Busy year for Zomba Action

ZAP members pictured recently handing over of goats.

Not only has it presented wheelchairs to the local community but also mosquito nets, goats, treadle pumps and a bicycle ambulance.

Set up in March 2003, following the establishment of the Coleraine-Zomba partnership, initiated by the Coleraine Borough Council, the charity raises and manages funds for approved projects to help disadvantaged people in Zomba, Malawi and in so doing helps give the Coleraine community an increased world vision.

Recently ZAP provided wheelchairs and tricycles for eight young people in Zomba.

Portush's Paul Snelling, Secretary of ZAP, pictured handing over a cheque which would help pay for repairs of the Paediatric ward toilets and washing facilities.

The wheelchairs, which cost about £120 each, are made in Zomba from a sturdy chair, two bicycle wheels and two trolley wheels.

The tricycles are also made locally.

Joyce McMullan, representing the ZAP Health group said: “Without a wheelchair the young person has to be carried; the wheelchairs and tricycles provide a much welcomed degree of independence for not just for the child, but also the parents. Many more children are in need of such support.

“The project was organised in Zomba by the ZAP health representative there, Jean Machinjili.”

Joyce McMullan (right) with Jean Machinjili (middle) representatives of the ZAP health group in Coleraine and Zomba. The wheelchairs, which cost about Â£120 each, are made in Zomba from a sturdy chair, two bicycle wheels and two trolley wheels; the tricycles are also made locally.

After a visit in 2014 by five people from Kilrea, who helped complete the Ana ndi Anthu Orphan Care Support Centre near Zomba, another five young adults from Kilrea Young Farmers’ Club recently visited in July. Adam Alexander, Amy Thompson, Elizabeth Patterson, Thomas Gordon and Nicola Greer, accompanied by Paul Snelling from Portrush, spent two weeks in Malawi, where they experienced rural life, visited a number of projects and worked on the completion of another Orphan Care Support Centre at Chipalawe.

Paul, who is the Secretary of ZAP, explained: “The project provided funding for the construction of a two room orphan support centre with kitchen and toilets at Chipalawe, serving eight villages in Traditional Authority Mwambo.

“The project includes the provision of two treadle pumps to irrigate a garden to provide maize, 100 mosquito nets and 10 goats. The irrigated garden and goats are intended to support a sustainable feeding programme for the children.”

A joint partnership with Hazelbank Presbyterian Church and Get up and Go Walking Club in Kilrea, the project also enabled the team to present a cheque to Zomba Central Hospital to help pay for repairs of the Paediatric ward toilets and washing facilities.

* ZAP is currently circulating their 2015-16 Annual Report and Gift Leaflet, and if you would like to receive a copy and get involved with support for Zomba, contact Paul Snelling on 07554357704 or email [email protected], or [email protected] .

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