100 ABSTRACTS - NUMBER 63

When you have in mind a particular challenge, and if you have a Blipping brain as I have, many things you see during a day “shout” at you “Use me, use me”!  

Yesterday I was clearing out in our downstairs cloakroom and decided that the soap dispenser, which had come apart anyway, needed to be thrown away.  However, when I washed it out, I realised that I could use the bottom part and just throw away the plunger, which is what I did, and what I guess any other Blipper would have done too because we all know that something might come in useful one day.

This morning I thought it would be a good idea to use the prisms in the glass but needed something to go underneath it to give it some character.  Then I remembered that a few weeks ago, when I had been cutting an apple with my metal cutter, I thought that the pieces left in it might be useful for an abstract, so I carefully pushed them out, making sure I didn’t cut myself, because it is so sharp, and froze them in a small container - so here they are.

I put my oven gloves, kindly donated by my Blip friend, Heidi, behind the glass and here is Number 63 in my 100 Abstracts Challenge for the Mamie Martin Fund, which helps girls in North Malawi to obtain a good secondary education, particularly if they are in difficult financial straits.

BENADETA is an orphan, like so many young people in Malawi today.  She attended a rural primary school and was then selected to attend Ekwendeni Girls’ Secondary School.  Her pastor knew of her financial struggles and after informing the school, she received help from the Mamie Martin Fund for her four years there and is very grateful for all the support given to her by the Fund.

She was encouraged to apply for a vacancy advertised by 500 Miles, an NGO which supports disabled people in Africa by providing prosthetic and orthotic devices. She got that job and was supported by her employer to study in Tanzania for her Diploma in Prosthetics and Orthotics from 2010 to 2013.

She went on to do further professional studies on a distance learning basis, with some study in Thailand, and is now a Senior Prosthetist and Orthotist at Mzuzu Central Hospital, where she is a highly-valued member of her team.  She is the proud mother of twins but realises that she would not be where she is now without the help of the Fund.  

“The most difficult thing is the decision to act, 
     the rest is merely tenacity.” 
Amelia Earhart

P.S.  I have been debating for a few weeks about whether to have my hair cut - never having had long hair, because my Mother wouldn’t allow me to, I felt that I had come to the end of that phase, so “bit the bullet” today and have had it cut and restyled.  I have put a selfie in as an extra - I’m really happy with it and I know it will be much easier to manage.

https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/MaureenIles