founder and chief executive officer of WorldHope Corps, I focus on fundraising, administration, and communications. As a volunteer corps of “believers without borders”, WorldHope Corps offers technical, relational and financial support as well as professional training, consultation and project development in Malawi, Uganda and the USA in a spirit of mutual exchange and “reverse mission”—which means we gain much more than we offer from those we seek to help as we work together for community transformation.   


What follows is an update for Malawi programs and project at the end of the third quarter of 2018:

WorldHope Corps Malawi Registered:  After ten years of functioning in Malawi as an international NGO, WHC Malawi was officially registered as a local NGO this year under the able leadership of Dennis Singini, Program Director and Country Representative.  Rev. John Culp, Dr. Doug Smith, Dr. Caroline Njuki, Michele Robbins, Rebecca Laird, and others visited Malawi over the last two years to offer relational support and technical assistance to Dennis and his new board.

 HIV/AIDS mitigation:  Congratulations are in order to Dennis Singini and his team for good work in HIV/AIDS education and mitigation over many years.  Last year WHC Malawi submitted a major proposal and received a $25K grant from United Methodist Global Ministries Abundant Health HIV/AIDS Fund to prevent mother-to-child transmission in Malawi!  This is WorldHope Corps' second HIV mitigation grant; the first being from United Methodist Global AIDS Fund for $20,000 in 2010 to implement a church-based community AIDS prevention and counseling program in Mzuzu, Malawi.

Dr. Doug Smith with HIV Training team in Mzuzu

The new program grant is being administered well by Dennis with assistance from Dr. Doug Smith, and already is bearing much fruit in terms of stigma reduction and community health. For example, in May, Dennis and this team organized a young adult leadership-training event for 22 participating —mothers and youth leaders—at our Hope House in Mzuzu.   Dr. Smith, Secretary of the Board, joined Dennis in Malawi to assist in training young mothers and youth in HIV/AIDS prevention, stigma reduction, health education and peer counseling.  These individuals returned to their respective communities to train others how to fight HIV and prevent mother-to-child transmission. “If we leave the youth behind, the nation is in peril,” says Pastor Dennis Singini, Program Director of WorldHope Corps Malawi.

Hope Scholarships:  Since 2008, WorldHope Corps has found scholarships to help boys and girls stay in Secondary School in Mzuzu.  We have sponsored over 40 youth at risk for dropping out by helping to pay their school fees. First through individual sponsors and later through rents collected from the Hope Scholarship House we built.  While our youth scholarship program continues this year, we do not have enough funds to support all hopeful applicants otherwise may have to drop out of school for lack of family finances (Its cost students approximately $250 per term for tuition, school uniform, books and supplies). The next school year begins in January, and we need sponsors for 4-6 more students to stay in school.

Hope Tailoring School was started ten years ago through Mzuzu UMC in partnership with WorldHope Corps.  When our team was there last Sept, it was in danger of closing. We were able to rescue it and include its support through undesignated funds through the end of 2018.  But now there are insufficient funds to continue our support of Hope Tailoring School without a new sponsor.  If interested, please contact Dr. Michael Christensen, Ex. Director of WorldHope Corps.

Village Wells:  Since 2008, WorldHope Corps has drilled 66 deep-water village wells in partnership with assessed communities in greatest need. We drilled Borehole #67 earlier this year in Malawi --in Kaunda Village near Njuyu-- sponsored by Clarissa Holland and her family!  And Borehole #68 currently is underway in Thukutu Village—thanks to an anonymous donor.

Thukutu Community Development Project: Two or so years ago we helped provide food aid and nutrition training in Thukutu.  Last year we distributed anti-malaria mosquito nets to poor and vulnerable families.  Last month the Open Door United Methodist Church in Richmond raised $1250 for a new roof for the village nursery school.  Currently, local resources are being mobilized to build a new and improved community latrine.  Before the end of the year, we will drill a new, long-awaited, and desperately needed village well in Thukutu—thanks to a generous sponsor.  This community development project will save many young lives at risk for water borne diseases, according to Pastor Dennis Singini: “Over 1200 people in Thukutu have been waiting and praying for clean water. I was there last Saturday when we were fixing the roof on the school, and I drank the only available water, which was not clear. I got sick, purged for a day, and it's the grace of God that I’m okay.  Mobilizing has begun for the new borehole, and its all coming together praise God!”



No More Malaria:  Our 2017-2018 Mosquito Net distribution project is complete. Over 1000 nets were purchased and distributed, and community training offered by Dennis and his team on this $10,000 project. Whether we can take on another round of needed mosquito net distribution during the wet and rainy season of 2019 will depend on the identification of a new sponsor.  If interested, please contact Dr. Michael Christensen, Ex. Director of WorldHope Corps.

Incubation/Micro Loans:  In previous years, we made a total of 4 small business loans to our ministry partners in Malawi and Uganda, including: $5,000 to build a house, $3,000 to start a poultry business, $4,000 to buy a farm truck, and $12,000 to install a water filtration project in a trading center.  This year, we are ready to make a several micro loans to individual and teams through WHC Malawi from our Social Business Incubation Loan Fund. So far, we have $5,000 in the Fund.  We invite others to contribute a gift build up this social entrepreneurial/social impact incubation fund.



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