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Creating the Malawi of Tomorrow |
 I first went to Malawi in the spring of 1998. I was immediately struck by the beauty of the country and the friendliness of the people.
However, my visit also revealed to me the horror of both acute poverty and the extent to which HIV/AIDS was ravaging the younger elements of the population. The next eighteen months brought home to me just how dependent are Malawi’ s.
In October 2000, I and a Malawian friend decided to open a small business in Lilongwe. Our main objective was to give employment to local youths, train them and pay the sort of reasonable wage that would enable them to live above the poverty line. Six years later, the business is still managing, just, to stay afloat, but it has had to adapt, to move out of unprofitable activities and to seize new opportunities.
The creation of Malawi Tomorrow in 2002 was the logical extension of my personal commitment to Malawi. At first, the Trust was content to provide funds to educate vulnerable children and to secure community based care for those that had lost their parents, more often than not to HIV/AIDS. Later, we raised our sights and decided to help rehabilitate damaged infrastructure, including bore-holes and bridges and a water powered maize mill – all in remote rural areas.
Billy McAneney - Founding Trustee |
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