Fatima Centre

Compelled by an inner awakening to initiate something that would start the alleviation of hardship to even just a few of the over one million children orphaned by the HIV/AIDS and malaria pandemics ravaging the country she once called home, Zarina Malecki, with the support of her friend, Anne Alhamrani, built the Fatima Centre for orphaned children in Losa, Malawi.
The center’s mission is to better the lives of children and to help them to become self-sufficient members of their society, by providing them with long-term care, which includes basic needs, health care, education and skills necessary to transform them into responsible citizens.
“Just before the Fatima Centre was constructed, we commissioned the digging of the first water well in the village. Prior to that, the village had no potable water and the villagers had to walk hours just to bring back drinking water daily,” shared Malecki, founder of Fatima Centre.
Surrounded amidst the luscious mountain backdrop of the majestic Mount Mulange, the Fatima Centre currently houses 11 children, aged from 6 months to 7 years, and gives these children proper nourishment, a real home, an academic and religious education and hope for the future.
“On the road from the airport into the town your senses are immediately assaulted by African aromas, burning wood, cooking pots and aspects of the unique terrain all compete for your gaze, mountains, forests, grass and extraordinary flowers.
And you see people walking everywhere, to work, to their homes, to the market, to friends, amid discarded sugar cane — one of the staple foods of this country where sugar is vital for their energy,” reminisced a nostalgic Malecki.
It is here, in the land-locked south eastern corner of Africa, that Iman Attar, the first time Fatima Centre volunteer from Saudi Arabia, took a journey of discovery into herself and fell in love with the “Warm heart of Africa.”
“I have to be honest, it wasn’t easy. Living in Saudi Arabia, we are accustomed to luxury and comfort. But when you go and volunteer at the Centre and at the orphanage you become acutely aware of everything we have to be thankful for. These children had nothing, absolutely nothing. No hope for the future, no chance for an education, no love. Fatima Centre is the surrogate mother that is giving them all of this, and it’s amazing to be a small part of the positive impact they are having on the community,” elaborates Iman.
“There was a 6-month-old orphan, baby Adam, that was constantly crying, because he didn’t know how to suckle and wasn’t able to drink milk. It was just shocking, this baby never had a chance to feed from his mother, so the usually natural inclination to suckle, was nonexistent,” shared an emotional Attar.
Relying entirely on donations to help fund the orphanage, when in Jeddah, Malecki and Alhamrani host charity dinners, auctions and have launched an abaya label, ZarAn.
Heavily reliant on foreign aid, which was recently suspended due to political upheavals, has further exacerbated the shaky economy of one of Africa’s least developed nations resulting in severe cuts to the already meager social spending. Children, made parentless due to the HIV/AIDS and malaria pandemics sweeping across the country, have become further impoverished by these cuts to social and welfare programs, upon which their survival is vital.
Where the government skirts their social responsibility, Christian and Jewish missionaries are addressing the aid vacuum, while also converting Malawians from Islam. “These people are starving and neglected, then they see an impressive and beautiful church or synagogue with friendly people clothing and feeding them. Who can blame them, people go where the food is, where the beauty is, and they end up converting. Glaringly absent is the lack of aid arriving from Islamic countries with exception of Kuwait, the only Gulf country with a donor presence in Malawi,” Attar explained.
For a time, Malawi became synonymous with Madonna’s adoption woes, as networks aired her continual legal battles in the adoption of baby David.
We may not all be willing to go and adopt a child, but we can do the next best thing, sponsor one, and give a child a new lease on life that every child so deserves.
“There are many ways to contribute. Fatima Centre is recruiting volunteers for short trips that can help with the construction, organization or administration of objectives such as: Digging deep-water wells, installing solar panels, building dormitories, staff quarters, a running track, a sewing ceneter, a library and a dispensary,” emanates Iman Attar with contagious enthusiasm.
The center has future plans to run an on-site bakery, manage a farm and at later stage, offer after school activities for the children.
The next getaway you plan, consider taking an altruistic adventure of a lifetime… consider Malawi and consider the hope you can spread throughout the “Warm heart of Africa.”
In the words of Mark Twain, “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the things you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover”.
For more information on how to become a volunteer or a sponsor e-mail Iman Attar: [email protected]. Visit www.fatimacentremalawi.org, donate, volunteer, sponsor a child, buy an abaya, but just do something!