Kunyumba: Support a new childcare center in Malawi

Kunyumba is a day care centre in Senga Bay, Malawi for all types of vulnerable children; whether they are disabled, suffering from medical problems, orphaned or from difficult home situations. Kunyumba means home or family in Malawi’s national language Chichewa. We have been operating since 2009 with currently over 40 children  and are well known and accepted by the local community. We work closely together with the local authorities and have employed Malawians as sole managers for the day-to-day running of our activities. 

However, requests have exceeded the capacity of the day care centre to accommodate the high need. This has led to the situation that Kunyumba had to refuse around 50% of children that wanted to join Kunyumba due to capacity constraints. Only the most acute cases with regards to urgent required medical treatment or abandoned children can currently be supported.

It is important to notice that Kunyumba is not an orphanage. We provide services from Monday to Friday and the children live in the village either with their parents or with relatives. 

The project Kunyumba II will expand our capacities to open this opportunity to more children.

Kunyumba II represents an extension of the current activity to more than double the number of children to 100. There is a strong demand for childcare support, which Kunyumba would like to better address through the expansion. The critical issue is that especially children with disabilities require special medical treatment and are often considered to be an additional burden for families that already face difficult economic situations. In the end, the children suffer under this conditions with very limited opportunities to live the childhood that they deserve.

In early 2015 we have bought 1.7 hectars of land unsuitable for agriculture close to the village centre. We chose the terrain, as we did not want to compete over fertile land with the community and as it was close to the densely populated areas of Senga Bay, minimizing the daily walks for the guardians or parents to the centre. The centre will also reforest parts of the terrain to improve soil quality and water levels. Electricity will be provided thanks to solar cells. 

At the end of 2018 with the generous support from the German Embassy in Malawi, we have commenced our construction of a new house. In order to complete construction of all houses and once and reopen the  centre as soon as possible, we will need your support for the construction of the final house and our solar system.

Our team is well capacitated to support our anticipated growth. Our vice manager Kettie Banda will be the new responsible for the second centre and work with two others members of staff that have vast experience in children care. We will then subsequently hire up to 10 new members of staff from the community.