Kids Helping Kids Get Mosquito Nets -Malawi

THANK YOU! We did it. Our goal has been met and we now have enough for ALL 507 children served by the Hands of Hope Feeding Centre.

We are raising funds to get mosquito nets  to help the children served by Hands of Hope Feeding Center in the village of Mtsiliza in Lilongwe, Malawi.  Each net costs 3,000MK or about $4 USD. This project is being spearheaded by 11 year-old Lukas  and his friends (Tawana, Giorgia, Naila and Kay) in Year 6 at Bishop McKenzie International School in Lilongwe.

Lukas writes:
"Hello. Thank you for visiting this page. We are a group of year six students (5th graders) and we made our own organization at school called the NPO (No Poverty Organization).  We are a group of Malawians and international kids coming from different parts of the world working together to help kids in need in our community. Our parents and teachers are helping us with this project to get mosquito nets for children and their families. The rainy season is coming so even if you can donate $1, it could help stop a child and their family from getting Malaria."

See the last recent project  Lukas successfully spearheaded in Balaka, Malawi to help welding students hold classes again.


Wilson Mvinya (our friend and neighbor here in Malawi) runs the feeding center and does a number of community projects and initiatives around the country.


Wilson in action at the center.

Wilson writes:

"We are local organization running a feeding center called Hands of Hope in the village of Mtsiliza in Lilongwe. These children are affected by HIV and AIDS and many are also orphans.

We have been feeding vulnerable children and elderly from the community. It would give me great satisfaction to see these young ones loved and cared for more, especially in this rainy season, whereby there's a lot of mosquitoes and there is an increase of Malaria cases... even deaths, so your support for one mosquito net per child will go along way."


A Quick Word From Lukas's Mom:
I'm Kristen Palana, a UN consultant and university professor living in Malawi since 2019. I founded Aura's House  , a grassroots website that existed long before Kickstarter, Gofundme, etc. Since 2004, we have raised over $130,000 (in our so-called spare time) for health, education, housing, and income generation projects for needy families in developing countries. Lukas and his younger brother Nico have been helping me fund-raise since they were babies and now are old enough to want to do their own projects. Since having moved to Malawi in July of 2019, we've raised funds for a Malawian classroom to be built, Wilson's feeding center, as well as for a family and village. See recent past projects here 

As always with any project I am helping with, 100% of Donations go directly to the intended recipients. (I donate all the GoFundMe and credit card fees we incur so those will not affect the project.)


Kids receiving meals at the center


How You Can Help:
We first aimed to raise a total of $500 to buy at least 127 mosquito nets. 

The cost of one mosquito net is 3,000MK (about $4 USD). 

If you are a student or parent of a student at BMIS in Lilongwe, please note offline donations can be made to Year 6 teacher, Ms. Alison Longden who has kindly volunteered to safeguard cash donations made in person.

We also can accept new or gently used (no holes please!) mosquito nets instead of cash or online donations.




Lukas with some of his classmates at BMIS.


In return for your contribution, you will:

Have the most amazing feeling of having helped not just these kids, but also their families and entire community (Ahhh, feel that lovely karma!) 

All funds raised will be used towards the mosquito net purchases.  We'll post the receipts here once we get them and keep you posted with text and photo updates.

Your contribution will have a tremendous impact!



Other Ways You Can Help:

There's more than one way you can help us with this.  Yes, donating even just $4 ( one whole net!) is amazing, but there are also ways that won't cost a cent:  

Spread the word!  Share this story with your friends via email, Facebook, Twitter - anything will do!  Tell your classmates, your family, your soccer team, your ski club - tell everyone!

And thank you.  Because of you, we can make a difference in our communities and in our world!

Sincerely,
Lukas, Tawana, Giorgia, Naila, Kay, Wilson, Kristen, and Members of the NPO


Wilson and Kristen in a pre-pandemic photo. 2019.