African adventure hits home for Aimee

Rothesay girl spends two weeks in Malawi

"I REALISE that we tend to want more things in life than we actually need. Now I really appreciate a flushing toilet and electricity."
So said Young Scot award winner and new Rothesay Academy S1 pupil Aimee Gilmour on her return this week from a fortnight in Malawi as child ambassador for Spirit Aid, the worldwide child support charity set up by actor David Hayman.

"I've had the chance to see the difference between the kind of life childen have here in Scotland and the lives of the young people in Malawi," Aimee told us.

"Every day I saw things that made me very sad, but the children were so affectionate and happy, no matter what.

"It does make you look at the way you live and I am determined, with my friends here in Rothesay, to raise money to help my new friends."

A long way away from her home in Rothesay's Mount Pleasant, 12-year-old Aimee was accompanied by dad John and Spirit Aid's project leader Pat Carrigan on a trip which began with a visit to the parts of the city of Blantyre worst affected by extreme poverty, and looked at ways in which Spirit Aid might be able to help - starting with a soup kitchen, funded by the charity, which should be up and running by January 2009.

The party then moved on to spend time in the village of Milonde, where Aimee was welcomed by the chiefs and local residents, along with 250 school children who had all heard about her - and where the party was later joined by two staff members from the Rothesay joint school campus, Stuart and Hazel McHale.

In Milonde Aimee lived and worked a typical daily routine, with a host family giving the young Scot first-hand experience of a family coping with dire poverty. Up early to help make the breakfast porridge, then fat cook (a bit like doughnuts) for lunch, then working until darkness fell at half past five, when it was time for dinner, consisting of the staple diet of insima, which Aimee described as "like rice".

Work for Aimee was alongside local adults making bricks, harvesting crops, collecting water from pumps, preparing food and helping to paint and decorate a newly-built creche, all the while carrying a baby, called Innocent, on her back.

That creche was officially opened by Aimee on Friday, August 1, and is equipped with solar panels, mattresses, cups, bowls, spoons and first aid equipment - all provided by the people of Bute.

The first step of Aimee's journey was filmed by Spirit Aid for distribution throughout Scotland to highlight the extremes of the Milonde children's extreme daily existence, but it wasn't all hard work and no play. Aimee attended some school classes along with 14- to 18-year-old local children, and organised games for them, including a football match between the local Milonde school and a local rival team at which the Milonde boys sported full strips presented to them by Rothesay's very own Brandanes.

Aimee's singing talents were put to great use when Spirit Aid were invited to the local Hope and Glory Church, and she was invited to sing 'Another Unique Day' to an appreciative congregation including the famous Malawi Chitheka Gospel Family.

On a more sombre note, Aimee attended the local health clinic, where many of the child patients are orphans and suffer from HIV and Aids.
She was saddened by what she saw and said: "The children all had big sad eyes and were very quiet compared to other children I met, and I felt so upset when I thought that they would never see their mums and dads again.

"Every day hundreds of people queue for hours outside the clinic for treatment, but they have to turn them away because they have no medical supplies for them."

During her two week stay, Aimee gave the children of Milonde clothes, hair accessories and jewellery, mostly donated by the people of Bute.

On her last day she was treated to a VIP reception with speeches from village elders, some African dancing by the women of the village and had a very special song given to her by the children of the creche - a moment which had dad John "filling up", as he put it - and for which Aimee sang the Skye Boat Song for the villagers in return.

Back in Rothesay last week, Aimee's dad John said of their visit: "It was the most humbling experience of my life; the people of Blantyre and Milonde are living in extreme poverty, but they face their daily lives with a smile.

"They are so appreciative of the help which Spirit Aid and the Rothesay joint campus are giving and I hope that with the establishment of the Scotland/Malawi partnership, supported by Jack McConnell, that more people and schools in Scotland can come forward to change the lives of the wonderful Malawians."

Aimee confided her special memories to The Buteman and said: "One is of a little girl sitting at a door - when my dad gave her half a pastry, she stood up and went to find her friends and shared it with them and that really made me think.

"I found carrying water on my head really heavy, and my bucket wasn't even half full.

"Everyone was so excited to see us, and when they took us on the back of taxi bikes first thing in the morning up and down rocky roads, it was incredible to see the Mulange Mountains.

"The people are just so happy, and I will always remember carrying one-year-old Innocent on my back.

"Now I have a new pen pal called Jess, and Louisa and Gift will write to my sister Samantha."

John is now hopeful that the bonds between Rothesay and Milonde will strengthen with an exchange scheme allowing other children from Bute the opportunity to travel to Malawi to see what can be done to help, as well as bringing children from the African country over to Scotland.

Last word to Aimee, before she starts a new session in S1 at Rothesay Academy on Tuesday: "I'm determined to raise money to help my new friends in Milonde, and I hope the film we've made will encourage other young Scots to help out."