• Feeding Programme. **See note
• Provision of Information (AIDS/HIV, Health, Legal).
• Promote Personal Health Care. **See note
• Promote Activity (Sport, Plays, Art, Music, Youth Group etc.).
• Promote Learning (Play schools, & Open Learning , Formal and Informal Education). ** See note
• Promote Life Skills.
• Promote Task Based Skills (Formal and Informal Skills learning).
• Promote Business Enterprises.

The centres act as a meeting point for the children and a distribution centre for FOMO, e.g. replacement computers, blankets, mosquito nets, clothes, toys and activity equipment. FOMO also supports the children with health care, school fees and materials.

To fulfil our commitment to the children and further all FOMO objectives it is planned to raise funds to undertake development objectives. The plan will be reviewed continually and modified if the levels of donations do not meet expectations and/or the children’s needs change.

Many thanks for your interest and I hope that these few pages on the web site inspire you to join us in helping the children.

Keith Woodworth, Co Founder and Secretary for FOMO UK

Core Activity Food Programme —Top

There is still a continuing need to provide extra food for the children to relieve their suffering. The support FOMO provides also helps to ease the burden borne by the grandmothers and guardians who are faced with the additional burden of supporting members of their extended family following the death of their children and/or relatives.

• To maintain the current food programme: Food is provided daily during the week to the play school and older children at the following FOMO centres: Kumwamba, Gulumba, Kadewere, Mikoko, Mwamadi, Namijingo, Tambala, Chinyama, Sazola, Chole, Nessa, Nalawade, Mbewa and Mangani.
• FOMO reaffirms its commitment to feed the children as a priority and to monitor the children’s needs throughout the year. All other programmes will be suspended if there is a further food crisis in Mulanje.

Core Activity School Fees:–Top

To maintain and expand the children’s educational support programme. We currently pay for 250 children to attend secondary school and further education.

Education is the way out of the poverty trap, but not all of them will go on to have paid employment. The skills and knowledge gained at school will help them produce better use of land and resources, bigger and more diverse produce, and a building block for future generations. We need your help to fund the existing school fees and provide additional funds so more children can attend school. For £500 / $660 per year you can help send a child to school and change a life.

Core Activity FOMO Running Costs —Top

FOMO Mulanje running costs (electricity, water, fuel, wages, centre running costs, food, health care, car, tax, transport, sports activities and insurance, etc.)

FOMO like any family has running costs. They are not high, less than £5,000 per center per year, but they are essential to the running of the programs. If you can help by donating on a regular basis, then we can budget for the essentials as a family. Get a friend to help as well.

Estimated costs have gone during, this is due to the nearly 100% increase in basic food and fuel prices and a current almost 30% inflation rate. The devalued pound and transport costs also means that all imported goods and materials costs have increased. 

Top

Additional Projects

• • Click – Secondary School Project (Priority)
  • Click – Health Care (URGENT)
  • Click – FOMO Centres
  • Click – Blankets (Priority)
  • Click – Mosquito Nets (Priority)
  • Click – Generator (Electricity)
  • Click – Water Tanks
  • Click – Farming and Market Gardens (Tractor etc)
  • Click – Activity Area
  • Click – Container (URGENT)
  • Click – Security Wall
  • Click – Sports GYM (Building Completed 2022 still need equipment )

Blankets–Top

• Project – To provide a blanket to each child (3500) registered with FOMO
• Benefit – Health
• Estimated cost – £10 / $12 per blanket

FOMO has previously provided some of the children with blankets, but their goal is to provide each child with one. Although many people associate Africa with heat, the proximity of the mountain causes the temperature to drop significantly, and the children’s sleeping arrangements are poor, with simple grass mats and little covering. Providing blankets would be the first step in improving their sleeping conditions and addressing the health issues associated with sleeping on mud floors.

While it would be ideal to provide everyone with a bed and a well-built house, FOMO aims to help the children through education and healthcare. In urgent cases, FOMO has provided new roofs and plastic sheeting for houses. When asked what they need the most, the children all request new blankets, and FOMO aims to fulfill this request to improve their comfort while sleeping.

 Health Care (FORU)–Top

• Project – To assess, educate and treat the medical needs of all children attending FOMO’s centres. (More than 3500 children + addition of around 500 adults). This project is up and running, but needs ongoing finical support.
• Benefit – Humanitarian Aid – Local Employment – Education and Health Care
• Estimated cost – £11,000 / $14,500per year

Think of all the times you have been to the doctor, hospital or even your local chemist. Now imagine life without those facilities. Would you still be here to read this?

This is the daily life for many 1000’s of children and adults in Mulanje district, Malawi.

Add to this dire situation, TB, Malaria, Bilharzia, a catalogue of childhood diseases, poor diet and living conditions and you will be starting to appreciate the perils and suffering the people endure.

FORU’s primary role is to administer free health care, support and health education to children registered with FOMO, (Over 3500) and children affected by HIV/Aids.

FORU’s main objectives are to:

• Ensure that each of the FOMO centres are capable of meeting the parental. Responsibility in terms of First Aid and basic health care.
• Provide access to, and meet the costs of, professional health care via local clinics, and hospital facilities.
• Provide access to health care information.
• Provide education and counselling to the children and guardians
• Provide training in first aid and basic health care.
• Provide support for home care patients.
• Provide access to the HIV/Aids treatment programme
• Provide accommodation for HIV/Aids children during the drug stabilization period.

You can help to alleviate the suffering and save life’s by donating funds to the programme.

Farming and Market Gardens–Top

• Project – To develop the farm and market garden we need to invest in agriculture machines.
• Benefit – Increased food production, Education resource, Local Employment, Transport
• Estimated cost – £30,000 – £40,000 / $36,000 to $48,000

To develop the farm and market garden we need to invest in agriculture machines.

• Tractor
• Two furrow plough
• Disc harrow
• Trailer

FOMO has a plot of land which produces two main crops, of maize and chickpeas. We also have vegetable gardens at many of the FOMO centres. The tractor will not only be used to increase food production for the FOMO children, but will be able to be used by the local community to increase land use. A tractor is ideal for this work as it is able to navigate the country tracks during the rainy season.

Container–Top

• Project – To fill and send one 40 ft container annually
• Benefit – Provides support for FOMO’s activities and development
• Estimated cost – £11,000 / $14,000 per container

To send a 40ft container from the UK filled with items either too expensive or unobtainable in Malawi. The items range from child packs and play ground toys to new clothing, computers, furniture, generators etc all of which will help to further FOMO’s activities in Mulanje.

If you can help by financing the container’s filling costs, it would be appreciated.

Pictures above: Container Leaving UK 2019, Below last years container 2022 arriving in Malawi

FOMO Centre–Top

• Project – To provide a purpose build building to use as a FOMO centre.
• Benefit –
  • Improve or establish basic facilities
  • Provide local services
    • Employment
    • Education
    • Health
• Estimated cost – £20,000 / $24,000 per centre

Note: We have built a smaller center at FOMO Mikoko this is based on the main building and can be expanded as funds become available.

Exiting Centers Completed:

• Kumwamba 2003, Kadewere 2005, Mwamadi  2006, Tambala  2007, Namijingo 2008, Mikoko 2012, Chole 2015, Sazola 2019, Mangani 2022 plus 2 community build,
• 2 more needed

FOMO plans to construct similar facilities at Nalawade and Nessa  villages. (The facilities will include a hall, office, store, kitchen & toilets. They will serve as a place for the children to meet and eat, some centres have over 300 children. They will also support the existing play school programme and learning activities.)

In many parts of the world, community halls are or have been the centre of village life. In rural Malawi, such buildings do not exist and life is about survival.

The buildings offer a valuable service to the children from many nearby villages. Many of the older children walk more than five miles to the main centre to access the computers, library etc. To make the facilities accessible to everyone, we need a custom-built building that can adapt to changing needs.

The building is a major investment, but we have done it before and we have the support of the local community. Each village has donated a piece of land for a new centre. With your help and the local communities’ dedication, we can provide this valuable service.

Picture: FOMO Sazola

FOMO Sasol 2019 above new centre at Mangani village 2022

Activity Area–Top

• Project – To build Pre-school activity areas. (Climbing frames, swings, seesaw etc.)
• Benefit –  Facility Improvements – Education Development.
• Estimated cost – £5,000 / $6,000 per activity areas.

Play as we all know is very important to a child’s development and every child likes to play, children in Mulanje are no different. What we would like to provide is an adventure playground that can be used by the local children, children attending the centre and a resource for the proposed school and under five nursery school. There is nothing like this in Mulanje and some of the materials can be found locally, but things like slides, construction bolts and safety/climbing-netting need to be purchased.

With a little bit of imagination and the use of local people to build this equipment we will be able to keep the costs down.

Security Wall–Top

• Project – To to build a security wall around each centre and the school
• Benefit – Facility improvements, educational, local employment and food production
• Estimated cost – TBA per centre, but it would be in the region of £10,000 / $12,000 per center

Maybe not the most glamorous of projects, but a wall around the centre would allow us to develop other activities at the centre i.e. Chickens, vegetable garden, children’s secure play area etc

Mosquito Nets —Top

• Project – To provide a Mosquito Net to protect all 2,500 FOMO children.
• Benefit –  Health
• Estimated cost – £5.00 / $6.00 per net

Mosquitos and the Malaria they carry are a constant threat to the children’s survival. For less than the cost of a take away the children’s exposure to malaria can be dramatically reduced.

A number of years ago we provided all our children with a Mosquito net, but they don’t last for ever and it is once again time to supply the children with this essential heath aid.

You can help by donating to the Mosquito Net fund and help save life’s.

Water Tanks —Top

• Project – To provide rain water collection tanks and guttering at FOMO centres
• Benefit – Health,  Gardening, Clothes Washing and Toilets
• Estimated cost – £10,000 / $13,000 per building and includes:
  • • 4 x Tanks, Guttering, Groundwork, plumbing, labour, Transport and fuel

Water at certain times of the year is a major problem. Part of the centre development plan is to add a rainwater harvesting system that will collect water from the roof, and then store the water for use in the gardening projects, clothes washing and toilets

Rainwater is captured from the roof(s), and brought to a central point, via normal guttering and down-pipes, to enter a storage tank where it is filtered on entry and then piped away for use.

As the location specific average rainfall can only be estimated,  the size of the tank will be determined more on the availability and cost. It is proposed that in the initial phase  4 x 5,000 litre tanks are installed, if the water collected is less than use then additional tanks can be added.

Boreholes are still needed to provide safe drinking water, but the water collection project will supplement the water supply for washing, laundry, toilets garden and general use.

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Generator (Electricity) —Top

• Project – To provide electrical generators to FOMO centres.
• Benefit – Extends the day, which has both social and educational benefits.
• Estimated cost – £5,000 / $6,000 per generator

The provision of generators will allow the children to study new subjects. It goes dark at 6:00 pm and the provision of electricity will expend the children’s time at the centre to allow them to read and complete there home work.

Electricity will also open up the opportunity for adult education, night classes.

Note: In the past we have also loaned our existing generator to the hospital to run the maternity ward as theirs was broken.

Secondary School Project —Top

• Project – To expand the facilities and benefits of the FOMO Secondary School.
• Benefit – Education, Employment
• Estimated cost – See below – depends on project

There are several aspects to the project:

• Provide school fees and resources for the children
  • To expand the schools facilities:
    • Finish Girls Hostels £10,000 / $13,000
    • Provide a additional block, (4 Classrooms) £35,000 / $42,500
    • Provide Kitchen Block, £10,000 / $12,000)
    • Equip the school kitchen cost TBA
    • Equip and stock the science block £5,000 / $6,000
    • Equip and stock the library (new books and educational material £2,000 / $2,500
    • Replace the computer facilities cost £15,000/ $17,000
    • Supplement running cost for the school £10,000 / $12,000
    • Build additional Boys Hostel  £40,000 / $50,000

Education is the best gift we can give.

• For more information on these projects please Click Here

School Block

Sports GYM—Top

The building is completed, but still need funds to buy Gym equipment

The GYM Building has now been finished, but we still need help with gym equipment.

• Project – To build a sports hall/gym to develop skills and technics for sport. (Initially Soccer and net ball)
• Benefit – Education, Entertainment, Support to male and female sport. will act as a centre of excellence providing opportunities to the school children and local community.