School Literacy Project

Sarah’s blog 17/3/25

How can children learn to read without books to practice? Thanks to the help of many of our supporters, Chambo Primary School has once again received a huge donation of preloved books as part of our School Literacy Project. Thanks to so many people who have donated books and to Strathblane Primary School and Balfron Primary School who donated all of their group reading books which they were updating. There are a few other organisations local to us who also made donations. We are grateful to everyone and to those who helped us towards the cost of sending some of these boxes. Kalanga Primary School will also receive a donation of boxes of books in the near future.

As always, thanks goes to the volunteers at Bananabox Trust in Dundee who document the contents of boxes, order the container and then pack all the boxes into the container. We always say everything is teamwork and we are very grateful to all the people who help us support the children and young people who live in extreme poverty in rural northern Malawi.

Most of the orphans and other vulnerable children we help to support attend Chambo Primary School. There are eight classes in the school with approximately 600 students in total. During the rainy season, not all students are able to get to school as it is not safe for them to cross the swollen rivers.

As you can see from the photos and videos, this school is very basic. They don’t have notebooks and pencils, teachers don’t have enough chalk. There are no porridge programmes in the rural far north so all these learners are hungry and many are suffering from Malnutrition.

Thanks to the help of our supporters and grants that we have successfully applied for, so far we have helped the students at Chambo Primary in the following ways;

They only had one classroom with desks and benches; a grant paid for desks & benches in two more classrooms.
There was no clean water supply for drinking and washing hands. Thanks to a grant we applied for, they now have taps and a supply of clean water.
Students relieved themselves in the bushes, making girls especially very vulnerable. We received a grant to build a girls’ latrine block.
Girls who need reusable sanitary towels are provided with them so that they no longer have to miss one week of school each month.
Exercise books and pens and chalk have previously been donated; however they need more urgently. https://donorsee.com/project/25617?share=1
Many of these children attend the weekly feeding programme. It is nowhere near enough, as most don’t eat every day, but all we can afford as we try to work with the community to set up sustainable projects.
Many of these children have received preloved clothes that we have sent.
The students at Chambo Primary are benefitting from The School Literacy Project where we collect and send preloved books to support education. Primary 8 leavers exam results have been improving year on year since we have been supporting them.
Chambo Primary has received sports kit and students have taken part in sporting events that we have supported.
Chambo Primary has received fruit tree saplings, banana tubers and pine tree saplings as part of a sustainable project.
We have supported a School Holiday Study School for the past few years to give p8 students revision time prior to their exams. They receive a substantial school lunch each day so that it helps them concentrate and is a great incentive for them to attend lessons during their holidays.

If you can help with purchasing new exercise books and pens/pencils for these students we would be extremely grateful. They need these to take notes ahead of their exams. https://donorsee.com/project/25617?share=1

Thank you again for all the support (and a huge amount of work went on behind the scenes too). Enjoy these photos and videos, Sarah x