Melbourn student puts award-winning pictures on show to raise cash for children of Malawi

Casey Foster is exhibiting pictures from her time in Malawi to raise money. (Image: Archant)

Casey Foster spent several months over two years teaching English at the Sitima School, near Zomba in Malawi.

The 20-year-old from Meldreth also spent time in other schools, at orphanages and at a hospital in the African country.

“As soon as you get there, everybody needs help,” she said.

“We are lucky to have so much and take so many things such as clean water and a roof over our head for granted.

“When I arrived in Malawi it was a shock to discover children without pens and exercise books, writing their lessons in chalk on the concrete floor of their classroom and drawing outside in the sand with sticks.”

When Casey returned to her home in Howard Road, she was determined to complete her education and raise money to help the children she had met.

She is displaying her pictures – which won her a prize in the under-21 category of this year’s Hertfordshire Open Exhibition – at PS Arts’ Southern Hemisphere Art Gallery based at Mardleybury Farm in Mardleybury Road, Datchworth, until December 31.

The exhibition will be launched on Friday, October 31, from 7pm to 9pm, with the general public invited to attend.

Casey, who is studying at Nottingham Trent University, said: “I met a man who cooked his only goat so that I could have a meal at his self-built home. It was very humbling.”

Casey returned the favour by raising funds to replace the animal.

She also encountered pregnant mothers who had to walk for days to get to a clinic to give birth and met parents whose children had died from malaria.

Casey plans to return to Malawi once she has completed her degree.

She added: “Every penny I raise will go to these people.

“In the future I would like to make a couple of trips back there and eventually set up a charity and possibly even live out there.”