10 good reasons to donate

1. UN Millennium Development Goals 

You have probably heard of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). They are based on the declaration signed by all UN member states during the September 2000 UN Millennium Summit. Never before has there been such an agreement of Heads of States to achieve common goals in the world history - aiming to reduce poverty in the world by half (as compared to 1990) till 2015. The following eight Millennium Development Goals have been set:   1.    Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2.    Achieve universal primary education
3.    Promote gender equality and empower women
4.    Reduce child mortality
5.    Improve maternal health 
6.    Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases 
7.    Ensure environmental sustainability
8.    Develop a global partnership for development  
   
Some improvements have been attained. But much is still to be done in the sections of fighting against infant and mother mortality, as well as the reduction of HIV/AIDS. The Project “Lebenschancen Malawi” covers most of the bold Millennium Goals. One of the focuses of this project is to reduce the infection rate of HIV in our project region Nkhotakota through preventive measures before and during delivery by educating traditional midwives. Through this, the project contributes to an important part in achieving the Millennium Development Goals.
 
2. Why Malawi and the St. Anne's Hospital in Nkhotakota?

Malawi has the lowest per capita income in the world. Half of the population lives from less than one Dollar a day. The HIV rate is very high, estimated at 20% with an increasing tendency. Most people infected with the virus are not aware of their infection. The life expectancy is about 35 years of age and is reducing. People suffer from hunger and malnutrition. Nurses who are well paid according to the standards of Malawi do not have enough money to buy food at times. On the other hand, Malawi is relatively stable within the African context, and thus, offers good conditions for building a sustainable and permanent development partnership.
The St. Anne’s Hospital in Nkhotakota has been working with our partner organisation “Hilfe für Malawi Verein” (“Help for Malawi non-profit organisation) for many years. Their work is based on mutual trust and is successful due to a close personal cooperation. Due to a long working experience as a medical doctor in Malawi and in St. Anne's Hospital, the Chairman of “Hilfe für Malawi”, Dr. Harald Braun, possesses profound knowledge in successful development cooperation in the medical field. The training of the traditional midwives will be carried out by the qualified Malawian Doctors and midwives in the St. Anne’s Hospital.
 
3. No single Cent is used for administrative costs

There are not many organisations, if any, that similar to us will assure you that the administration cost of the project is nil. The members of the project “Lebenschancen Malawi” are working on a voluntary basis. The website and leaflets are made with no money from the donations. Until now, all external help has been attained through sponsors. Thus, each donated cent will therefore be sent directly to Malawi.
 
4. Effectiveness

For many children in Malawi the most dangerous day in their life is the day they are born. Lack of control during pregnancy and after birth, as well as poor hygienic conditions have got great influence on the growth of these children. The improved training of the “Traditional Birth Attendants”- TBAs who are responsible for almost all of the birth cases in the villages play a very important role. With good training, these TBAs will contribute to a better health infrastructure in the villages. It can be easy to save lives and provide for better living standards through simple methods. For example, it suffices in Malawi with one Euro to treat nine children against malaria. 

5. One Euro will become four Euros!

Donate one Euro to the project “Lebenschancen Malawi” and it will be increased to four Euros, which will be used directly in Malawi. If you donate ten Euros it will amount to 40 Euros, give Malawi 100 Euros, and it will total 400 Euros and 1000 Euros will become 4000 Euros. This is possible through the co-financing of our project by the German Ministry of Co-Operation (BMZ) where we have a fair chance to get its support. 
 
6. Tax deduction

Since the organisation “Hilfe für Malawi” with which we are working together is a non-profit organisation, you can reclaim your tax according section 10 of the German income tax law. If you donate up to 100 Euros, a donor attestation will automatically be posted to you if you include your postal address on the money transfer form. A bank statement will be enough as proof for donations of less than 100 Euros.
 
7. We are a young, motivated and international team

We wish to make the world a better place for the next generation to come. We are a team, comprised of PhD and undergraduate students from different fields of study - such as medicine, ethnology, business, law, and international business.
A great number of our team members comes from African countries. We do not want to be missionaries in African states. The ethnologists within our team make sure that the project does not destroy the already existing cultural structures of Malawi but helps to further develop them. We try our best to understand the situation in Malawi beforehand and then bring in our own project.
 
8. Development Cooperation makes sense 

It is often said that development cooperation is useless. It is true that historically, many development aid projects have been ineffective. Development aid has in the past also been understood as a support to corrupt dictators in return for their support of the Warsaw Pact or NATO. But that has nothing to do with those sustainable development cooperation measures that make sense. Our project is an example of sustainable development cooperation that not only makes sense, but has also been approved by many development aid experts, such as the renowned Prof. Dr. Franz Nuscheler in Germany. If nothing is undertaken, the health situation of Malawi will decline. Many Africans from the sub-Sahara zone and from Malawi see no prospects in their countries and for that reason flee from their homelands, and thus, contribute to the massive migration flow in the world today. Through development aid, the efforts of many African countries could be supported in order to develop their health system with concerns about population control, HIV/AIDS prevention as well as environmental protection.

9. If not you, who?

You could think that the problems of the world are so versatile that one does not know where to begin. Then one could just surrender.  
There is a very good story about the saved sea star: an old man saw a little girl dancing on the sea shore and went nearby. As he approaches her, he noticed that she was not dancing, but carrying sea stars from the shore into the sea. 
The man asked her: “Why are you throwing sea stars into the water?"
The little girl said: “The sun will dry up the sea stars before the tide comes”.  The man replied: “But that does not make sense because the shore is many kilometres away and there are many sea stars on every square foot. You are not going to solve the problem and save the sea stars and it makes no difference if you can only save just a few of them”.
The little girl thought for a moment and looked at the sea stars on her hand and said: “it does make a difference to this one!” and she continued her work undisturbed.
 
10. If not now, when?

For us the time of procrastination is over. This is why we ask you to contribute to the success of our project. Our motto is “Many People, in many places, who do many things, will change the face of this world.” 

 For further enquiries, please do not hesitate to contact us:

- Anne-Marie Schumann (anneintheusa (at) hotmail.com),

- Kocra Lossina Assoua (kocra28 (at) yahoo.fr), 

- Matthias Altmann (altmann.matthias (at) tele2.de), or

- Niels Beisinghoff (niels.beisinghoff (at) gmail.com).