Grandma Maria's House
Donation protected
Hello, my name is Jardima Kroeker.
With the assistance of my childhood friend, Anita Boser, we are fundraising to build an inexpensive home for an amazingly resilient woman named Maria. Our boots-on-the-ground person is Felia Malola, Director of Pashello Charitable Trust in Ngabu, Malawi, Africa. Felia brought Maria to our attention because of her urgent living situation, after the devastation of Cyclone Freddy, which left her and her small grandchildren houseless. Felia fondly and respectfully uses the term "Agogo" a Chichewa word (Malawian native tongue) to refer to Maria, which means Grandmother... hence, we call this campaign: Grandma Maria's House!
Who?
Grandma Maria, a widow in her 90's. Sadly, all of her children have passed away, so she is raising two young grandchildren by herself. According to Felia, "She doesn't have anything not even a blanket. Most of the times she doesn't eat at all. Honestly, she is suffering."
What?
Building an inexpensive, small, no-grid, brick home for Grandma Maria and her two grandchildren. Perhaps furnish with a bed and a few necessities.
A small village in southern Malawi called Ngabu.
Why?
On March 12, Southern Malawi was devastated by Cyclone Freddy which destroyed the homes of 500,000 people in the surrounding regions in Southern Malawi.
I was born in Blantyre, Malawi, in 1965. My family and heart are deeply rooted there. Two years ago, I led a fundraising project with Felia Malola/Pashello Charitable Trust. We built a humble home for a widowed mother who was houseless and very ill. We named that project "Patuma's House". Those of you who participated know how we painstakingly led a grassroots funding project that built and furnished a small, off-grid, brick home for Patuma for less than $3K in less than six weeks....It changed Patuma's life, allowing her to recover from illness and then go back to primary school to begin building economic security for her family! I documented the building process week by week. WE WILL DO THAT AGAIN ON THIS PROJECT, SO YOU CAN SEE WHAT YOU'VE BUILT!
BECAUSE OF THE FLOODS--WE MUST DO THIS, WE CAN DO THIS, TOGETHER AGAIN!
The words of one of the flood survivors reveal the fear and trauma experienced by Cyclone Freddy:
“We are scared of the rains. We get scared every time it starts raining, and we wonder, is it not enough? Hasn’t it taken enough lives already? Does it want to kill us all? With these conditions, life is hard for the children. This [kind of flooding] has never happened before in our lives. We are living in difficult conditions, we are just surviving, because there is nowhere else to go.”
Thank you for your generosity and stay tuned for updates, gratitude, and the joy that will come when we complete the project! I love doing this work and will do so on a larger scale, when I retire in Malawi, God willing!
Hugs and love,
Jardima, Anita, Felia, and the Pashello community in Ngabu, Malawi
Organizer
Jardima Kroeker
Organizer
Portland, OR