March 2009 Newsletter...
Hello everyone!
Well we are happy to report from Malawi that all is going well with Chisala Primary School and that it is still alive and kicking with 440 students currently learning from Standards 1- 7!
The student numbers are as follows:
Standard 1: 93
Standard 2: 83
Standard 3: 70
Standard 4: 74
Standard 5: 54
Standard 6: 32
Standard 7: 34
The school is running very well with its new School Management Committee (SMC) elected this year from amongst members of the community. Its responsibility is to manage the school, along with the teachers and manage any funds coming in.
Already they have some funds coming in from the school garden and they have a school maize crop about to be harvested in a month, which will bring in some extra revenue for the school to pay for volunteer teachers and maintenance.
The beginning stages of any new venture is always demanding but the project team have tried their best to help the school create a maintenance culture by agreeing to fund a gardener/general maintenance man, Topsy Mahone, and also a librarian, Mr Douglas Gondwe.
They have formed part of the school staff and have made a huge and positive difference in their respective jobs.
Topsy has beautified the school grounds and the rainy season (December-April) has helped the plants and trees to grow significantly. He works with the children to plant indigenous tree seedlings, some of which have been replanted out on the grounds and beyond.
Douglas is currently working on literary skills with the school children and works with all years by having a "story time". The teachers believe that this is really helping the children’s imaginations and will help create a reading culture.
"The literacy rate is very low in the village and we know the library will change this. We are so blessed with this library which has improved the children’s knowledge a great deal, especially Standards 4 and 5. They enjoy learning in it and can not wait to get their hands on books". Mr Banda, Headteacher
The library is open to the community at the moment, but the literacy programme will be extended to the general community in the next month or so.
We have over a hundred books collected by our wonderful donor partners, Charlie Watson and Alleyn’s Primary School in London which will be arriving next month.
We are happy to introduce you to our two new Government teachers, Mr and Mrs Zimba.
They are helping enormously with the school’s ever growing student community and teach Standards 3 and 5.
Chisala is very lucky to have a total of five trained Government teachers provided in such a short space of time (especially for Malawi!) and we hope more will come next year with the final year, Standard 8, coming up from Standard 7.
Of course, the school faces the usual problems of shortages of some learning materials and whilst we try to help as best we can, we feel it’s important that the staff and community try and problem-solve on their own. They really are coming up with new initiatives to combat any issues that arise and the community, chiefs and parents are now totally receptive to new ideas and to the school itself.
The facilities are being used for various meetings, including the newly reformed Youth Group headed by our two teachers Anna and Luckness. All in all, we can report that the school and community are much more self sufficient and are a long way towards being a sustainable entity.
2009 Projects
So, for 2009 we have an exciting programme. A wonderful donor has pledged £2,000 annually for three years, which will continue to help us get Chisala School to the top spot in the District. Already Chisala pupils are participating in District ‘Quizzes’’ and are coming out on top! We also have other people who want to see the school thrive and are pledging more. We do need to keep funds coming in to help develop the school further and to support secondary school students.
Your donations will go towards the following projects, planned for this year:
- Pit-latrines and urinal blocks
- Teachers houses - one more for this year
- An Assembly Shelter for the children
- A small Workshop Block where informal education (arts and crafts, mechanics, music etc) can be taught to children and the community
- We have some funds to build proper sports ground and facilities for the school which will include a football pitch, netball and volley ball courts and changing room/sports centre. However, we may need some more and this would be a great cause to get involved in
- Solar panels for the library block
- Computer training days
- Teacher training days
Donations
We have finalised the charity accounts for the two years of the Build Malawi Project and you can view the summary charity accounts online at www.buildmalawi.org on this page.
Our online donation facility with Justgiving will resume in the next 2-3 months. If you would like to make a donation by cheque, then please make it payable to ABC-Build Malawi Project and post to:
Build Malawi Project
201 East Dulwich Grove,
London,
SE22 8SY
Contact
You can still contact the project manager, Tanya Clarke, at buildmalawi@hotmail.co.uk.
She is currently in Malawi and had such a great time on the project that she’s decided to stay and set up business and projects there for the foreseeable future! If you would like to come and visit and or even volunteer in Malawi, then contact Tanya and see if it can be arranged. Any UK enquiries will be forwarded to the UK team.
Thanks to everyone for your time and support!
Best wishes,
The Build Malawi Project Team
