Josie Phelan (nee Sutton) Malawi Fundraiser 2025

Hi my name is Josie Phelan (Nee Sutton). Over the coming months, the Heart to Hand charity will be sending trades people and educators from Mid Tipperary to Malawi in Africa. The people travelling are: Myself Josephine Phelan, Noel Buckley, Stephen Dwan, Joe Bourke, Eamon Cornally, Sandra Dwyer, John Mockler and David Kearney.

Malawi, a beautiful country in East Africa, (slightly bigger than Ireland) is one of the three poorest countries in the world. It has a population of 20 million. Youth unemployment is 90%.

For the team travelling to Malawi there is a personal connection. They are going out to support Bishop John Ryan in improving primary and secondary schools in his Diocese of Mzuzu in Northern Malawi.

Bishop Ryan is originally from Cormackstown, Holycross (The Hill). Bishop Ryan is a member of St. Patrick's Missionary Society (Kiltegan). He has spent over 40 years in Northern Malawi working as a priest and also as Professor of Maths at Mzuzu University.

He also set up an NGO - Ungweru - whose remit is to improve the lives of vulnerable people. An important part of Ungweru is Lusekelo School of Computing, where students are given, for a nominal fee, tuition in Microsoft Office, Job Preparation Skills, Business Development Skills, etc.

This wonderful initiative has 3 dimensions:

1) The tradespeople going to Malawi will work with local Malawian tradespeople in building houses for teachers and improving existing classrooms. Remember that a teacher who is appointed to a school may not be able to take up his/her job if there is no accommodation.

2) Educators will consult with principal and staff to find out what the priorities are, for example, text books, teacher books, chalk, posters, etc. Remember that schools are given the equivalent of one euro per child per year to provide all the educational resources needed, including water and electricity bills.

3) Continuation of development of Lusekelo School of Computing. Josephine Phelan (sister of Michael Sutton and also connected to Bishop Ryan. John’s mother was a Phelan from the Pike of Rushall) has been visiting Lusekelo since 2014. While there she has worked with the tutors in setting up a modern computer room and providing teaching resources.

The team are paying their own costs re flights, transport and food for the two weeks which comes to over 1,500 euro. To support the building projects and the development of education the team will need to fundraise up to 40,000 euro. Please help us in this task by making a donation. All monies raised will go to providing materials for building the school buildings.

Thank you.