A Malawian success story

June 2018

It’s a bitterly cold winter’s morning in Malawi’s capital and, one month on from completing the purchase of a 7-acre plot of land in the rural heartland of Mtema, 25km north-west of Lilongwe, BPF’s Founder, Richard, arrives on site. In the distance, a figure emerges from a thatched mud hut and, over the next few minutes, moves slowly towards where Richard has now parked his bike, taken shade under a small tree and perched his laptop on his knees.

The sun, piercing a seemingly endless and totally cloudless African blue sky, begins to warm the village community below. The sweet sound of birdsong and the joyful calls of children on their way to school is increasingly interspersed by the crunching sound of the figure – now resembling a slender man in torn brown trousers and a red t-shirt – taking small, careful steps across a field of dried leaves and groundnut shells.

The man arrives at Richard’s makeshift office to welcome his foreign guest with a warm smile and a heartfelt handshake. “Morning”, he says. After a friendly but brief verbal exchange, the man sits down and appears to bask in the view of the landscape out in front of him. His name is Dickson Shema, a future village chief; a role he would assume a year later.

Today’s objective is to mark out, by hand, the key areas of the masterplan in preparation for the earthworks. Dickson is joined by a growing team of local villagers assembled by Tim Mahoney, a British/Malawian landscape architect brought in as BPF’s project lead. Over the months that follow, Tim will train a committed site team in hand-pressed concrete block-making, bricklaying and landscaping, as well as teamwork and leadership.

Dickson and his fellow workers – men and women – will also have guaranteed employment and income for their families throughout BPF’s construction schedule; an arrangement which would remain unchanged when the rest of the world comes to a standstill in the year of the pandemic.

Today

2021

Bhubesi Pride Foundation is now nearing the completion of its sports & education community centre construction project. BPF is preparing to embark on the next phase of bringing this incredible project to life, enabling hundreds of community members to regularly access sporting and educational activities; the charity will create jobs locally (training sports coaches, educators, managers, caterers, maintenance and grounds staff); and provide a platform for the international community to directly contribute to ongoing and ever-improving community programs.