Rare Charity’s Malawi & Scotland Connections Blossom

The SMP exists to support, connect and represent its members. We value all members’ feedback to help us learn and improve our practice.

We were thrilled to hear from Daisy Belfield Santos at Rare Charity. Their work in creating educational opportunities within tea-producing communities includes activity in Thyolo. There, Rare is funding tertiary educational scholarships with the sustainable aim of equipping a cohort of professionals to help uplift and support their communities long-term.

Daisy let us know that "the SMP has been an integral part of Rare Charity's growth over the past 3 years” and that introductions the SMP made have helped connect Malawian scholars with the University of Edinburgh’s Global Academy of Agriculture & Food Security (GAAFS). Particular thanks to Daisy and to Dr Darren Watt and Prof Geoff Simm at GAAFS.

Daisy Belfield Santos:

"The SMP has been an integral part of Rare Charity's growth over the past 3 years.

We've seen the charity blossom from a miniscule entity to a firmly-established small charity whose outreach has grown exponentially as we increased our beneficiaries 7-fold. We now have 28 inspiring young people on Rare Charity scholarships at both tertiary and secondary level, allowing them to complete their education, qualify as professionals and invest in their communities in their own ways and on their own terms. Very soon we will have enough Rare Graduates in the community to enjoy witnessing their impact in their chosen fields.

This growth is thanks in part to the SMP's generosity, and great speed and organisation in galvanising its members over such a difficult and fractured period.

The SMP has helped Rare Charity in 3 crucial ways:

1. University introductions

Connecting us with Scottish universities during the period of closure due to the pandemic.

Through these introductions we have established a fantastic partnership linking our scholars in Agriculture with the Global Academy of Agriculture & Food Security (GAAFS), University of Edinburgh. Academics there are mentoring Rare scholars in Malawi, offering materials and guidance to supplement their learning at Malawian institutions. The insights that Rare scholars are offering GAAFS are reported to be helpful and Dr Darren Watt at the Academy says: “Our staff are quite inspired by the enthusiasm of the scholars – they are a pleasure to work with”, so this is a mutually beneficial relationship.

2. COVID-19 coordination

The regular SMP COVID-19 zoom calls throughout the pandemic were invaluable, giving management a clear idea of the evolving Covid landscape in Malawi and helping us to strategise a sensible, safe and practical way to keep our scholars engaged with their degrees throughout closure. Malawi's experience of Covid-19 has been very different to Scotland's, and it remains one of the many challenges Malawians now face. I honestly think navigating that cleft would have been nigh on impossible without the SMP's insights from partner organisations in Malawi.

3. Supporting Connections

The SMP has offered many helpful introductions to initiatives working in similar ways in Malawi. This has allowed us to hone our operations - sharing successful approaches, learning from each other's skills and experience (and sometimes failures too) and finally ensuring that we keep unnecessary overlap to a minimum. This web of contacts has been invaluable in making sure we can reach the most deserving candidates in the most sustainable way. Additionally, the safeguarding training for Esnarth our consultant in Malawi was wonderful, very much needed, great for her to network, meet others delivering similar programmes and of course to gain a broader knowledge of safeguarding standards - beyond Rare's own expectations."