Honorary memberships for couple on a mission to Malawi
A couple who who are about to set off on a two-year trip to Malawi in Africa - one of the poorest countries in the world - have received support from The Rotary Club of Cannock.
The aim of the trip is to visit and work with local charities whose focus is on education, food scarcity and health care.
Hanna Bodley and her partner Martyn King leave at the end of July and plan to live in a van, which is being shipped over from the UK to give them the flexibility to visit any new opportunities while carrying out their charity work.
While staying in Malawi they will not be paid for their work and will be living off their savings.
The Cannock club has been supporting Hanna since 2013 when she first volunteered to work in Malawi after leaving school.
The club then went on to provide funding to support four young people through a four-year education programme. It club has also helped raise funds to provide famine relief and more recently supported a Covid 19 project to provide much needed PPE to health care workers.
The couple’s aim is to gain as much knowledge as possible across the whole charitable sector in Malawi to open their own skills centre ultimately to help provided younger people there with the opportunity to find work.
The Cannock club has awarded Hanna and Martyn honorary membership of Rotary, which will give them access to Rotary Clubs in Malawi who in turn will provide much-needed support to their charitable works.
The awards were presented to Hanna and Martyn by the club's president elect, Harold Bould, who assured the couple that the Rotary Club of Cannock will do whatever it can to support their good works.
Hanna said: “Along the way we will most definitely face challenges but being part of the Rotary worldwide network will, I’m sure, come in useful.”
The couple plan to get married in Malawi in 2022 and have agreed to keep in touch with the club throughout their two-year trip.
For more information about The Rotary Club of Cannock rotary-ribi.org/clubs/homepage.php?ClubID=1245 or follow them on Facebook
