Fascinating Update on Covid and our next Infrastructure Project from Sr Gio in Malawi

Dear Donna and everyone at Project Kindy in Australia,

Greetings from Malawi.
We too think of you and pray for you all.

Yesterday i went to see two of the kindergartens where there is no structure. I went to Tikondane and Mwaywathu. The schools are still on holiday, but the teachers and the women started dancing as soon as they saw the car coming. I could not believe their joy simply because we went to see them. I try to send you the video of the women…. they are singing: “we are proud of reading and writing…..” and a couple of pics.


We also looked into the possibility of starting building for them. As you can see from the pics, they are still learning under the grass shade. The small company i have met is ready to start the two sites at the same time, so to be ready with both the schools before the rainy season. If you think we could do it, just give us the ok, and we start.

The covid19 situation in Malawi is not “tragic”, but at the same time not good. Especially in the towns, Blantyre and Lilongwe, the cases counted are much more than before. They say every other door there is a case…. but many also get cured. In the villages people do die, and they simply say they die of asthma….


Some of our sisters also got the virus, but now they are OK. They were taken to Mangochi, to our hospital, in quarantine, and helped with the needed medication. Even our staff in our institutions were badly affected. In the secondary school we lost one teacher in the month of May, and children lost their parents. It is really sad.


We use a lot of precaution and prevention. We continuously remind them to wash hands often and wear masks. Schools are now closed, on holiday, and the third term will start on 30th August. We pray for the childrens’ safety while they are at home the whole day. Still Malaria remains one of the great killers. Especially during these months of cold season, with the poor health conditions of our government hospitals, many children died because of malaria.

Economy is not doing well. Kwacha is losing to the US D every day, and things are increasing on the market every day. For example, cooking oil we used to buy at 700 K liter, now it is up to 1,600, and this happened in a span of a few months….. In Nsanama there is rice this year, but because of the COVID 19 pandemic, there is no market. People who used to come all the way from the towns, now are not coming to buy the rice, so those who cultivated cannot sell their harvest. Last year was the same, and so the harvest of rice of 2021 met with the harvest of 2020 not sold yet.


​Actually, the struggle is always for the poor people of the villages.


This year, to help the poor people of the villages, we bought the maize one cup at a time from them, so that they could get some little cash. We made sure they were selling only what was in excess for their use. We bought the maize right in the villages, so to spare them the transport. This was a good exercise, though it took time and effort. The only drawback is that we don’t have receipts.


We are at the end of the cold season, still a bit chilly in the morning, but pleasant during the day. People started working in the fields, preparing the soil for the next planting season, at the beginning of the rainy season, November/ December. The previous harvest was not bad in general, though in some areas the rain was too much, and therefore the harvest is not sufficient for the family to reach the next harvest time.

Be blessed

Sr. Giovanna