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Smile Malawi's Progress

Elspeth's newsletters document the steady progress we have made since launching in 2004 - purchasing the land, constructing the first block, helping to relieve the effects of the 2005 famine, helping the first children, arranging life-saving heart surgery for Elijah.

Read all about it by clicking on the links below

By April 2006, 30 tonnes of maize had been delivered to Ndokota. The newsletter also highlighted good progress with the approval process in Malawi

The next newsletter, in July 2006, told of the difficulty of deciding which of the many children who need help should be first on the list.

And in November - the first children have arrived! By May 2007 they are happily settled in and ready to be introduced to us.

The first of the next intake arrived in September; the Centre also welcomed two new arrivals born to members of staff.

By May 2008 all of the children are healthy, happy and attending the local school. Elspeth met Alfred, an orphan living on the streets of Blantyre, and offered him a place at the Centre. Smile Malawi has approval to take in more children like Alfred, and is looking to provide 8 more places.

By September 2008 we have taken 6 more children, and it is becoming clear that Smile Malawi is having a big impact on the whole village. We now have approval and facilties to take over 20 children.

Christmas 2008 saw us with 21 children.

Elijah, one of the children who joined us around Christmas, was found to have a hole in the heart, and became very ill. Elspeth and Smile Malawi arranged for a life-saving operation to be performed in June 2009 by Sir Magdi Yacoub's Chain of Hope.

Elspeth visited in September 2009, coinciding with the arrival of the Centre's 23rd child, 4-year old Tom. The Centre's manager, Charles, married (and all the children were invited); they enjoyed the day out so much that Elspeth organised a river safari for them to see some of the wildlife up close.