The Chipatso Education Project

Hi, my name is Ilia Carson -Letelier and I am raising money to educate the children of Cape Maclear Malawi. This is a community with a high percentage of orphans due to Malaria. I have already purchased a one acre plot of land and started the building process. I will be building an orphanage, small, self-contained homes for single mothers, with children and homes for widows. In addition, all the children living at the site will be attending the private school in the local village as the public schools are very overcrowded with about 100 children per classroom. Chipatso means a gift in the local language, often a gift of fruit. I would like to offer this project as a gift to this community.

I am already sponsoring 10 children in school and my very first college graduate, Kimzy Often, is helping me to manage this project. Without him I could never do this.

All funds will be directly used for building materials, labor for the construction of the buildings and associated costs such as digging septic tanks, installing solar power, as electricity is extremely unreliable here, and appliances and furnishings. I am very excited about this project and the differences it will make in the lives of the local people here.

L-R-Kimzy Often & Christopher Yotam are two of our scholars. Kim just graduated university and will be staying on as our Project Manager. Christopher is helping for the summer and in the fall will return to school to finish his last year of high school.

These are some of the many curious children that hang out watching us work here in Cape Maclear. We hope to be able to pay for some of them to attend private elementary school here in the local village. The nearly $200 it costs for a child to attend a year of private elementary school is cost prohibitive for nearly all families in this village.

These two mothers and their children will be the first to occupy the single mothers self contained housing units once they are built. We will be building four of these units and we will sponsor their children to attend the local private elementary school.