AXM Making a difference
AXM, the successful nightclub in The Gay Village of Manchester, adopted the charity 'Moni Malawi' back in 2010 with the specific intention of completing a brand new school building project...
2 years of solid fundraising
and AXM's customers are changing lives!
2 years on and the fruits of all their aggressive fundraising and their customers & staffs generosity has produced some amazing and life changing results. Haydn Pope from AXM said "When I first heard about Moni Malawi and what they were trying to achieve I just knew we had to get involved. Too many times we raise money for charities that is then swallowed up into their corporate structure, and you never actually get to see exactly where and what your money has done or been spent on. This charity was different. There are no salary costs, no plush offices or overhead expenses, no 'fact finding' trips or 'strategy workshops' held in posh hotels, and absolutely every single penny raised goes directly into the project and to the people who need it most.
"Malawi is an amazing country and it definitely puts our credit crunch and austerity measures into a stark perspective. As one of the poorest countries in the world Malawi doesn't have an M&S or a Tesco, there's no Primark or Top Shop, the 'shops' there are people on the side of a road selling single bananas, single tomatoes or maybe a couple of fish.
These people don't sell their wares to make a profit or to keep shareholders happy, they sell it so they can survive and exist. They scratch together a few pennies so that they can feed their families & stay alive. They have no electricity, no running water and no toilet facilities in their sparse and tiny clay brick tin roofed homes. Their children are kept home to either work or help raise their younger siblings, meaning of course that they miss out on a vital education that could help to change their lives.
"We aimed to try and change that cycle. Using the money raised we have now finished building a brand new, 2 block, high spec primary school in the Kambudzi Village area, and we also fund 2 out of the 3 teachers employed there. Tied into that we have a school feeding programme that feeds all the kids attending the school on a daily basis, thus encouraging the parents to send them to school at all. The number of kids now attending our school is 634 who are all taught English, Maths, Agriculture, Sports and RI.
"It is important of course that this project is a partnership with the Chiefs, Elders & parents of the area, and not just a hand out. Therefore it was agreed that the community itself would build the teachers houses and fund the 3rd teachers salary, and that they all work and contribute to the vegetable gardens and fruit orchard that we planted alongside the school. This partnership is a vital part of the aid work, as it helps to ensure that the whole community is as invested in the programme as we are.
"Going over to Malawi to unveil and open the school was a truly amazing and humbling experience, yet fantastically uplifting too. Seeing how they live and how little they have is heartbreaking, particularly in the orphanage that Moni Malawi also support. Yet through all this hardship and extreme poverty they are the friendliest and happiest people I have ever met.
"I am extremely proud of AXM and all it's customers and staff who have literally changed people's lives forever. The legacy of our school will run for generations to come, and the feeding programme will I hope eradicate, in Kambudzi at least, the dreadful statistic that 1 in 4 children die before the age of 5. We will of course continue to raise money and continue to 'make a difference' out there, in fact my own personal goal now is to sponsor at least one child from our school through university."
Scott McMillan who runs the Moni Malawi Charity said "We are very delighted and unbelievably grateful for all that AXM has done for the charity and for the children of Kambudzi. The commitment that they have shown to helping us out there is outstanding, and having Haydn come out personally to witness and open the school is proof positive that whilst we can't change the world or solve all the problems, individual people and companies can make a huge and dramatic impact on the lives of hundreds of families and children out there".
By Haydn Pope
