True Friends is located along side Lake Malawi and consists of 3 centers with the majority of the orphans being supported at the main center.
As you might imagine, meeting under a tree places many limits on what can be done with the orphans - especially during the rainy season.
Funding is in place, through the generous donations of two businessmen, to build a school hall for the orphans at the main center. The hall will have a large room in which the orphans will eat and receive their training as well as a kitchen and restroom facilities. Local volunteers are making the bricks and a contractor is putting up the building. True Friends hopes to generate some income by renting the building out for weddings and other community events. They also hope to prepare and sell food on those occasions. Here are some pictures taken by Scott VanDyken and Manuel Kamnkwani (Word & Deed Project Director in Malawi).
Scott plans to move to Malawi in September, the Lord willing, with his wife Caroline and 3 sons and help oversee the projects there with Manuel.
Standing in front of the True Friends sign are (from left to right), Ernest Banda (the president of the True Friends Committee and an elder in the local Church of Central Africa, Presbyterian or CCAP), two members of the committee and Scott VanDyken.
Word & Deed places a high priority on local involvement in any project. The men have volunteered to make the bricks for the new building. In the background are the kilns made from the bricks that are being prepared.
Young people and orphans help out as well.
The orphan care program recently provided clothing for the orphans (shorts, shirts etc.). Many of the children are orphans in these pictures.
A small ceremony is held in which the funds for the project are given to Ernest, the leader of the True Friends Orphan Project.
Scott climbed a tree to give us a bird's eye view.
Please pray for True Friends, the orphans, the administrator (who is need of a motorcycle given the distances between the 3 centers which make up the True Friends Project), the committee overseeing the project and the caregiver families.
