World (lack of) Vision

During my recent trip to Malawi I had the privilege of visiting the Recapo Orphanage on the outskirts of Lilongwe (on the Salima road). The people there were very friendly, from all ages and backgrounds. I was impressed on two accounts: 1) It wasn’t just a place people got handouts, it was a place for education, training, working and the empowering of vulnerable people. 2) The staff who ran the project had a great vision for expansion and the future work of the Orphanage.

But we saw something pretty shocking too… World Vision has been supporting the project and has provided a sewing machine and a maize mill to allow the orphanage to generate some income. I guess it’s like one of those alternative gifts you can give… how kind.

Unfortunately World Vision is seriously lacking in any long term vision, a Maize Mill requires electricity to run, so you would have thought that World Vision would have also provided a generator, or some solar panels, or connected them to the grid. As it turns out they did none of these things.

It would cost about £4500 to get connected to the grid, but even then, the orphanage cannot afford to pay the electricity bill, the ideal would be some solar panels so that they can have a sustainable electricity supply which doesn’t cost them to run. The orphanage explained that this maize mill had been sitting idle for 2 years.

We have been hoping that some local business leaders may be willing to provide some sponsorship for this project, however it would be nice if World Vision followed through on the half done job and provided whatever means necessary to get this Maize Mill up and running? If you know someone involved in WV, please ask them…