Mwaya Primary School, Malawi

Background:

In 2003 Geoff and Liz Furber purchased Mwaya Beach Lodge on the northern shores of Lake Malawi. They were so touched by the friendliness of the people that they decided to help the local community and so formed a charity, RIPPLE Africa.

The school is the focal point of the community, which understands the importance of education. RIPPLE Africa pays for six Malawian trainee teachers. The charity also recruits volunteer teaching assistants from all over the world who work with the Malawian teachers, and bring their skills and enthusiasm.

Composition:

There are 700+ pupils at Mwaya Primary School and six Malawian teachers. In addition, there are the six Malawian trainee teachers paid for by RIPPLE Africa as well as varying numbers of volunteer teaching assistants throughout the year.

Growing Need:

Late last year, a double classroom block at the school collapsed, leaving 100 students without classrooms. RIPPLE Africa are desperately trying to raise the £9,000 required to provide a new double classroom block.

Alison’s secondment to Mwaya Primary School:

Life in Malawi is incredibly different to that in the UK. For starters, there is no electricity so cooking is done with a woodfire and eaten by candle light. The days end when the sun goes down (around 7.30 – 8.00pm) and begin when it rises (around 5.30 – 6.00am). Work and school start very early in the day and are over just after midday. This means that in the heat of the afternoon, people can rest.

The local people are probably the most friendly and accommodating that I have ever met. Behind their smiles, however, there is a terrible lack of what we in the west consider to be basic needs. The local diet is very limited and as a result, most people are malnourished. Vegetable are a luxury and whatever fruit is grown is generally sold for money with which to buy cassava, the root that makes the staple food – nsima. Everyone depends on their own crops of cassava and maize, so if the harvest is bad, there is much less food to go around. Education is basic and often the children’s chores are given priority over their attendance in class.

Volunteering at the school was an amazing experience. We spent the first few days sitting in on various years to get a feel for the level each standard is at. Then we put ourselves into classes in which we stayed. Myself and another volunteer chose to work with Standard 6, where the ages of the children range from 13 to 17. It is the second year that they are taught in English.

I really feel for the children - prior to Standard 5, they are taught in Chitongan, the local dialect, and then suddenly they enter Standard 5 and it is all in English! Needless to say, their teacher spends a lot of time translating. They have no resources – around 6 text books between 60 odd students etc. How they are supposed to learn only in English I have no idea! One of the projects I set myself while I was there was to hand write their entire English text book, for reproduction back in the UK. I am pleased to say that we have sent many copies down there for use within the class.

There are on average about 65 students in each class and it is really refreshing to see how hard they try! They really enjoy being in school! We spent a lot of time marking their English and Maths work, and they all wanted us to put really big ticks on their pages and to write 'good' on every page!! Sometimes, if they made a mistake, they would sit and re-write the whole lot and then bring it to us again, just so they get a 'good'!! (The teacher won't let them get a good unless there are no mistakes!!). They would commonly sit through their breaks to get everything correct.

We also ran an after school English class, which was a lot of fun. The teacher didn't attend, and we gradually got more and more students. The concept of time is very loose! If we said that the class would start at 2pm, the first student would arrive around 2.30 and then most of the rest would arrive sometime after 3pm!

Everywhere we went, everyone wanted to know our names, where we were from, where we were going, how long we were there for etc etc etc. The kids just loved walking with us - we all felt like the pied piper at times! It is not uncommon to have a group of 10 - 20 children following you - all wanting to hold your hand etc!

Twice a week, I would cycle to the nursery school in Kachere, which is a 14km round trip, and assist the teachers there. The nursery school is the one that TTCF raised money for toilet facilities and is also one of the three that we have paid the teacher's salaries. While I was there, the children would all pile outside during their break and go to the bathroom in the bushes behind the classroom. Construction began on the toilet just before I left and it is now finished. The teachers, and children, are all very grateful for the new facilities!

Near to the Kachere nursery school is the local health clinic. The clinic is the only source of medical assistance to the people in the local community and it caters for around 15,000. It has only 1 medical assistant (no qualified doctor), and a temporary nurse/midwife.

The clinic has no electricity and, until now, no running water. Water had to be drawn from the village well every day. TTCF worked in conjunction with another UK based charity to provide running water to the clinic.

The other charity (Avert) funded the digging of a bore hole and piping and TTCF funded the building of the water tank and the labour for the project - the end result has a massive impact for the people who live and work there.

The total cost of the water tank project was just over £2,000 - this not only paid for the running water, but also employed 7 people for more than 2 months in the process!

It was an incredibly humbling experience to live and work within the community at Mwaya. The things we worry about in the West do not even factor into the daily lives of the local people. It was brilliant to be able to meet the people that TTCF, through RIPPLE Africa, is helping and I was able to see first hand the difference that is made in their lives – even by such a small thing as building a toilet, or providing school text books.

RIPPLE Africa are also trying to raise sponsorship money to allow the top students, based on achievement, to attend secondary schools.