Run for Malawi 2023

THE RACE:

5K Fundraiser Run or Walk

Join us in supporting Malawi Children's Initiative for the fifth year by participating in a 5K run or walk.  Encourage your friends and family to race with you or support you in raising money for this generous charity.  You can also create a named team with friends, family or coworkers to race and fundraise together.  Stay after for the festival on the Southern Village Green with music, food, adult beverages, bouncy houses, games and fun

The 5 K route will begin at the Green in Southern Village at 9:30 AM.  The course winds through the lovely neighbor off Southern Village and will have water stations set up for runners.

All finishers will receive a beautiful and unique wooden medallion hand-carved in Malawi. Runners will receive a Run for Malawi T-shirt.  Runners will also have free admission to the post-race festival. 

There will be prizes for the top finishers and for the top fundraisers (individually and teams). 

There will also be virtual options for the event.  Virtual options include medallion and T shirt with slight extra charge for shipping and handling. 

THE CHARITY:

Malawi Children’s initiative is a 501c3 established in 2017 by physicians David and Elizabeth Fitzgerald to help build bridges between their friends and colleagues at home in the US and those in Malawi, where they have worked and sometimes lived since 2011. MCI focuses on improving the lives of Malawian children through investment in healthcare, education, and nutritional initiatives. In the last four years MCI has built an elementary school building, provided dozens of scholarships for Malawian learners from elementary school through post-graduate training and medical school, built, staffed, and maintained a pediatric clinical lab at Kamuzu Central Hospital in Lilongwe, and contributed thousands of hours of nursing care support to the KCH Pediatric Department. When COVID hit Malawi MCI donated funds to purchase personal protective equipment for the Pediatric Department and oxygen supplies for COVID patients.

This year our goal is to raise $100,000 to support and expand the essential pediatric staff at Kamuzu Central Hospital.  Currently MCI employs nurses, laboratory staff, clinical officers and nutritionists.  In 2022 the funds raised were also used to start the first pediatric residency program at KCH.  Our 2023 goal is to start training more pediatric residents at KCH.  There are currently less than 10 local Pediatricians in practice in Malawi.  MCI hopes to train 2 new pediatricians at KCH over the next several years and retain them to work at KCH.  This effort will markedly improve care provided to children on the pediatric ward. 

Malawi Children's Initiative is an all volunteer non-profit meaning all of the time dedicated by those in the United States goes unpaid to maximize the benefits to Malawi

THE GOAL:

Raise $100,000 to train new pediatricians and save the lives of Malawian children.

VOLUNTEER:

We also need volunteers!  Many of the volunteer slots are as easy as pointing the correct way to go on the running course! You could bring a lawn chair and cheer on runners, or have your kids create some awesome chalk drawings on the course.  Sign up on https://bit.ly/malawi2023