As Scotland celebrated the five year anniversary of the signing of the Mutual Co-operation Agreement between Scotland and Malawi, Link Community Development held a reception at the Scottish Parliament on Wednesday 27^th October 2010 hosted by former First Minister Lord McConnell MSP.

The reception was a celebration of Link Scotland’s work in partnership with Malawi, with speeches from Fiona Hyslop, Minister for Culture and External Affairs, Lord McConnell MSP, and Alice Ching’oma, Programme Director in Malawi.

Val Travers, a Global Teacher and Link Supporter since 2009, gave a presentation about her experiences with Link in Malawi and Scotland, and the huge difference it has made to her school and the lives of those around her.

Val became involved with Link in 2009 when she and a small group of Scottish teachers travelled to Malawi to spend 5 weeks supporting schools there to improve teaching and learning. For Val this was an experience that had a huge impact on her personally and professionally, as well bringing real benefits to schools in rural Malawi. On her return, Val worked with her pupils at Gullane Primary School on projects about life in Malawi, incorporating her firsthand experiences to bring topics to life. This was so successful that Gullane Primary School decided to become a Link School with Chinkomero Primary School in Malawi so that both schools can continue to learn from one another.

Val’s passion for Malawi and the partnership that the two school share is clear, and the audience was excited to learn firsthand about how Link’s projects have an impact on schools in Malawi and Scotland.

Your achievements:

• 10 Link supporters helped to raise £552 at the Big Bag Pack at Tesco, South Queensferry in October,
• Susan Arnott, a supporter of Link since 2006 when she visited Malawi as part of our Global Teachers Programme, held a huge birthday party and asked guests to make a donation to Link instead of giving a present. They raised over £1,500 which has helped us to install Solar Connect at a Teacher Development Centre in the Mulanje district of Malawi.
• Diana Ellis, Kim McCauley and Eilidh McLean gave a presentation to the Glasgow University Ladies’ Club about their work as Global Teachers in Malawi. They did a great job raising awareness of Link to a new group of people and their passionate stories inspired the women to make a generous donation.
• Katie Molyneaux, a former Link Scotland intern, held an end of term ceilidh at Edinburgh University and raised £100 for Solar Connect. 

Let everyone know about the hard work you have been doing as a Supporter - email kate@lcd.org.uk and don't forget to send photos!