Many people will remember the dreadful way that Gift,  one of our eldest boys, was badly beaten up over two years' ago. It resulted in bruising on his brain which left him suffering from chronic seizures that have recently miraculously stopped. Unfortunately though, he has been unable to complete his education and, at 21 years old, he is now too old and needs to start his independent adult life. We were totally stumped as Gift is an orphan and there was no way he could start a business or get a job and a home for himself.

But then, overnight, last week, everything changed, as we found Gift's family and his home village! He has a sister and grandmother still living there and they were overjoyed to welcome him back after all the years when they had no idea where he was.

He had never known his family as he was only 7 years old when his parents passed away and he was taken away from his village to live with a lady in another town. This is quite normal in Malawi as any remaining family would be too poor to care for another child. But Gift wandered off and was found in Blantyre on the streets. We gave him a home when he was eight years old as the Local Authority was unable to trace his family. We had no idea where his family was until last week when we discovered that he had originally been taken to a small town near us and people there remembered him and were able to tell us where he had come from. Can you imagine his family's shock and surprise when our Manager turned up with him last week?

Gift is one of the stars of Smile Malawi as he was prominent in the film 'Haven', which you hopefully saw, and wrote the poem that starts the film. He has always been a kind, loving boy who makes everyone laugh and we will be sad to see him leave, but he needs to move on with his life now. We want to help him build a small house in his home village and then set up a business buying and selling groceries from his home. He is very happy to be able to return to his family and they are very willing to welcome him back into his community. 

We are hoping that this will give Gift the successful future that he so richly deserves and it is something that has come as a total surprise to us all. Please will you help us to do this wonderful thing for Gift?

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