CARE AND CONCERN (CACO) is a community project founded and run by Malawians, based here in Nkhata Bay, which Mayoka Village is closely involved with. CACO is inspiration to all of us that the everyday people of a community can care about each other and the plight of their children enough to come together and work for free to make a difference.

The motto of CACO is “Creating opportunities for a brighter future for our youth.” And they do so much working towards that goal. All activities are focused at a small drop-in center in Nkhata Bay and the children range from all ages, street kids, orphans and these coming from disadvantaged families. There are over 300 children registered with the center and they receive help from a number of different programs that the center runs. Such as:

1. Literacy classes and school students study groups
2. Informal learning and sporting activities
3. Help with school uniforms and secondary school fees
4. Vocational training and apprenticeship placements
5. Small loans and small business management training for the child caretakers
6. Gender equality and youth empowerment
7. Child rights advocacy
8. HIV/AIDS, Nutrition and Family valued education

CACO was started in October 2003 by the three people who now run the center and activities along with some local interested people and the owners of Mayoka Village. The beginnings were very small, relying on donations from passing travelers and members of the community. Today, due to a lot of hard work and some fortunate funding CACO has been able to expand its activities and has just started to build their own center within the village where all the children are located. CACO has big dreams and would love to achieve more and provide a better quality of education to a larger number of children and so is still actively seeking funding and volunteers to help further the cause. The main focus of CACO is to keep kids in school, help them to achieve well in school and provide them with the knowledge, confidence and skills to have well balanced comfortable and productive family lives in the future. Mayoka helps CACO by helping to source funding and technical support and taking part in some of the activities organized for the children. We also have 6 apprentices in the kitchen and doing carpentry on a one ear placement. Two of last years apprentices managed to get permanent employment with Mayoka Village.

If you wish to find out more or sponsor a child education there are three charities who support CACO to find out more look up their websites:

Network of Direct Aid
Elmundo Foundation - info@elmundofoundation.nd
The House of Good Health – www.houseofgoodhealth.org.uk