Month: July 2016

  • Tools Maintenance Manual

    Some time ago, Donald Manson, a retired teacher of technical subjects, wrote and illustrated a manual to help students of woodwork maintain their tools – chisels, saws, etc. – in good and safe condition. In conversation with John Challis about skills training in Malawi, he offered the manual to the Raven Trust. At the beginning…

  • FCL 103 loaded at Dundee

    A dry day for the loading of FCL 103 at the Peddie Street store in Dundee. Thank you to all who came to help including Fiona Gunning of the Kwenderana partnership and Lilian and Stewart Mackenzie of Tummel Bridge who visited Malawi with John Challis last year. Only 3 boxes were left behind!

  • ‘A picture is worth a thousand words’

    Maize is the staple diet of most Malawians. Once ground it is added to water to make nsima, a very thick porridge that is eaten daily by hand. Due to last season’s poor and late rain pattern many countries in southern Africa are facing a severe maize shortage in the coming months. In Malawi the…

  • Shonga Bridge

    John has been working with the community at Shonga outside Ekwendeni to build a walkway bridge over a stream that floods to a great depth in the rainy season. The river, in the dry season, is only a few feet deep and can be crossed by a  wooden walkway made of tree branches. In the…