Sue Bird lives and works in Brussels, Belgium, and has the privilege of owning a holiday home in Fuilla, the next village on from Vernet-les-Bains where St George’s has its home. Sue is a Christian believer and attends St George’s when she can.

At one service in spring 2019, chaplain David invited her to tell the congregation about her project that helps to reduce poverty. She was the donor behind the building of an HIV testing and counselling, education and community centre in Songani, southern Malawi, which was completed early in 2019.

Sue is very grateful to David for providing her with her first contact with the U.K. charity Mbedza Projects Support. Mbedza became her project partner in Malawi and raises the running costs for the Centre. Sue is now associate director of this charity, with special responsibility for the Centre.

Sue has also fundraised herself to provide equipment for the centre. This has made for 4 successful grant applications in Brussels and two successful (and enjoyable!) 60th birthday parties that were good fund-raisers in their own right.

Looking to the future, Sue will build on the initial success of the Centre. 100 people on average are tested for HIV per month in a country where a lot of stigma attaches to this subject, there have been 1000 visits per month to the library, and hundreds of young people come to play the games made available to them at the Centre. Who knows where this will all lead in due course - but thanks be to a good God that provides in all sorts of exciting ways!

You can read about Mbedza and how to support them by following this link: mpsmalawi.org/our-mission-and-goals

Click on the gallery below to see the full pictures.