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Each year a humanitarian award is giving by the Malawi Project to a woman in Malawi who is considered important to the people in ways that go beyond the average. The award, a hand made quilt is symbolic of the caregiver who helps fill the needs of others who are in need. This is the 9th year of the award. This year the Malawi Project Humanitarian Quilt Award goes to Samatha Ludwick the owner of the Cool Runnings lake resort in Senga Bay. Samatha has been instrumental in creating a number of projects that merit her inclusion in the awards category. These include the creation of a small “parts” business among village children to help them learn to be creative and to earn money. In this venture she has worked with the children of Mtendere Village to make car parts for the small wire galimotos constructed at Mtendere for sale to western visitors. She has also started a recycling venture for three villages to gather scrap plastic that blemishes the landscape. It is sold to raise funds for further development projects. In one recent 6-week period the children gathered and sold 3 tons of scrap. Another of her efforts has been to help the Kuthandiza Osayenda Disability Outreach Center in Salima. A portion of her work has been to establish links between the center and contributors in order to bring the needed resources to the handicapped people in the area.
The Change A Life project is designed to find needy people who want to get a step up in life and give them the needed resources to reach their goals. She cites the story of Victor, a beach boy with no future, yet after being given a step up he is has gained an education and is providing for his wife and daughter through his work as an auto mechanic. Samatha has also created a School Fee Program that is helping to send children to school who otherwise would never have been able to gain an education. Two of her latest projects are programs the Malawi Project is joining hands to help her accomplish. One is the “Post Me A Book” project where Cool Runnings and the Malawi Project are gathering educational books for the library that will be located near Senga Bay. The military battalion paratroop division based near Senga Bay has completed a portion of the building, and Cool Runnings and the Malawi Project will make the remaining funds available to complete the building.
The second project, or actually a set of projects, includes medical assistance to a clinic between Senga Bay and Salima, as well as the establishment of a local First Aid Clinic in the village area near Cool Runnings. In this project funding is still needed to build the building, then a small amount of equipment will be needed for the facility. For the villagers of Senga Bay to reach the nearest hospital requires a 29-kilometer walk, and not one person in any of the villages has a single car.
The Malawi Project is proud to be working with Samatha Ludick to assist the people of Malawi.