Glasgow Lord Provost Sadie Docherty flies to Malawi on Sunday to see for herself how money raised in Scotland is being spent.

During her six days in the country she will have a packed prog-ramme, visiting vital projects in Blantyre and the capital Lilongwe.

These will include a refugee camp, a home for tiny babies, a project supporting adolescent girls, a youth centre, and schools.

She will also visit a prosthetics and ortho-tics clinic, a teacher development centre and a rice mill.

Mrs Docherty will also meet with repres-entatives of children's charity Unicef and senior officials in the country.

Mrs Docherty said: "I am excited and nervous. It will be wonderful to see up close how our projects and others are making a real difference on the ground.

"However, it's a continent I've never been to before and I know from speaking to people who have been that the scale of the poverty they witnessed did affect them.

"When it comes to children suffering, I'll have to brace myself because it will be emotional.

"This journey is significant because our decade of involvement with Malawi, a Common- wealth country, is a milestone. Staff from across the council family have been over as volunteers to build schools and clinics, install information technology equipment and lend expertise."

Lucinda Rivers from Unicef UK in Scotland said: "We are delighted the Lord Provost is going to be visiting some of these exciting projects to see how children's lives are being transformed by money and support coming from Scotland.

"Thanks to the generous support of the Scottish people during the Commonwealth Games, we are funding new facilities for young people in Malawi where they can learn vital new skills and take part in sports, opening up new futures for them."

Mrs Docherty will be accompanied by her international officer Gillian Walsh and Brian Kelly, a former director of environmental services at Glasgow City Council, a long-time volunteer for the Lord Provost and Malawi projects.

They follow an advance team of IT volunteers from the city council who left for Malawi last week.

Over the last decade, they have been installing computer equipment, as well as training staff in health and education establishments.

Mrs Docherty is the second Glasgow Lord Provost to make the trip to Malawi.

Councillor Liz Cam-eron visited in 2004 when she was Lord Provost and pledged to extend the city's supp-ort for the country.

Since 2005, part of the proceeds of the Lord Provost's annual Burns Supper have gone to help Malawi. The total raised is more than £365,000.

Projects the Lord Provost and inter-national office have been involved in include upgrading a medical centre, the construction of an HIV/Aids clinic and a prosthetics and orthotics clinic.

In addition, they have provided more than 2300 items of medical equip-ment, more than 6300 boxes of medical supplies, more than 1600 desktop and 61 laptop computers and assoc-iated IT and office equipment.

vivienne.nicoll@ eveningtimes.co.uk