Phil passed through Parkrun on his way to help with the electrics and lighting! Hope to see you there Goodgymers - the fundraising musical event details are here:

Goodgym have supported the Blues and Rock fundraiser for w few years now. It is a friendly, fun and music filled evening. We help with the bar and and jobs around the site. If you are interested sign up here ASAP: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/blues-and-rock-in-the-garden-fundraising-event-f8949804-480b-468c-9b69-8cabb539e213

Can it really be a year since the Blues and Rock Garden last burst into life? It certainly can. This year Malawi has really suffered with disastrous climate related extreme weather, so charities like Building Malawi and others with local links such as Love, Support, Unite are vital.

Goodgym supported in the bar whilst Emily starred on stage with Band of Fools as well as leading the dancing. Hopefully it will be a super successful fundraiser with not too many hangovers!

A buzzing bar session and (as expected) a great load of foolish entertainment! Emily and her Band of Fools made the rock and blues garden an even happier place! The drinks sold out and the tipsy punters gave generously!!

I had a nice chat about the latest building project just outside Lilongwe - a new school for a community and education to enrich lives.

What happened at Colchester Pride did not stay at Colchester Pride. The fun and volunteering continued with a bar shift for tipsy Building Malawi supporters (all over 18 of course), energetic little people and cultured bands. The five of us served up beer, fake Pimms, cider, wine and soft drinks after the worlds quickest staff training/no training...luckily we are a clever bunch! An amazing day was capped with live music in a secret garden oasis hidden in the heart of Colchester. This charity is an incredibly important one. Malawi is a country that has beauty in its landscape, wildlife and people. It is also very poor and suffers famine, drought and malnutrition. Building schools and funding teachers can help educate people about agriculture and have easier lives. Do not take this from me, here is the charities 'about' section. Take a look.

Building Malawi We are a small, UK based charity committed to improving opportunities for children in Malawi. Contact Building Malawi here.

We build infrastructure such as schools, libraries and sports facilities Malawian organisations run these facilities The schools, libraries and sports facilities fund their own running costs - they don't depend on our support This means that they are long lasting (Falls Secondary is 8 years without a penny from us!) All of the money you donate goes to the cause and into tangible items such as libraries and schools None of the money you donate goes on UK running costs We have nearly no UK running costs and these are funded by our committee (aside from bank charges) What is great about us is that we focus on infrastructure. We build the school and library buildings and hand them over to local groups to run. That way the schools and libraries are not dependant on regular support from us (they fund themselves) and we can show people that donate to us very clearly where your money goes (we can literally point at the building you helped to fund!)

People like you make this possible. Please help us! Free things you can do right away that really help us:

Follow @BuildingFutures on Twitter

Please join our engaging monthly email list - Click here

See amazing photos and like us on Facebook - Click here

Free, Easy to Arrange, Volunteering Opportunities in Malawi How You Can Help us from the UK - It's Easy and Fun! Lingadzi Academy Community Sports School - Learn about our latest fantastic project - this is where your money goes! Any Questions? Contact Us Direct Here

Africa School Charity Building Malawi began life in 1988. We were part of a team that arranged a fundraising tour around Britain to raise enough money to build 6 classrooms in Malawi and Falls secondary School was built. We then took that experience on to build more...

Since then Building Malawi has built upon the success of this school added a library at each of these schools and these libraries have been incredibly well received. The Library at Falls School receives 70,000 visits per year!

Malawi Development We have found that projects like Falls Secondary School take a long time to develop. We invest a lot of time into everything that we do and we set firm foundations to ensure that the work we do is long lasting. We strive to ensure that the libraries, schools and sports coaching activities that we are involved with contribute toward development in Malawi. We try and tackle the issue of Malawi development in the following ways:

We build educational and sports facilities. We partner with Play Football Malawi so they can run community sports coaching programmes that educate young Malawians about HIV/AIDS. We help volunteers visit and help our projects.

Best Charity to Donate to We strive to be the best charity to donate money to by ensuring that 100% of the money that you donate goes to our projects. We also ensure that we maximise the effectiveness of the money that you donate by investing the majority of the funds into sustainable projects. For example our schools are run by Malawians and they are self funding.