| Month | Required | Received |
| October | £4,078 | £4,287.11 |
| November | £4,078 | £6,475.00 |
| December | £4,078 | £5,388.42 |
| January | £4,078 | £4,973.86 |
| February | £4,078 | £3,495.00 |
| March | £4,078 | £3,304.66 |
| April | £4,078 | £5,239.36 |
| May | ||
| June | ||
| July | ||
| August | ||
| September | ||
| Total | £28,546.00 | £33,163.41 |
| (%) | 100% | 116.18% |
Our support level for 2010-2011 ended with 99.83%%. Thank you!
Support Requirement for 2011-2012
SIM's current support system is designed for flexibility. The support requirement is determined jointly by the mission and missionaries for each individual/family within the range approved by the sending office and the field office.
In our case, the monthly cost of keeping us in Malawi was calculated as follows for the financial year Oct. 2011 - Sep. 2012 (with some possible fluctuations depending on exchange rates). You will notice a decrease of 4.32% from last year. Points to note are:
- All costs were kept unchanged (in the currencies they were set in) from the last year's support plan.
- All international costs are set in US dollar. The change in the exchange rate from US$1=UK£0.6666 to US$1=UK£0.6227 caused an 'effective' decrease in our support requirement for MK education cost, field housing cost and international administration. For every $1 of these international costs, we need to raise 6.59% less in UK£, even though the amount needed in US$ is actually exactly the same as before.
- According to the National Statistical Office of Malawi's web site <http://www.nso.malawi.net>, the year-on-year headline inflation for the month of September 2011 stands at 7.7%, an increase of 0.1 percentage points on the month before due largely to the rise in the prices of non-food items. The urban and rural rates are 9.8% and 6.5% respectively.
Near the end of March 2012, it became necessary to adjust the support budget. The school fees for our children have been gradually increasing over the years, but we chose not to take it into account for our support budget for each new year in the interest of keeping the support requirement to the minimum. This has resulted in a significant deficit in the MK education part of our support account at SIM UK, and we needed to take action to remedy the situation. As you can see in the table below, the monthly requirement for MK education has been adjusted from £519 to £965. As a result, the overall monthly support requirement has changed from £3,631 to £4,078. This adjustment has been applied retrospectively to the past months in the current financial year.
| 2008-2009 | 2009-2010 | 2010-2011 | 2011-2012 | ||
| Allowance | Field (for living expense in Malawi) | £1,284 | £1,545 | £1,533 | £1,432 |
| Home Assignment (to build up for extra costs during HA) | £120 | £120 | £120 | £120 | |
| MK Education Cost | £418 | £503 | £555 | £965 |
|
| Housing | Field Housing Cost (contribution to Field/Regional pool) | £132 | £159 | £176 | £164 |
| Home Assignment Housing (to build up for HA housing cost) | £120 | £120 | £120 | £120 | |
| Medical Costs | Field (contribution to the international pool) | £60 | £72 | £100 | £93 |
| Home (incl. emergency medical evacuation insurance) | £150 | £150 | £155 | £155 | |
| Administration (for various services, e.g. finance management, member care, communications) |
International | £45 | £54 | £60 | £56 |
| Field | £42 | £63 | £50 | £47 | |
| Home (UK Sending Office) | £350 | £350 | £350 | £350 | |
| Passage (Travel/Shipping) | £212 | £214 | £176 | £175 | |
| Retirement & National Insurance Contributions | £400 | £400 | £400 | £400 | |
| TOTAL MONTHLY SUPPORT REQUIREMENT | £3,333 | £3,752 | £3,795 | £4,078 |
|
SIM UK keeps several separate accounts for us. All your giving toward the above support requirement goes into our 'Support Account'. From this account, various costs are paid out (e.g. to medical fund pool or to housing fund pool).
Up to the agreed amount of living allowance is transferred each month into our 'Personal Account' for our use. Some of you give 'personal gifts' from time to time (e.g. for the children at Christmas); these gifts also go into our 'Personal Account'.
As the regular monthly support does not fully cover such major expenses as vehicle maintenance/replacement costs, if you help us by giving specifically toward these extra expenses, those donations are kept in our 'Ministry Account'.
Some of you support us by giving for our children's educational costs. All such donations are kept separately in our 'Education Account' to cover expenses like school fees and Joshua's flight for his annual visit to us.
Donations to our personal support or our ministry can be made securely online at www.sim.co.uk/donate. You can use a credit or debit card. If you choose to make a donation, SIM-UK guarantees that your details will be handled by a secure server.