We would like to thank Billericay Baptist Church for dedicating their Easter appeal to Accomplish Children’s Trust.
This year’s Easter appeal is for Malawi, to enable the Heart of Mercy project to purchase some land to grow food and build a hub for disabled children.
Food is always scarce and more expensive in Malawi from August until January/February – a period known as the ‘hunger months’. The situation has become much worse during the past few years due to poor harvests after the rains failed. Last year’s harvest was also badly affected due to the devastation caused by cyclone Freddy.
Accomplish trustees Rebecca Cornish and Julia Tseayo, both of whom are physiotherapists, and retired pharmacist Sue Baldock visited Malawi in May 2023. They measured the weight and arm circumference of more than 60 children and found that 75% were suffering from long-term malnutrition.
During their visit, our trustees discovered that 80% of the disabled children linked to the Heart of Mercy project were surviving on one meal a day or less.
At a very basic level, one of the most important ways to help disabled children in Malawi is to make sure they can eat!
Whilst in Malawi, Rebecca and Julia provided some training sessions for parents and guardians on nutrition and how to feed disabled children safely. Accomplish has also supplied Heart of Mercy with equipment to preserve food for longer. Some of the families are keeping goats and are learning how to milk them.
We would like to do more. To that end, money raised by Billericay Baptist Church this year will be used to purchase land for the Heart of Mercy project.
The land will have two uses. The Heart of Mercy team will plant crops and trees with nutrient-rich leaves to supplement the diets of disabled children throughout the year. They are also planning to build a day centre where disabled children will receive a nourishing meal, some basic therapy and education.
To learn more about the appeal and our work in Malawi, please watch this video, which is narrated by Accomplish founder Rebecca Cornish.
You can donate to our work in Malawi by hitting the 'donate now' button below or by visiting the 'support us' section of our website to find out about different ways to give. Thank you for your generosity.