Many of you who are familiar with Smile Malawi will have heard us tell the story of Elijah, one of our older boys.

Elspeth, the charity’s founder, offered to give Elijah a home at Smile Malawi back in 2008, when she was approached by Social Services after his mother died. Elijah was doing well until he fell seriously ill and after medical tests, we discovered that he needed urgent heart surgery. After months of negotiation, Elspeth succeeded in securing the medical support of the Chain of Hope charity set up by Professor Sir Magdi Yacoub who agreed to perform the key operation at the Maputo Heart Institute in Mozambique – if we could get him there. With the fantastic response of Smile Malawi supporters, we raised the money for the 2000km journey and so Elijah went to Maputo and made a full recovery after his operation in 2009. That experience sowed the seeds of his ambition to become a doctor one day, but first he had to pass year 8 of Primary school, 4 years of secondary school and the Malawi School Certificate exams to be able to pursue further education. Aged 18, Elijah has just heard that he has passed the Certificate, so now we are making enquiries about where and how he can continue his education. We all have a special place for Elijah in our hearts. If you do too, please click on the button to donate towards his further education fees.