We have been sponsoring the most vulnerable children from the communities we work in providing them with school fees and a uniform which is required from them to attend school.
The education system in Malawi is very different from the UK. There are some state schools where fees are kept very low but they are often classes of 250 children with one teacher, and usually being taught under trees rather than in classrooms. The teacher will have one teaching book that he/she uses and the children will not have access to books at all. Teaching is very much by rote so just repeating over and over again what the teacher is saying.
There are 8 standards (classes) in primary school and then 4 year groups in secondary school. The children who have the highest pass grades in primary school are then offered, in turn, a place at the best secondary schools. However fees for secondary school can be 10 or even 20 times what it is for primary school, plus children will usually board so they have those costs too.
For those lucky enough to be offered a place at college or university the fees are even higher. To put into perspective, the minimum wage in Malawi, is around £30 per month. College or university tuition can be £2000 - £3000 per year for 3 or 4 years.
The currency in Malawi fluctuates daily and has devalued on many occasions over the years. The effect is that local people cannot afford food and we are seeing so much more food poverty than ever before (end of Dec 2024).
This means that parents of children have to choose between eating (and sometimes missing days of eating) and paying for their children to go to school. It is tradition in Malawi that if they can just afford one child to go to school, it will be the oldest male in the family.
We are very keen to promote girls education so we work closely with the schools and families to ensure that girls get an equal opportunity to be educated.
We raise funds in order to sponsor children to go to school and to nursery school.
We will not take a child on for school unless we have the sponsorship to see them at least through primary school. We cannot help every child to go to secondary school, but we have other things in place to help them (see Community Hub).
We keep a close eye on all our sponsored children, receiving a report every term, that not only tells us about their academic performance but their attendance too. Monitoring attendance helps us to identify if a child or their family may be struggling which is always followed up with check ins by our child protection group within the community.
We have in the past been sponsoring up to 250 children per year but we decided more recently that we would not take any more children at that stage, as we were being asked by the local Chiefs to build our own school, which was desperately needed in the village. (See New and Exciting in 2025).
We currently have over 100 children at primary school, secondary school and 4 at university. (Dec 2024)
We are very selective about the schools we work with, and will only work on any projects with people we trust and where we know our children's education and emotional well-being is secure.
If you would like to sponsor a child then please check out our shop section where you can choose to sponsor a child’s education for the year.
