Charity's Clinic in Area 23 is one of Malawi's most successful baby units.  Volunteers, like the Perth Watsonian Ladies pictured here, have knitted hundreds of little hats and socks to keep newborns warm while maintaining essential skin-on-skin contact with mum and tiny little jumpers to go home in.  I f you would like to make some booties for the programme,  here's a good example of a pattern  with draw strings to help keep them on.

We were delighted to see two of the seven new solar geysers we bought for Open Arms up and operational during our community visit in March, with two more ready for installation in September. With half of all electricity used to heat water for baths, clothes washing, cleaning and feeding 80 children, we are hopeful that Open Arms should now see a dramatic reduction in energy costs. 

In April, we handed over a mobile thermal ablation device to a clinic in Achikondi. It will be used to treat women with cervical abnormalities immediately on detection in a bid to reduce deaths from cervical cancer, currently averaging 1600 every year in Malawi. This life-saving equipment, funded by WMP, was in response to an initiative introduced by Professor Heather Cubie.

Last year, our students donated 2000 seedlings to the Zomba plateau to help offset the carbon footprint caused by their visit. These trees have since been planted, nurtured and protected from poachers by Tom and Petal from the Zomba Forest lodge and can be seen starting to flourish in their care.

Six months after the girls from Bolero Palms and Watson's took on the taboo topic of menstrual cycles, discussing how best to use the reusable pads made by St Columba's Church, we've been back out to check they are working as planned.  Click here to take a look at our video to find out more about how these pads work . And the results of our research suggest they are a great success, keeping the girls at school during their cycle. We're now working on a system to dry the pads discreetly.

This year's group of students have been busy learning about Malawian culture in action with Malawian drummer, Davie. Click here to hear more .  But look out Bolero Palms, these students are looking forward to teaching you some Scottish Country Dancing!

On Wednesday, 20 March, Watson's teamed up with Mary Erskine and Stewarts Melville to share their experiences of Malawi. On display at the Merchant's Hall was a selection of photos, sold off in a silent auction to raise just under £1000. Click here to see some of the photos on our video .