JAZZ FUNDRAISER CONCERT TO TRANSFORM LIVES OF MALAWI ORPHANS
Liberty Corner, NJ, March 11 - Malawi Visions, a ministry of Liberty Corner Presbyterian Church, is holding its 3rd “An Evening of Jazz” benefit concert, featuring the Chris DeVito Quintet on Saturday, March 11 at 7:30 pm in Douglas Hall of the church.
Chris DeVito is a jazz pianist, composer, band leader, and educator who performs throughout the New York, New Jersey area. Returning from the 2021 benefit concert is Greg Grispart on woodwinds, and appearing for the first time are John Lenis (dounle bass) and Gavin Davies (drums). This year, the concert will feature the vocals of Audra Mariel....
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JAZZ FUNDRAISER CONCERT TO TRANSFORM LIVES OF MALAWI ORPHANS
Liberty Corner, NJ, March 11 - Malawi Visions, a ministry of Liberty Corner Presbyterian Church, is holding its 3rd “An Evening of Jazz” benefit concert, featuring the Chris DeVito Quintet on Saturday, March 11 at 7:30 pm in Douglas Hall of the church.
Chris DeVito is a jazz pianist, composer, band leader, and educator who performs throughout the New York, New Jersey area. Returning from the 2021 benefit concert is Greg Grispart on woodwinds, and appearing for the first time are John Lenis (dounle bass) and Gavin Davies (drums). This year, the concert will feature the vocals of Audra Mariel.
All proceeds of this event go to support Malawi Vision programs in Malawi, Africa.
Malawi Visions is an active hands-on development team, not a merely a passive relief organization. They work with the people of Malawi through an in-country partner, Ministry of Hope, which operates six Community Development Centers in the most remote of villages to provide food and care to 6,000 orphan children. For more than 10 years, Malawi Visions has designed and operated programs to transform the lives these orphans to make sustainable changes that will yield a better future for the children. Studies have shown that long-term growth and sustainability only occur when humanitarian programs engage with and operate under local peoples.
Malawi, Africa is one of the world’s least developed and poorest nations: the size of Pennsylvania, but with a 50 percent greater population. Half of the population are children, and a quarter of them are orphans. Most of Malawi’s population live in remote villages and are subsistence farmers. Only 40 percent of the children complete elementary school, and 10 percent complete secondary school. Poverty, famine, and malnutrition are a common way of life, and little changes.
Because 95 percent of the country has no access to electricity, Malawi Visions began by installing solar power, illuminating the centers so the kids could stay after dark to read and do homework. In Malawi, there is a saying “if you wish to hide something, put it in a book, because it will never be found.” Books are a rarity, particularly in remote villages, where most children have never held a book.
To encourage the value of learning, Malawi Visions constructed six freestanding libraries, and collected and shipped over 25,000 books to fill the shelves. Storybooks, with lots of pictures, are the best way to help children develop an interest, and ultimately a passion, for reading.
In a country where many schools have no books, blackboards, paper, or chairs, and on average there are 100 children per teacher, constructing libraries is only one step. Malawi Visions is now expanding the one-room libraries into four-room learning centers, featuring a revolutionary two-pronged concept.
Elementary school children (grades 5-8) attend an after school enrichment program, encompassing English, science, math, and music. The teachers are secondary school youth who simultaneously undergo intensive academic and personal training in the Teen Life Internship Program and receive a small stipend. The interns teach and mentor the younger students and, in a sense, are paid to stay in school and maintain good grades. The fundamentals of this program have had tremendous success in inner-city environments here in the United States. Malawi Visions partnered with New City Kids (Jersey City) to learn about, develop, and modify the internship model to work in Malawi.
Building libraries, schools, paying interns, and developing new programs is costly. To succeed, Malawi Visions depends entirely on donations of those willing to invest in their programs, and in so doing, help to change lives and, in turn, the country of Malawi in future years.
The intent of “An Evening of Jazz” is to challenge attendees to invest in changing the future.
Concert tickets may be purchased, donations made, and further information on Malawi Visions may be found at www.MalawiVisions.com/benefit. Tickets are $40/person in advance and $45/person at the door.
Douglas Hall is part of Liberty Corner Presbyterian Church is located in the historic Liberty Corner section of Bernards Township. To learn more about the church or for directions, visit libertycorner.org.
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