Small Change
In 2005 Patrick and Johanna Fitzpatrick and their four adult children,
Mark, Ciarán, Áine and Maeve, spent two months doing voluntary work in Mzuzu,
Northern Malawi. 
When they were leaving, having fallen in love with the people and the country, the groups they had worked with all asked them the same thing – “Please don’t forget us when you go home to Ireland”. They promised not to forget them, and Small Change is the project they set up when they came home to Cork, to keep that promise.
All the money raised goes directly to people and projects in Mzuzu through Ungweru a local community based, non-denominational organisation, established by Fr John Ryan in Mzuzu, with the help of funds from Small Change.
Among the projects funded by Small Change through Ungweru are
- Msiki Home Based Care Group – a self-help organisation made up of men and women in one of the out-stations beyond Mzuzu town, who have very little themselves, but who organise help through visiting those who have even less.
- Temwanani – a Day Care Centre for AIDS orphans aged between 2-5 years
- Dunduzu AIDS Support Group – a remarkable group of people all diagnosed with HIV/AIDS, who have come together to support one another and to try to educate people in their area about AIDS and AIDS prevention.
In the West regard as ‘Small Change’ can make huge changes in Malawi – and not only in terms of money. We need to change our attitudes here too, to work towards big changes in the way we look at equality and justice in our world.
The Small Change Calendar 2007 raised over €35,000, All of that money goes directly to the people and projects that we work with in Mzuzu, through Ungweru House. Ungweru, meaning ‘Light’, was one of the initial projects Small Change helped set up and support. The idea was to have a place where the young people of the area could meet, learn and study. Now it has developed into much more than that and is a ‘clearing house’ for funds generated by Small Change and other well wishers who support Fr John and his work in Mzuzu. It is a place of welcome and support for all, and encourages applications for funding from the poorest of the poor as well as from those who, while not destitute, have no money for educating their children, daring to set up small businesses etc.
If you would like to support the Small Change project, please contact the Fitzpatricks at johannafitzpatrick09@yahoo.ie.