News / Malawi volunteers return
A GROUP of local volunteers have just arrived home from Malawi where they spent a month helping in pre-school orphanages, care groups and a community hospital.
They also delivered much needed medical kit, which was bought from donations received in Shetland.
After volunteering in Zambia in 2008 and in Romania in 2011, the seven-strong group started fundraising for their Malawi project in 2012.
The Shetland community donated more than £10,000 enabling the group to hand over football tops, pencils and jotters to children and much needed wind-up torches to adults living in the small villages near Monkey Bay.
Group member Mark Wylie said: “One week on after arriving home from volunteering in Africa it’s very easy to fall back into normal life with TV, clean water, iPhone, plenty food etc.
“I keep thinking about everyone we met and in comparison how much more happier they are, how much more enthusiastic the kids were, and how much more appreciative the adults were.
“These people had nothing but poverty and disease yet were much happier with bigger smiles than most of us in the UK. It says a lot and certainly puts everything into perspective!”
The other six volunteers were Nicola Duthie, Magnus Johnson, Jenny Teale, John Thomson, Jenny Wylie and Tracy Webb.
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