A child headed family of Njedza village Traditional Authority Mabuka in Mulanje will remember this January for good reasons after a big hearted young man from the district bailed them out of imminent starvation.
27 year old Patrick Makina recently made a surprise donation of food and none food items to three children aged 9, 13 and 15 who live alone, in his self motivated initiative through which he has been reaching out to several vulnerable households in the district since 2017.
According to Makina, it came to his notice that Trevor, Chrispin and Angella Katchinga were living in absolute poverty which almost drew them out of school, a thing that inspired him to come to their rescue.
“I was going through this village one day and I found the children sitting on the veranda of their house looking very weak and sad. I asked what their problem was, and that was when they narrated a touching story of their life to me,” said Makina who recently graduated from Mulanje Mission College of Nursing and is yet to land a job.
He said through the story he learnt that quite often the three spent days without any food when they could not find any piece work through which they usually make their bread.
According to the second born of the family Chrispin, the child headed household came to being in 2016 after both their parents passed away due to illness, rendering them completely vulnerable.
Chrispin further said their education had suffered most as they spent most of their days searching for piece works to find food instead of attending school.
“We really appreciate this timely assistance. There are some items that will assist us through this hunger lean period while the others are long lasting and we don’t take this for granted,” said Chrispin.
Among the donated items were ten bags of maize, three mattresses, cooking oil, soap, assorted dry relishes and school learning materials all worth four hundred thousand kwacha.
Previously in 2017, the self motivated young man built a house for two elderly brothers who had been living in a bush for over ten years and in 2018 he rescued a woman with physical disability who he assisted with a wheelchair, blankets, mattress and food items besides also donating to several orphans and vulnerable children in the district.
Asked about the genesis of his quest to make life better for others, Makina said it all started as an attempted implementation of what he learnt through a community diagnosis course administered at his nursing school which later became part of his life.
