Thank you from 500 miles

Thank you very much indeed for the donation.  I know that the school has made similar donations to 500 miles in previous years and I believe that they have been made from funds raised by the 6^th form pupils (and their families) and teachers involved in the school’s annual visit to Malawi in October.  I suspected, and Sally Rae confirmed, that this year’s trip will not be able to take place, and so we are all the more grateful that George Watson’s College has been able to make this donation again this year, in all of the prevailing circumstances in Scotland and Malawi, and when it seems that most charitable giving is, quite understandably, focused closer to home. I can’t tell you how much we appreciate it.

I gave you a summary of 500 miles and how we work when I wrote to you in April last year so I will not repeat myself, but I am happy to say that our operations in Malawi and, less so, Zambia are very much ongoing and that every penny of your gift is needed and will go towards significantly improving the quality of life of people with mobility difficulties through one of our projects in Malawi or Zambia by helping them to get access to the prosthetic and orthotic devices that they need for maximum independent mobility and maximum body function. 

We are gradually working towards handover of our clinics in Malawi because we believe empowerment of local people is the right way to go - but it will be a long time before either of our two clinics is operating without our direct support and supervision so we really do ongoing need support like this.

Although Coronavirus has not swept through Malawi and Zambia as we feared, we are still hearing dire warnings that it could yet take off, and it seems to me that it is the uncertainty about everything which is really challenging everybody.  Even if the virus takes hold, it will probably not be as lethal across the population as it has been here since less than 3% of the population is over 60.  Balancing that though, is the high risk of non-compliance with protective measures through lack of understanding – and not just by the rural populations. Hopefully now that the re-run of last year’s invalid election has taken place and there seems to be a clear winner, the new president will have a mandate either to move on and treat the virus as just one of many hazards that Malawians live with every day or to enforce restrictions so that the county does not continue to suffer from the worst of both courses of action.

We are keeping our two centres in Malawi open as they deliver an essential service, but operating only on a skeleton basis (with staff on reduced pay) in order to protect both staff and patients. We won’t conduct any outreach until it is safe again to do so. 

Nothing illustrates the impact of our work better than the stories of our resilient patients, like 12-year old Chisomo pictured here.  This story about Chisomo Tchayatchaya was written by Peter who was trained by 500 miles and who has been working in our Lilongwe clinic since he qualified in August 2015.  I have only corrected the spelling and enough of the grammar to make it easier to read:

Chisomo was born in 2007 with lower limb deformities. One leg was not having a tibia and fibula while the other leg was not having a tibia and the foot was also having anomalies.  It was very difficult for her to walk. After assessment at the hospital in 2009 when Chisomo was 3, the doctors decided to amputate on both limbs so that a prosthetist could make prostheses for her to walk easily. A “through-knee” amputation was done on the right side and a trans-tibial amputation on the other.

 Chisomo was referred to 500 miles for assistive devices. The first devices were made on 12/04/2011 at our centre in Lilongwe.  She has been using three different prostheses. She recently came for her fourth set of prosthesis because the devices she was using were completely worn out. Casting for new through-knee and below knee prostheses was done. The devices for Chisomo were well fabricated. She was feeling very nice with the new prosthesis. Chisomo is very happy that she is going to help her parents doing some home activities and going to school and playing with her friends without problems. Chisomo likes chatting with friends and she wants to become a doctor.  Chisomo will be reviewed when we next go on outreach to Salima.

Chisomo is a common name meaning “grace” and is used for boys and girls – but although the spelling of the surname was different, I knew I had seen this Chisomo before and looked up my records to find her first visit when she was 4.  I am so thrilled that we have been able to be there for her throughout her childhood, which means she has been able to go to school, but concerned that this is only her fourth set of devices as she must have been really struggling on prostheses that were too small for most of her life.  Hopefully now that she is 12, she can take the initiative to attend our regular outreaches to her area without needing her parents to bring her.

Chisomo is typical of the people whom your gift will help to live their lives to the full.  Thank you very much indeed for helping us to help them.

I hope you are well and wish you strength and ingenuity for the enormous challenge of getting your school up and running again for the new academic year.

Yours sincerely, 

Olivia Giles