Letter from our own Kirsten Ellis who is in Malawi

A huge thank you to all of you who donated through ‘Ripple Africa’ to help the children in Mwaya, Malawi. I was overwhelmed by your generosity and raised more than I ever imagined could be possible in such a short time.

Since I arrived here in April I have been running an art club for a very lively group of primary school children! They range from standard four to standard seven (nine to twelve years old) Their understanding of English is fairly basic and I have become increasingly aware of how rare the opportunity for creative expression has been for these children both at school and at home. For these two reasons I have found that the more playful and messy the activity the better!

You would be amazed at how much excitement is caused by coloured paints and paintbrushes! These pleasures are simple and momentary for the children but they provide a vital relief from the poverty and hardships that they endure on a daily basis.

Setting up the art class for the older secondary school children has been a much slower process; however, after a few deals with the local artists at the carving markets I have managed to source the necessary cloth and paint to provide the children with surfaces to paint on. Through doing this I have gained an appreciation of the frustrations that the local artists face in finding and affording their resources. So for the children at the school it will almost certainly be a new experience for them to use paints and processes that the professionals use in their trade.

Thanks to you generous support I have been able to make plans to do much more than I originally imagined I could here In Malawi. Alongside running the art clubs I am in the process of designing some images that I will paint on the classroom walls at Mwaya Primary.

Walking into the primary school for the first time I was so saddened by the learning conditions. Some classrooms are much worse off than others and are in desperate need of attention. There are on average 120 children in each class crammed into rooms half the size of an average classroom in the UK. The light and ventilation is poor and many are without furniture. The floors and the walls are covered in dust and very often termite nests too. I hope that you will happy in my decision to use part of the money raised to improve this situation. By using my artistic skills I hope that I can brighten up the rooms and make them visually stimulating and positive places to learn.

I will send further photographs of the projects as they progress during my time here. I hope this has given you some insight of how I have spent my time and your donations so far.

Where I live

Thank you once again from the bottom of my heart for the part that you have played in making a positive difference to the lives of the people here in the community of Mwaya.

Best wishes to you all.
Kirsten Ellis.

Kirsten sent other pictures and you might notice that she is mad about cats- even wild ones.

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