Written by CorpsAfrica/Malawi Volunteer Ms. Isabel Mandiwa

Every child has the right to education we say. But how many kids have access to that education in their community?

My village, for instance, doesn’t have one and at the moment we are trying everything to have it near us.  We would like to save our kids from walking very long distances to and from every day and also for security reasons, especially for the young in Std1-4 who have to cross broken bridges with running water during the rainy season.

We are working on a project to extend our primary school which at the moment only has one block for standard 1&2 students.

Because most or almost all donors require community participation and a 10% contribution to the whole project fund, my community agreed to put together money collected from each household in the six villages that will benefit from this project. This money that has already been and still is being used to pay local people to make bricks, collect sand, quarry and water while we look for various funding.

It hasn’t been easy for other households to pay all the amount that was required, some borrow from village savings banks, some wait to sell their farm produce, and some look for some piece of work but in the end everyone with the help of chiefs and group village head is trying to source the money for the project.

I must say I am particularly impressed with the way the community comes together; works together; encourages one another and even helps each other to develop their small community and make ends meet at the end of the day.

It’s going to be a great moment to see these structures finished and see students come to this primary school in great numbers and produce great leaders that will contribute to the development of this nation and I will have known in some small way I helped make this happen.

I am optimistic!!!!