How FOCHTA has come about
In 2000, Claude Ho from Hong Kong was sent to the Thyolo District in Malawi by MSF Belgium to do a photo assignment. This was to cover the plight of an alarmingly large number of orphans there as a result of the HIV/Aids pandemic. MSF Belgium had therefore decided to set up clinics and a hospital ward in Thyolo due to the severity of the situation in that country.
While there, Claude met and later became very good friends to Dr Leopold Buhendwa and Steven Labana, both of whom at the time worked for MSF Belgium.
In the course of Claude‘s work there, he was very moved by the distressing condition of the orphans. Therefore after he returned home and later migrated to Australia, he continued discussions with his two friends as to how best to help those orphans who lived in the Thyolo District.
Later, they decided in 2003 to form a non-government organization called Friends of Claude Ho in Thyolo Association, or FOCHTA as is commonly known. And since in Malawi, secondary schooling was not free, as is also the case now, orphans without money were not able to go studying in schools. They therefore decided that the best way to give help to orphans would be to support them in their education by paying for their secondary school fees as well as in tertiary studies while at the same time to look after them too. This then served as a path way for them to come away from poverty and to lead a meaningful life.
In the last 21 years, FOCHTA has provided bursaries to over 2,600 secondary school beneficiaries, 24 university graduates in university and over a hundred in diploma certificate courses.
Nowadays, there are in the wider community of Malawi with our graduates working as irrigation engineers, obstetrician, nurses, teachers, livestock technician, statistician, scientist, accountant, community development officer, early child development facilitator, social welfare officer, clinical officers, physiotherapist and a primary school principal. There are also carpenters, tailors,welders, electricians and even one policeman.
Out of those graduates, three have since obtained master degrees. They are Clara Lemani who obtained a degree of M.Statistical Science; Aaron Mwafulirwa in M. Physiotherapy is now a lecturer at the College of Medicine in Blantyre, and Keith Mwithiwa in M Sc - Management Studies. Keith is a project officer for Malawi AIDS Counseling & Resource Mobilization as well as serving as chairman in the FOCHTA Board of Trustees. Meanwhile, Chifundo Makwinja is doing a M Sc - Public Health Nutrition which he will complete by mid-2025.
Currently we have 7 undergraduates as well, in addition to one studying for a diploma in public health, and one in primary school teaching.