Reporter ASHLEY MARSHALL looks at how your donation could bring hope to some of Africa's most needy children at Harrogate House.

LIVING on less than 50 pence a day, thousands of orphans have started 2008 in the same way they ended 2007. Impoverished. Lonely. Ill.

The stroke of midnight brought no New Year's resolutions, champagne toasts or fireworks displays. Instead, children banged tin pans, played cassette music from an old tractor battery and sipped warm soft drinks.

Harrogate House, the vision of Harrogate couple Neville and his late wife Rosemarie Bevis, held low-key celebrations over the festive season, where volunteers chose to instead continue their work to improve the infants' house.

The home, part of the larger Open Arms project in Malawi, caters for orphans between two and five who have lost their parents to AIDS and have no other relatives to turn to for help or support.

Starting point

The original Harrogate House was built in 2004 using £25,000 raised by you, our readers. But while the good work continues in Blantyre, the need for a second complex has arisen 150 miles north of the Malawian capital on the shores of Lake Mangochi.

Our appeal has already fetched £1,300 over the last few weeks, but we need your help and generosity if we are to hit our £25,000 target.

Mr Bevis, a former Ashville College teacher, thanked everyone who has contributed so far and said he was grateful for the support of residents across the district.

Mr Bevis said: "We are obviously immensely excited about it the project. Open arms 2 is making good progress and is important because 23 babies have been living in temporary accommodation since their home at Malawi's Children Village was burnt to the ground."

Stark contrasts

Contrasts from the relative luxury of Harrogate are stark and frequent, constant reminders of the battles facing infants who were born into the poverty they are facing.

Their problems do not stop for national holidays or festive celebrations, and the joy and happiness they celebrate is often short lived.

That said, the majority of Malawians are devout Christians, and Christmas is a very important event.

Most will have attended at least one church service and, unlike Harrogate, there is little sign of the kind of frenetic commercial activity even on the streets of Blantyre.

There was one South African-owned supermarket which dressed their staff in Santa hats and relentlessly played western carols to Christmas shoppers. However very few Malawians other than the middle class could ever afford to shop there.

Modest celebrations

The vast majority of Malawians can not afford to buy presents for family members; children might receive a sweet or two bought individually from a roadside stall.

On Christmas Day the children from Harrogate House, Rose's House and Richmond House gathered together to eat chicken or ice cream.

Instead of maize porridge, rice was on offer and one scrawny chicken had to serve many family members, while a great treat might be a warm bottle of Coke or Fanta.

Volunteers arranged party hats while project organisers saved throughout the year to buy children new clothes.

Ladies generally drank Ntobwa - a sweet alcohol-free beer brewed from millet while the men sipped Chibuku, a beer brewed from maize.

The women wore new Chitenjes - sarong-type garments and children danced to music supplied by ancient tape decks powered by old tractor batteries.

One similarity to the western world, Mr Bevis told us, was that families try to be together for Christmas and that town dwellers will try hard to get back to their villages for the holiday.

But as quickly as the similarities arise, the common factors shared between families in Malawi and England end.

Tireless work

Mr Bevis said the workers were building furiously over the Christmas and New Year period to get as much done before the rains come.

He said: "Everything is being done by hand; we don't have a single machine, not even a cement mixer. Bricks are acquired locally, but cement and other building materials have to travel about 150 miles to the site.

"The Lorries are old and decrepit and often break down; delivery can sometimes take two days there and back.

"We are not using any building contractors as this saves us a great deal of money, but the site itself is very close to the main road so we hope to be able to attract a lot of visitors and attention. Rosemarie's dream is on its way to fruition."

• For more information about Harrogate House and Open Arms, or to learn more about the history of the project, visit our website www.harrogateadvertiser.net

• To donate to Harrogate House 2 online, click here.

• Donations can also be made by cheque, payable to Open Arms Malawi. Donations can be sent to Harrogate House 2 Appeal, Spout House, Church Hill, North Rigton, LS17 0DB.

Case Study

We spoke to Neville Bevis who gave a eye-witness insight into the day-to-day cases Open Arms deals with.

Orphaned twins

Sam and Eric came to Open Arms as one-day-old twins. Their mother died in child birth leaving them, and four siblings. Their father had already died.

They arrived at Open Arms unnamed and were so named after the famous identical twins in William Golding's Lord of the Flies.

For two years they thrived at the orphanage. Their mother's sister, who by now was looking after their four siblings as well as three of her own, was a regular visitor to the home and formed a strong bond with the boys.

After two years, they were ready to go back to their auntie's house where an outreach programme helped to support her while she sold doughnuts at the side of the road.

Outreach made monthly donations of food, and when possible, clothing. School fees were paid at a nearby nursery school, and a donor paid to renovate their humble home.

A few months ago, Sam and Eric's auntie began to develop the symptoms that we know only too well. Two months ago she died of tuberculosis, which was almost certainly AIDS related.

The boys are now back at the infants' home and their siblings are being split up and sent to live with other family members. This is not an unusual story at all.

Harrogate House children

Sitting with their teacher, Mrs Nasiyaya, are the current residents of Harrogate House. Each of these children, which includes Sam and Eric, have nowhere else to go.

Some of them, such as Moses, have been home and have had to be returned to Open Arms due to chronic negligence and sometimes abuse by his relatives.

Though rare, this is not unknown to us. One of the children seated at the table is suffering from AIDS. Though she went home at two, her auntie was unable to keep up the compliance of the paediatric drugs that she needs to stay alive.

Edina, seated three up from the teacher on the left, suffers quite severely from cerebral palsy, and the manor in which her peers in Harrogate House treat her, needs to be seen to be fully appreciated.

Each of them has his or her own tragic story. But Harrogate House, and its dedicated staff, do much to alleviate this.

Benji's Story

In November there was a horrible crash involving a minibus and a lorry on one of Blantyre's main roads. Many people died, and a tiny baby boy, who was badly burnt, was flung into the bush.

Later, the small boy was discovered crying for his mother who was killed in the accident.

Six-months-old Benjamin was initially kept at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre where his mother's body was lying before he was moved to Open Arms Infants Home.

After treatment at the hospital for his burns, he was brought to us and nicknamed Benji.

His story and image appeared on the front page of our national paper. Two weeks later, his father managed to track him down to Open Arms.

There was great excitement and more newspaper articles, and we waved him goodbye.

Only four days later the father, who has four other children and makes a living as a tomato vendor on the streets of one of our townships, brought him back and begged us to take him.

In conjunction with the social welfare department, we have agreed to take him in until he is two.