The Good News Malawi Library project aims to develop and maintain a community library at an orphanage in rural Malawi, providing books, internet access and other resources to over 100 children and the wider community. This will develop children’s literacy and educational opportunities to enable them to overcome poverty and achieve their dreams.

Since 2009, Culford has supported Good News Orphanage, which is home to around 100 children and also serves as a hub for the local community. The orphanage is in a very rural area with no electricity and has no major source of funding. In 2014 we established a library. This involved conversion of an existing building, making it secure and weatherproof, building book shelves, and providing around 1000 books. We would now like to extend that project. We would like to buy a laptop and provide internet connection which would enable better stock control and management and also provide access to online resources and enable better communication between us the the orphanage. We wish to buy and install solar lighting, which would mean the facility could be used throughout the long evenings (dark falls around 6pm year round in Malawi) which would extend use for the community. In addition, the purchase of a bicycle and trailer would allow staff from the orphanage to take books out into the local primary schools and villages, thereby extending the impact of the library. We also wish to continue adding new books to the library to resource areas such as agriculture and horticulture, animal husbandry, sexual and reproductive health, mental health and human rights.