NYM celebrated its official opening ceremony on Saturday 14th January in Ruarwe village. There were lovely songs and dances prepared for the occasion by local women's groups and our NYM youth club. A big thank you to TA Boghoyo and the Village Heads that were able to attend the party, and of course to everyone in the community, our international volunteers and the staff and guests from Zulunkhuni Lodge that came along to show their support.
KARIBU!

On Friday 20th January Ruarwe saw its first distribution day... of bras! With help of pre-existing women's groups in Ruarwe (one pictured below) NYM managed to distribute many free bras throughout the community. Some women even walked up to two hours to join the fun!! A big thank you to Tymon Kaunda and Tom George for helping to arrange the bras that morning, a testing task for two men, and to Leah, Ellie and Elmas for their help throughout the day. And, of course, a big shout out to Emma Jacobs who helped to source the bras from the UK last year.

THE WOMEN OF RUARWE ARE NOW SUPPORTED!!

Thanks to the wonderful Tymon Kaunda, a Malawian volunteer from Nkhata-Bay, our junior youth club for under 15's is still going strong with sessions running three times a week at NYM. As well as enjoying the donated toys and games that arrived from the UK, the children are also discussing topics such as community development, environmental awareness and HIV. Thank you Tymon and keep up the good work!

In November the JAMBULA project came out to Ruarwe to hold a three-day art creative workshop and residency, which aimed to tackle issues of deforestation in Malawi through art and creative thinking. The workshop was a HUGE success and enjoyed by all in Ruarwe, including village headmen, local artists and hoards of school children! A huge thank you to REDD Horizon and to the event organisers: Alice, Olivia and Myck. Alice has started writing a blog that has some fantastic images of the 3-day event - to take a look just click on the image....

The time for a new era has come!!!
In November Nyumba ya Masambiro opened its library doors to the public for the first time ever!
Our librarian, Slamoyo Nyasulu, can be seen standing proud at the entrance and all of the staff at the centre are beyond excited to be entering this new phase! A huge thank you to everyone that donated books and materials for this project last year, especially Portland Place Secondary School and Nower Hill High School.
We are hoping to get the youth centre open and some groups organised by December this year, with classes to follow in January...
These are very exciting times indeed!
To get a better view of what we're doing take a look at our recent pictures that have been posted on the 'Gallery' page and on our Facebook group.. Any feedback/comments are as always greatly appreciated!