Anne Dallat left Northern Ireland yesterday on her third journey to her adopted country where she will be reunited with her friends who are facing poverty and disease on a scale which is unimaginable.
Before leaving she said: "I cannot thank enough the people who have given me so much money which will go direct to my school and orphanage project. On this occasion I am particularly grateful to Orla Beattie from Glack, Ballykelly who has given up her summer holidays to teach English to children who are so eager to learn.
"Orla's teaching conditions in Malawi will be nothing like the idyllic school she is leaving in Glentogher, near Carndonagh Anne added. She will be sleeping in a compound and will have up to one hundred children in her class with perhaps ten textbooks for the entire group.
"Many of the children will be orphans but all of them will welcome her and will leave her with memories which she will remember for the rest of her life."
Anne disclosed that over the last month almost ten thousand pounds has been donated bringing the total to more than thirty thousand pounds – an absolute fortune for people in one poorest parts of the world.
Anne, who is the wife of SDLP Assembly member John Dallat met Orla through politics.
She concluded: "Politics has brought many challenges to our home but getting to know Orla Beattie and being encouraged by my husband to involve myself in international development has more than compensated for all the difficulties over many years."