Support for William Alick & family

Welcome to the fundraising page for my old friend William Alick and his family who live in Blantrye, Malawi, where it is virtually impossible to make a living and the and the economy makes no sense for the ordinary person.

Ongoing projects
1. Keeping his grand children Natasha (15) and George (6) in school. All schools in Malawi are fee paying. Even the bus to school costs the average daily wage for an ordinary malawian worker.

2. Renovating his property so that the roof doesn't leak and it is comfortable for them to live in.

3. Making sure that the bills are paid and there is food on the table.

3. Purchasing solar lamps to allow the children to study during the long power cuts that are becoming increasingly frequent.

4. William is building a maize mill and a small grocery shop in the village where he was born in southern Malawi to bring development and jobs to the village, which has not had any outside aid except a small Oxfam funded primary school (now abandoned due to lack of teachers and sponsorship). The maize milling machine has been purchased and the buildings are now up to roof level. However, the project has now run out of funds because William and his family cannot earn enough money to complete it. Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world and work (if you can find it) only pays $1 or $2 per day.I want to help William to complete this project, to
a) help the people in this village (so that they do not have to walk for 5 miles to get their maize crop milled and buy local provisions).
b) give William and his family a sustainable business that will provide stability for them (they are currently in a very desperate situation in Blantyre with no work and no income).
c) allow William to fufill his dream of retiring to his home village and spending his evenings on the veranda of his maize mill and shop looking out over the mountain where his brother James used to live and hunt. James Alick lived his whole life in this village until he died last year at the age of 78 and William wants to complete this project in his memory.

Background story:
 William Alick was born in Childzulu, Malawi in 1947 and he moved to Zimbabwe when he was 7, living his life there until he came to the UK in 2005 to escape from the life threatening violence and persecution that was happening in Zimbabwe at the time. Just before he came to the UK he sold all of his possessions and sent his wife and children to live in Blantyre, Malawi, where he has relatives. Last year William rejoined his wife and children after 9 years in the UK because "he missed them too much".  He is now finding life very hard there due to the lack of work and the mistrust that Malawians have of the displaced Zimbabweans living there.

Last year William returned to his home village of Chiladzulu and many of the women (his cousins) fainted when they saw him because they believed that he was a ghost! He had been away so long that he was presumed to be dead and they had already held a funeral and wake for him! When William told the headman of the village, John Mwangu, about his idea for the project he gave him land next to his own house free of charge to build it on because "he has returned to the village of his birth and wants to bring development and jobs and we are very proud of him!".