Pakachere, let's meet again under the tree

Pakachere is home away from home in Zomba (Malawi). Our team always works hard to make all our guests feel welcome. Thanks to our amazing staff we have been awarded Best Hostel in Malawi, score 8.9 on booking.com and have good reviews on TripAdvisor - we want to welcome guests again when it is safe.

Due to the corona crisis we are currently on 50%; we have reduced opening hours but also the staff's salaries. Soon we expect we have to close for a while for the safety of our guests, our staff and their families. No income for the lodge means we have no means to pay salaries while we are closed, which is why we raise funds: to make sure our staff can pay rent, buy relish (food) and pay medical bills.

The owners Jeroen & Annelies will take care of the rent; what we are looking for is funds to pay our staff at least 40% of their current salaries while we are closed! Please help us to help them!! Please support Ellen & Elida; Jonathan, Patrick, Linda, Olivia and Isaac, our chefs Mike, Maxwell and Ranges; the guards Martin, Kidman, Owen, Wilson and Evance; and mr Banda our gardener so we can welcome you back at Pakachere later in the year.

All info about our lodge on www.pakachere.com

€3,000 explained: we expect we might have to close for approx 4 months, and after that business will possibly remain slow for a long time. We want to give our staff approx MWK35,000 per month, guards will be on duty and we will provide food for them. All money we get will go to the staff, but we have to give some money to GoFundMe and we'll have bank costs.

We have a buffer for 1 month as the lean season was just supposed to end and we had many bookings for 2020 confirmed already. We recently invested in solar, in maintenance, new bedding etc.

The hostel is empty, no guests even tho we are still open. Maybe 2 people per day come for lunch, average income currently K12,000 per day. We have to deduct 16.5% VAT and 1% tourism levy.

Salaries (50%) cost us K810,000 per month so K27,000 per day and rent is K690,000 per month which is K23,000 per day. Not calculated water, electricity etc. but included pension and PAYE (taxes over salaries). And not included unexpected things, like the leaking geyser yesterday.. for 3 months for staff only we will need K2,430,000 is €3,000. We do hope to make some money cos we do take-away & delivery, offer social-distance meeting space in the garden, and we will keep 2 rooms and our campsite open for people who want to spend the night.