Dear Kudimba friends,
It has been a rollercoaster year for us at Kudimba, we have made great progress but also faced enormous challenges.
Where to begin…
Let’s start with the good news, the new arrivals at Kudimba.
We welcomed two staff babies at Kudimba over the past year.
Benjamin is Leke’s son, he was born on 23/03/24.
Oswin is Anthony and Patricia’s child. This lucky boy arrived in his warm nest on 27/11/24.
Benjamin, Leke’s son.
Oswin, Anthony and Patricia’s child
With your help we were able to assist another baby from Lifuwu village: Talandira, who was born on 03/03/24 and lost her mother on the same day.
We provided her grandparents with essential items and baby food for her first year and we are proud to say that Talandira is doing more than great.
In 2024, we welcomed 6 new participants to Kudimba, bringing the total number of participants registered since the start of our activities to 63.
We hope to welcome more children at Kudimba in the new year.
Our first major challenge came in February as the water from the slowly rising lake invaded our project site. There are many reasons why Lake Malawi burst its banks: climate change, cyclones and excessive rainfall, as well as the management of the dam in the south of the lake, all contributed to the flooding.
Talandira is doing more than great
We had to close our daycare centre and resort to outreach visits instead of our usual activities.
We were only able to fully reopen our daycare services at the end of July, which meant that we also had to postpone our circus project, which we were all so excited about.
We are now planning to organise this circus project in July 2025, with a one year delay.
Fortunately, the inundation caused relatively little damage to Kudimba’s buildings, however we are still in the process of replanting our beautiful garden and we continue to work on measures to reduce the damage caused by potential future floods.
Among the many visitors we welcomed to Kudimba over the past year, one of the highlights was the visit of students and teachers from the College of Veurne in Belgium.
In September we welcomed back Lotte who volunteered to mentor three students from Vives University in Belgium during their internship at Kudimba.
The students have just left Malawi after nearly three months and will no doubt enjoy their return to Belgium, the comforts of their home and the reunion with family and friends.
Thank you Lotte, and thank you to students Axelle, Leonie and Lotte for your time at Kudimba. We hope you had an inspiring and enriching time with the project.
Lotte, Axelle, Leonie and Lotte
In the midst of all of these events, we have managed to complete our new kitchen block, which is a great addition to the Kudimba site. In this building we have opened a modest toy library and our staff member Bright now has his own office for bookkeeping and stores.
At the new project site, we have made great progress with Sandulika, our next development.
We have a first class borehole and a pump house with a storeroom. We have a septic tank and a water tower with two tanks.
The communal bathroom with toilets, showers and a laundry area is almost complete and we have started to build a large covered area for our day care activities.
Our last challenge of the year was by far the most devastating. Our young friend Blessings tragically passed away in a lake accident on the 29th of November.
Our hearts are broken.
Blessings will be greatly missed and his adventurous spirit, his cheeky laugh, his boisterous enthusiasm, his unconditional and unlimited love for everyone and for life.
His short life was full of joy and fun, until the very last moment.
During his time with us in Kudimba, he quickly became an important and valued part of our family.
The people of Kudimba are still in mourning so there will not be a Kudimba Christmas party this year.
Blessings and Veronica
Fortunately, we were spared much of the damage caused by the passage of Cyclone Chido, which devastated parts of south-east Africa. In Malawi, and in the Salima area where Kudimba is located, a significant number of buildings were damaged, but overall the passage of the cyclone was calmer than feared and Kudimba came out completely unscathed.
A special word of thanks goes to Anthony, Kudimba’s on-site project manager. Navigating all these challenges has been particularly difficult this year. But Anthony has risen to the occasion with dignity and humility. Our respect for Anthony only grows as he perseveres. He is worth his weight in gold.
Despite the difficulties, we have made great progress on the project and we hope to continue to do so. Our biggest developments in the coming year will take place at our new site, where the Sandulika project is budding.
Our wish for the New Year?
We hope that 2025 will be kind to Kudimba.
It is a special year: we are celebrating the 10th anniversary of the purchase of the Kudimba site.
We look back with pride at the achievements of the past 10 years. Time has flown by and we can not wait to see what the next 10 years will bring.
As always, a word of thanks goes out to our loyal supporters for sticking with us over the past year. Without your support, Kudimba would not exist.
Warmest wishes from the Kudimba team