Crescent School Raises £1,185 For Rugby Based Charity Bwengu Projects Malawi
13 Oct
On Tuesday 12 October, local Rugby resident Sue Melia, from Bwengu Projects Malawi, visited the Crescent School to receive a cheque for £1,185. The cheque was presented by Year 5 pupils Sam and Esme, in the school’s Harvest Festival service.
The Crescent School has been supporting the work of Bwengu Projects for fourteen years now. In fact, the school was one of the charity’s first supporters back in 2007 when they donated books for use in school libraries, one of the charity’s earliest projects. Each year the Year 4 children at the Crescent School study Africa and in particular Malawi and the work the charity, Bwengu Projects, does. Studying the challenges the people in Malawi face helps the children to appreciate the similarities and differences in our societies.
At the end of their topic the children choose specific Bwengu Projects to support and go on to organise fundraising activities that the whole school participates in. This year the now Year 5s raised money in a number of enterprising ways including a sponsored silence, organising games and competitions and a non-uniform day.
For 2021 the children chose two projects to support with a target of £500 to raise, to repair three broken rooves on a school in Nachipangapanga and to provide a month of orphans’ food.
Bryony Forth, Deputy Head, commented, “Supporting the Bwengu Project is always a highlight of my teaching year, something which I personally am very proud to be part of. The children enjoy studying Bwengu and comparing 'A Village Less Economically Developed than Rugby'. Over the years, we must have raised nearly £11,000 and helped pay for renovating schools, building a Women's Development Centre, sewing machines, a teacher's salary and nearly 60,000 meals for orphans.
“The children worked incredibly hard this year, especially as COVID restricted what we could do. They smashed their fundraising target, so as well as fixing the rooves, there is enough money to fund six months of orphan food and to fix the rotten roof and truss of Isyalikila Junior School.”
Sue Melia was overwhelmed, and commented, “This is really wonderful, our aims are very simple, our projects in Malawi support education. We are very grateful to Crescent School.”