Samalani has recently had a visit from two English sisters. One of the girls, Clare, had been volunteering in Malawi, doing activities such as knitting hats for newborn babies. Having heard about the centre they wanted to visit and see Samalani's work as well as to donate spare knitting needles, wool and other items useful to the centre. Samson showed them round and they were so inspired by the work that is going on there and the people they met that they would like to get further involved. By coincidence, Clare is due to start at Sussex University this September. We hope to see Clare then as a new member of our Sussex team!


21 May 2010

    Samalani student Amina Makuta made local newspaper The Nation on April 12th 2010, bringing great publicity to Samalani and its work. Samuel Chibaya, the journalist who is to thank for this story, has been working side by side with Samson. He is very interested in the work of centre, so enthusiastic that Samson and he phone each other almost on a weekly basis.

    The article itself speaks of the difficulties with which so many of Malawi's impoverished children struggle. Having been unable to complete her primary education, Amina reluctantly "ventured into a small-scale business". This was her only choice. She describes the tiny profit she would make from her sales of firewood and how the money would be spent entirely on "household needs to support her family". Amina tells us, "My aspiration is to work for the Electricity Supply Commission of Malawi as an electrician". She wishes to earn a wage and gain independence. Yet she would also like to continue to "work at the youth organisation that helped her attain her skills". She wishes to help her "fellow vulnerable young children to acquire skills to enable them to become self-reliant", spreading an important message.

    Throughout the article Samuel refers to Amina's huge respect and admiration for "down-to-earth Patricia Kaliati" who is the current Malawian minister for "Gender, Children and Community Development". Amina says of her, "I admire Patricia Kaliati so much. She is self-reliant, an independent woman". Poignantly, the article ends with Amina's desire to be "like her in future so that I can properly take care of my mother and the children." Voicing the sentiments of many, she states: "I am tired of poverty".

    Many thanks to both Samuel and Amina for spreading Samalani's word.

4th May 2010

Throughout the craft training programme the Samalani students have been successfully creating a range of carpentry, tailoring and knitting products. As you can see in the photos, they have produced furniture such as beds and tables; clothes for men and women as well as babies and beautiful knitted shawls and blankets.


The students have now amassed a large stock and are preparing to set up their business. Currently the plan is designed around the varying seasonal demands for different types of products. The students and Samalani staff have done research to determine these demands and plan to sell mostly carpentry goods from April through to July. Further, they have also worked together to negotiate an executive team of students who will be given managerial responsibilities surrounding finance, sales and customer service. This team consists of 6 students who have shown particular strengths throughout the course: Lydia Kamba, Amina Maputo, Mercy Mdala, Blessings Chaziya, Ibrahim Kaponda and Hadson Maloko.


Well done to all the students for their hard work and beautiful products!

8th March 2010

Members of the Sussex 'Community Opportunity' team, Craig Halliday, Claire Harrison, Sammy Smith, Nadia Weigh and Thomas Kingston completed the Brighton Half Marathon on the 21st February! Here are some words from the runners themselves:

" We at Community Opportunity would like to thank you all for your generous donations. 

The day of the race was a wet and windy event, but all the runners braved it out and threw on their Community Opportunity shirts and completed the Sussex Beacon Half marathon with a smile.

All the money raised will make a real difference to the people in Malawi with whom Community Opportunity is working. You can keep up to date with Community Opportunity news and projects at our website www.communityopportunity.co.uk."

Congratulations to all 5 for running and raising money, not to mention persevering despite bad weather conditions!

A few hundred miles and a couple of weeks later, two more runners took part in the Bath Half Marathon to raise money for the Samalani Centre! Nicola West and Victoria Whitmore ran on the 7th March... in much better weather conditions. In full sunshine they completed the race at exactly the same time, even to the nearest second: 2 hours 7 minutes! Congratulations to the girls for running and supporting the project.






8th March 2010

On 21st February 2010 five members of the Sussex team, Craig Halliday, Claire Harrison, Sammy Smith, Nadia Weigh and Thomas Kingston, are running the 'Sussex Beacon Half Marathon' to raise money for the project! They are currently training hard and hope to raise a good amount of money. 

Make it worth their hard work and support a great cause! For more information and to sponsor them visit their fund-raising site:http://communityopportunity.weebly.com/ 

Craig Halliday, co-leader of the Sussex Samalani team, is sponsoring three Samalani children through secondary education this year. These children are Patrick Kamowa, Fanny Dule and Lekeleni Seba (pictured to the left). This is part of a new sponsorship scheme that is due to be released soon. The programme has been designed to encourage people to sponsor more children through secondary education. Not only will you be offering support for a better future, but you will also be in direct communication with them about their progress. This is a great opportunity for both the sponsor and the sponsered to get a real insight and mutual education about the experiences of living in our different countries and cultures.


February 2010

The 'Break the Beats' fund-raising night went well, the club brimming with over 125 people. With pop downstairs and live DJs playing a range of electronic music upstairs there was dancing and revelry all round. A big thank you to Scott Latham for his mind-boggling vocal chords: with beat boxing that ranged from old classics to techno and bass booming D&B, Scott had the club screaming! A fun night overall we managed to raise a humungous £480... ALL of which goes directly to supporting Samalani's great work. Thank you to everyone who came and made the night a success!


February 2010

A member of Samalani and a participant of the project itself, Blessings Chaziya is 23 and has lived alone since he was 16. He looks after his 2 younger brothers who are 8 and 12. Blessings has a particularly difficult journey to get to the centre. He lives in a village outside of Lilongwe City from which it takes him 6 and a half hours to walk. He believes Samalani can offer him an opportunity to be able to be independent and care for his younger brothers so he knows the journey is worthwhile. Sometimes it is too late and dark for him to travel back to his village so Samson lets him stay at his house for the night. When visiting the centre he made an impact on the Sussex partners because of the lengths he has taken to be at the centre as well as his participation in the good work that they do. On returning to the UK they put money together to buy him a bicycle. Blessings has now received his bicycle. He is very pleased and his journey is a bit easier.

January 2010

A club event has been organised for the 26th January 2010 at the Volks club on Brighton seafront. There will be a wide range of music to suit all, spanning from Dupstep and Reggae to Pop to live Beat-Boxing from Scott Latham. Glow sticks are also available on the night! Doors open from 10pm - 3am.


Tickets are:
£2 in advance
£3 on the door (student)
£4 on the door (non-student)


Come along, bring your friends and dance your heart out, with all proceeds going to the Samalani Centre!


January 2010

Having completed the Business Skills component to the course, the Practical Skills course is now under way! A new work shelter for the carpentry training has been constructed and the work shop is in use. The students are starting to learn carpentry, tailoring and knitting and according to Samson the programme is progressing well.

A recent grass roots fund raiser has been a craft evening. Taking place at people's homes this evening of food, drink and good company is 
becoming a regular event. At the first event people were taught how to make Peruvian bracelets with coloured, wax string. On later occasions 
they will learn how to make ash trays out of beer cans, felt ornaments, paper making and much more! Everything made will be sold at other 
events with all money raised going towards the project.

20th Oct 2009

After holding regular cake sales on the Sussex University campus the Sussex team, led by Fundraising Co-ordinator Kaytee Miller, decided to organise a shisha event at a University bar. Alongside cakes, shishas, which had been kindly donated for the occasion, were rented to students at varying prices. With luck the weather was good and the event popular, raising £173! Due to its success plans are being made to hold more shisha events when the weather gets warmer next year.

1st Oct 2009

Members of the Sussex team ran an awareness raising stall at 'Fresher's Fair' at Sussex University. The stall was set up with information about the project, information about upcoming events and how new members can get involved. There was an encouraging amount of interest and a mailing list has been set up to inform potential members about news updates. As well as this, another stall to raise awareness was run at a popular night of music and poetry during the first week of term.


September 2009