We were delighted to learnover the summer that our application to be one of the charities supported in the 2025 BIG GIVE ‘Women and Girls Campaign’ was successful. We were set a target of £5000, so we had to raise £2500 from our supporters which the BIG GIVE would match pound for pound. Our participation proved to be a HUGE success. Donations received between 8th and 15th October greatly exceeded what we had hoped. The result, combined with matching funds from the Big Give and eligible Gift Aid, was a final total £7100! This magnificent sum will cover the cost of a great many scholarships enabling Malawian young women to study at university. Many thanks indeed to all our donors.
Hot on the heels of the Big Give our eighth Come & Sing took place on Oct 18th in Edinburgh's Georgian New Town. Almost 100 singers, under the direction of John Kitchen MBE, gathered in Stockbridge Parish Church to rehearse and perform some of Handel's Choral Classics As always, it was a highly enjoyable occasion which drew participants from a wide area, not only Edinburgh, but Fife and the Lothians as well. Once again the event raised significant sums for the Soko Fund. A splendid total of £3000 was reached with the help of a raffle -- the prize being a superb print of Edinburgh's famous Circus Lane, generously donated by artist Lucy Jones.
New School Partnership The Soko Fund has recently been in conversation with Innerleithen, Traquair & Walkerburn Parish Church of Scotland. Situated in beautiful Borders countryside, this energetic parish has developed a collaboration with a corresponding parish in Thondwe, a village in Malawi. The Thondwe Community Partnership was created in 2016 building on an earlier church link. It aims to promote mutual learning, friendship and development, creating a two-way relationship between the twinned congregations and communities, and supporting projects connected to education, health and food poverty.
One important aspect of the programme has been the support of girls in the local secondary school. Recently, the first cohort of 5 girls completed the Malawi School Certificate. This is the point at which those who have done well enough can think about continuing to university. Unfortunately, often this is also the point at which they discover the seemingly insurmountable financial barrier to making this a reality. That is what led Innerleithen, Traquair & Walkerburn Parish to get in touch with the Soko Fund.
The outcome of the conversation is that the Soko Fund will start accepting nominations through the Thondwe Community Partnership. The Partnership will be able to nominate girls who successfully obtain a place at a university in one of the Soko Fund’s partner universities in Malawi. Of course, the competition is stiff. The Soko Fund receives twice as many nominations as it can support. But the new arrangement means that talented girls completing the MSC in Thondwe now have a door opened to future success.
Soko Fund Newsletters From time to time we issue a Newsletter with news of our students and graduates. The most recent one can be accessed on our News Archive page
