chambo primary school Archives - Changing Lives Malawi

Easter Study School

Some photos and videos from Easter Study School at Chambo Primary and Bright Futures Secondary School…everyone is taking advantage of this great opportunity.

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Sarah’s blog 09/04/24

Today I have some photos and videos from the Easter Study School. The ones from Bright Futures Secondary School were taken by one of the teachers yesterday. Levison visited Chambo Primary this morning and sent the photos and videos from there.

To help us pay for the nutritious school lunches each day during the holiday school for 100+ students please donate here; https://donorsee.com/project/23049?share=1

We are grateful to everyone who is supporting these very vulnerable young people to have these extra eight days of study and a proper cooked lunch each day. Teachers have given up their holiday time, cooks have prepared and cooked lunch each day and other volunteers on campus ensuring that things run smoothly for the young people. The lunches are important as it’s probably the only proper meal each of these young people will get each day. How can we expect them to walk a long distance and concentrate all day if they haven’t eaten properly?

In Malawi, national exams are taken at the end of primary school (p8). If you don’t pass then you don’t go to secondary school. Also you don’t go to secondary school if you cannot afford to pay. So for most of these students at Chambo Primary, even if they do pass, unless we have managed to match them with a sponsor to help support their education at Bright Futures Secondary School, their education is still finished at the end of primary school. We need more sponsors please and it’s only £25 p/m…that’s less than £1 per day. contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com

National exams are also at the end of S2 and the end of S4. There aren’t any S4 students at Bright Futures Secondary School until September, so this study school is for the S2 and S3 students. BFSS is only half full currently. There is capacity for more vulnerable students, but we need your help and financial support for their education. It might be one of the most important things you do for one of these young people.

Students at Bright Futures Secondary School were asked ‘What is good about school being open during the holidays?’

Bethsheba said ‘It helps us to cover the load that haven’t been covered during second term so that we stay focused to the curriculum of Malawi Government’ (for info – may students have missed classes due to heavy rains preventing them cross the swollen rivers). She also said ‘It helps us that we are not supposed to be playing at home so that we maintain the striving of excellence.’

Lawrence stated ‘It helps us to have more knowledge about school and it helps us to avoid bad behaviour that might happen when you don’t go to school. It helps us to have access to have lunchtime food, since we are coming from far distance with emptied belly. So during the holiday we continue to have access to food which improve our health so that we stay focused on our studies without thinking about hunger.’

Mathias added ‘It helps students to maintain a good position such as a student may proceed in working hard whether during holidays or school days. It helps students to have full information about the subject which haven’t covered in the past term.’

Mphatso said ‘It helps to have more experience on how can we handle subjects during holidays hence improve experience of subject. It helps us always to think about our career journey through our studies during holidays or school days and it helps students to spend more time in reading and concentrate on school activities hence improvement in academically.’

Agness commented ‘ It helps us to continue with our studies regardless of it being holiday time. It lets us improve our knowledge. It also stops students joining in bad behaviour during holidays. Being at school gives students to have ample time to do revision work for the past term and looking for areas of improvement.’

One of the teachers, Mr Byfore Kalambo, at BFSS said ‘It’s most important to provide studies to our students because it helps us to cover all the topics from the previous term. It also helps us as the teacher to be well prepared and focused about the coming term because we are more aware about students weakness during the previous term and finding ways of improvements. It provides us more time to do revision work with students so that when the school is open we stay focused on the scheme of work (lesson plans) prepared while we are maintaining the whole curriculum. We also have the chance to be more flexible and relaxed with classes so students find it easier to ask questions freely during holiday time hence good interaction between us teachers and students.’

To help us pay for all the food for the 100+ students during the eight days you can donate here: https://donorsee.com/project/23049?share=1 or email contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com

I hope these photos and videos help to give you an insight into the schools and the vulnerable young people we are supporting. Supporting these students to succeed is always about teamwork. Will you be part of our team? Thanks, Sarah x

Easter Study School, School Lunches & hungry students

More Sponsored Children & Young People

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Sarah’s blog 10/1/24

It has been so busy with all the projects that are benefitting the many vulnerable children we help to support, that unfortunately we haven’t had as many photos of sponsored children and young people as we would have liked. Thank you to the sponsors for being patient with us and for understanding. Hopefully, we will have a better system in place this year and be bringing regular updates.

If you would like to sponsor a child or young person to make a difference in their lives then please do get in touch contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com It’s only £25 per month to be a sponsor, or you could share the cost with a friend.

There are hundreds of vulnerable children and young people who would benefit from being matched with a sponsor. Especially those who are in their last couple of years at primary school and hoping to attend Bright Futures Secondary School. With a helping hand from a sponsor, their education is free of charge, they receive clothes and stationery and they have a nutritious school lunch each day. For most, this is their only meal each day. So your help would be much appreciated by us and gratefully received by the young people. Many thanks, Sarah x

Chambo Primary School thanks The Kitchen Table Charities Trust

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Sarah’s blog 9/1/24

I shared some photos before Christmas of the official handover of the improvements at Chambo Primary School thanks to a £6,000 grant we applied for and received from The Kitchen Table Charities Trust.

The story starts in springtime last year when we applied for a grant to KTCT on behalf of Chambo Primary School. What we were asking for wasn’t straightforward but, with a few emails back and forward and a bit of waiting, we were absolutely delighted to receive £6,000 on behalf of Chambo Primary School. This is the nearest primary school to the Foundation and where most of the orphans and other vulnerable young people we support attend. There are eight classes, each with at least 60 children.

No big charities are feeding children in schools in this area so all these children are really hungry. Many of them are suffering from malnutrition. We only have enough money to send to feed 500 children once a week and some of those children are walking up to 15km to 20km to receive this one decent meal of the week. It’s not good enough but it’s all we can afford. If anyone would like to help us provide food for the children then please do email contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com

As well as no food, the children had no clean water supply for drinking and washing their hands. Their drinking water came from the river which isn’t a clean supply. The children and their families still use the river as a water supply when they are at their homes. After liaising with and receiving permission from staff at Chambo Health Centre (which has it’s own clean water supply), we paid for a survey to check that it was possible to bring water via an underground pipe to the primary school and have taps installed outside the primary school.

We were delighted when we got the green light from the water department staff, health centre staff and, of course, The Kitchen Table Charities Trust. As you might imagine, all this took time to implement. Prices have been escalating in Malawi and this has also caused issues whilst we have been trying to stick to a budget. The headteacher at Chambo Primary, whilst being extremely thankful and pleased that the school would have clean water, rightly wanted the digging of the trench delayed by a few weeks until school holidays. No one would have wanted either children or staff tripping and falling into a hole in the playground! We also had to wait for this part of the project to finish to check costs before moving onto the next part of the project.

In addition to the clean water part of the grant, we asked for money for desks and benches. Only one classroom out of the eight classes already had desks and benches. We originally thought we would have enough money to get desks and benches made for three classrooms but unfortunately, due to price rises, we didn’t manage to do this. However, two classrooms now have new desks and benches and the students are enjoying not having to sit on the floor.

Whilst employing qualified plumbers and carpenters, part of what we wanted was the opportunity for some of the young people who are supported at the Foundation to be able to gain some experience by observing and helping with some of the more straightforward tasks. It’s been a real team effort.

We had previously gifted seventeen boxes of books to Chambo Primary School as part of our School Literacy Project. We hope to help children become more confident readers by having access to a wide range of reading material. What I hadn’t understood until recently is that all these boxes of books were being stacked and kept in the headteacher’s office. This was the only place in the school with a door that locked so poor Mr Nyondo was surrounded by boxes of books! So, with the grant money, locks were bought for the four classrooms that have doors and book shelves are being made so the books can be distributed between those four classrooms and they will be kept safely as these classrooms now have locking doors. We hope, in future, that we might have money to put doors on the remaining four classrooms.

I could keep writing about this project as I’m so pleased at how it has all worked out. I’m so thankful that The Kitchen Table Charities Trust liked our proposal and trusted us to carry out these improvements with their grant money. None of it was to benefit our charity or the Foundation we support directly, however this was a project that we could see would have huge benefits for vulnerable children we support and the community in general. It makes the hard work worthwhile when you see photos of smiling children enjoying sitting at desks, drinking clean water and reading books. We also provided buckets and cups with the grant money and our charity donated exercise books, pencils and bars of soap.

Thank you so much to everyone involved in helping us continue Changing Lives (in) Malawi. I also want to thank Levison Mlambya, the Foundation Director, whom we work with very closely on a daily basis. Levison works tirelessly for his community and always puts others above himself. As well as project managing these improvements for Chambo Primary, he has also been project managing the building of classrooms 3 & 4 of Bright Futures Secondary School and a teachers accommodation block. The carpenters were going back and forward between projects when they were needed so there was a lot to organise! 2023 was a very busy year! I hope you enjoy the photos and videos, Sarah x

Chambo Primary School – School Literacy Project Visit 18/10/21

Great News for Chambo Primary School

Chambo Primary has clean water!

Chambo Primary: Clean Water/Latrines/Desks & BFSS gifts of clothes for students

Thanks to the carpenters for allowing some of the young people to assist them

The new desks being delivered to Chambo Primary School. L-R Mr Msukwa, Primary School Education Adviser, Mr Levison Mlambya, Director of The William Stewart Foundation and Mr Nyondo, Headteacher of Chambo Primary School

Everyone helps to bring the new desks inside

Students at Chambo Primary thanking Changing Lives Malawi for their notebooks and pencils

Children were always keen to observe what was happening

As you can see, the headteacher’s office was used as a storage room too as there were no doors that locked on any of the classrooms. Now four out of the eight classrooms have book shelves and locks on their doors. Mr Nyondo will get his office back!

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Teachers at Chambo Primary having received stationery and chalk from Changing Lives Malawi. Mr Nyondo, headteacher, is thanking The Kitchen Table Charities Trust, The William Stewart Foundation and Changing Lives Malawi for enabling the changes at the school.

Mr Msukwa, Primary Education Adviser drinking water from one of the new taps.

The students at Chambo Primary are delighted to have clean water. It’s been a day to celebrate.

Everyone wants a turn to fill their cups with clean drinking water.

Washing hands with clean water and with soap that we donated.

The Primary School Education Adviser, Mr Msukwa, with Levison Mlambya, Director of The William Stewart Foundation.

Changing Lives Malawi donated soap to Chambo Primary School.

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A very happy day at Chambo Primary School.

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Washing hands is so important in helping keep the children healthy.

The first 17 boxes of books that were gifted to Chambo Primary as part of our School Literacy Project. They have received a few more boxes since then and we have since started donating books to other primary schools.

A recap of 2023 in pictures

Please read about our successes and challenges and look at all the great photos of the children we help to support.

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Sarah’s blog 31/12/23

Firstly, I would like to thank everyone who has supported us in 2023. As I always say, it’s teamwork. We couldn’t do what we do without our generous supporters. Much has happened in 2023 and we need you even more in 2024 and need to reach more supporters to ensure that the hundreds of vulnerable children we support continue to have brighter and better futures.

Here are just some of the success stories of 2023, thanks to teamwork;

75 preschool children continue to meet five times a week at nursery and are fed at each session. They each receive a bag containing; a blanket, two red t-shirts, three pairs of pants, toothbrush & toothpaste and soap. They are now also receiving two picture books as part of our School Literacy Programme. This will ensure that all homes have at least two books and that children have daily opportunities for reading and becoming confident readers.
Bright Futures Secondary School opened in November 2022 with two classrooms. Classrooms 3 and 4 were constructed and ready for term starting in September 2023 thanks to fundraising and donations. Education is free to students and they receive a free school meal each day, the only meal for many of these teenagers as they don’t have food at home.
A grant was received for a teachers’ accommodation block for four teachers has been built. Once plastering and painting have been done, will be ready in mid January.
Two plots of land, adjacent to the current land, have been purchased. One for the teachers’ accommodation and one for future building.
Over 100 more fruit tree saplings have been purchased are will be planted by young people during the next couple of weeks. Other projects promoting self-sufficiency and sustainability are being put in place too.
Solar panels were bought with grant to provide electricity to the library and the classrooms and teachers’ accommodation.
Clothes, shoes and books continue to be sent to provide for the hundreds of vulnerable children we help to support. This helps to reuse preloved items to gift to those who cannot afford clothes because of the dire poverty they live in.
Thanks to our supporters, we sent lots of sports kit, paid for and facilitated a two week rugby festival for the local schools led by the Malawi Rugby Union sports development coach, Jack Mphande.
Chambo Primary School had no clean water for drinking or washing hands. They had no toilets. Only one of their eight classrooms had desks and chairs. Thanks to two grants we applied for, they now have a girls’ latrine block, clean water for drinking and washing hands and desks and chairs for another two classrooms. We also donated exercise books and pencils and stationery for the teachers. To date, we have donated twenty boxes of books as part of our School Literacy Project. Bit by bit, life is improving for the most vulnerable children.
We continue to send money for The Feeding Programme. No charities are feeding children in schools in the rural far north of Malawi. Children are being taught to grow crops which are then used to feed them at the feeding programme.

As you can see, there has been a great deal happening and much success. We are so grateful that we have been supported to achieve the above for the children and their community.

However, the Feeding Programme has got to be our biggest ongoing challenge as, despite having asked for help from several big charities with feeding, none are helping us. Most children are suffering from malnutrition as they do not have enough to eat, the situation is getting worse. We can only afford to send money to feed 500 children once a week. Even this is getting harder as food prices continue to rise and food is scarcer. Children are walking up to 20km for this one nutritious meal of the week which includes vegetables grown by the children. We need your help to feed these children as families are really struggling. If you could commit £5 or £10 per month, it would make a huge difference to us and to them contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com or https://gofund.me/d3cf8c3a

Advent Calendar – highlighting projects & children – days 21 & 22

Clean water & quality education are being highlighted today. Please read today’s blog about some of our important projects that are having an impact.

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Sarah’s blog 22/12/23

Clean water and quality education are the highlights on 21st & 22nd of December. Thankfully, all the children using the Foundation have access to clean drinking water, handwashing facilities, proper showers and latrines. We have just facilitated girls’ latrines and clean drinking water at Chambo Primary School. Much still needs to be done in the community though as, when all the hundreds of vulnerable children return to their homes, they are drinking river water and have no toileting facilities and no soap.

The School Literacy Project is making a big difference to the education of hundreds, if not thousands, of vulnerable children. Primary schools in rural northern Malawi have hardly any resources. Thanks to our supporters, we have been sending boxes of preloved books (and many new books too) and gifted them to primary schools local to the foundation that we support. Initially, 17 boxes of books were donated to Chambo Primary School and other primary schools have benefitted to. It costs £17.50 to send a box of books on the container and we would love it if you would help by paying for a box of books to be transported. It is a fairly low cost project having a big impact on literacy, ensuring children become more confident readers.

We have included the 75 nursery children too. We want all pre-school children to have at least two books of their own to keep in their homes. All of these children have missed out on the stages of pre-literacy, sitting on an adult’s knee as a baby looking at the pictures in a book and hearing a story. Then as a toddler, knowing that the story would continue if you turned the page and being able to point to things in the pictures. One of the next stages of pre-literacy is pretending to read the story whilst moving a finger along the words.

The orphans and other vulnerable children have missed out on all of these stages. We are excited to see if the exam results will rise over the next few years in primary schools that have received gifts of boxes of books. Will you please make a donate this Christmas to ensure we can reach more children with the gift of books and quality education? https://gofund.me/d3cf8c3a contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com Hope you enjoy the photos and the advent calendar video that I’ve attached. Thanks everyone, Sarah x

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In the news!

Good news from here and Malawi!

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Sarah’s blog 21/08/23

It’s been an extremely busy week here and in Malawi with lots of good news.

I had been contacted by my MSP, Evelyn Tweed, asking to meet with me. So we met at Doyles Cafe in Balfron last Tuesday. I was able to tell her all about the great things that are happening in Malawi and also ask her advice. She was very supportive of me and the charity and has suggested a few ways she can offer some help. https://twitter.com/EvelynTweedSNP/status/1693563601213378648?s=20

Jackie and I had a very busy Saturday at ‘The Balfron Bash’. We had a stall with info about the charity, lovely home baking for sale and a tombola. We made £263 on Saturday…so thank you to everyone who supported us and came to say ‘hello’. Big thanks to Ewan and Stuart for their help with the gazebo and to Jackie for organising the tombola.

David, one of our trustees, took the last lot of boxes to Dundee today. The Bananabox warehouse is full and they will order a container for the first weekend in September so, hopefully, those boxes might be there by Christmas (or early January).

Chambo Primary School had their clean water taps connected yesterday. We had received a grant from The Kitchen Table Charities Trust and part of the grant was to use the clean water supply at Chambo Health Centre and run a pipe to Chambo Primary School. They now have three taps and clean water to drink and wash their hands. We are so pleased to have been able to play a small part in helping to improve lives for so many children. Chambo Primary has clean water!

The national press in Malawi have picked up on the story that, although Bright Futures Secondary School only opened in November, 100% of the second year students who sat their national exams all passed!! Such good news for them, the school and the teachers. Malawi24 – School for needy students in Chitipa appeals for… | Facebook Bright Future scores 100 percent JCE pass rate – The Malawi Guardian

We are still fundraising for phase 2 of Bright Futures Secondary School to ensure there are enough classrooms for the next intake of students. We also need to raise funds for text books as, currently for s3, there is only one set of books for the teacher. Any help that you can give will be so appreciated https://gofund.me/ece5753a Thank you so much for all the support everyone, Sarah x

Me with my MSP, Evelyn Tweed at Doyle’s Cafe in Balfron

The builders are working hard to ensure the new intake of students have a classroom next month

Some of the students from Bright Futures Secondary School. They get a free lunch each day at school but, as it’s school holidays, they came to collect food parcels instead

Chambo Primary has clean water!

Thanks to The Kitchen Table Charities Trust, Chambo Primary School now have a clean water supply.

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Sarah’s blog 20/08/23

Another great news story!

Months ago we applied to The Kitchen Tables Charities Trust on behalf of Chambo Primary School. The criteria for their grant was to help primary schools and, as most of the younger children we help to support attend Chambo Primary, we decided to try to help them.

There are 8 classes at the school and only one classroom has desks and benches. There are no latrines and no clean running water for the students to drink or wash their hands. Chambo Health Centre is a short distance away and we paid for a survey to be done to ensure it was viable to tap into the Health Centre’s water supply and pipe it to the primary school.

We were awarded a £6,000 grant to be split between clean water and supplying desks and benches for another couple of classrooms. The water project is almost complete…just the concrete bases to put round the three taps at the primary school. It was such hard work digging the ditch from the Health Centre to the school. It is the dry season now so the ground is hard. They had to wet the ground to make it a bit easier to dig. Some of the young people wanted to help, as you can see from the photos, and also some of the apprentices were paid to help with digging the ditch.

We feel very humbled to have been able to help in this small way. All we did was fill in the grant application and the hard work has been carried out in Malawi. Thank you so much to The Kitchen Table Charities Trust for entrusting us to carry out the work to improve the lives of some of the most vulnerable children in rural northern Malawi. They may not have anyone feeding them in school yet, but having clean water to drink and wash their hands is a great start in changing their lives for the better.

Enjoy these photos and videos – I’m sure there will be more to come once the children start back to school on 11th September. Now the clean water project has been completed, Levison will engage carpenters to make the desks and benches with the remaining grant money. The plan is that the apprentices will be allowed to help the carpenters with some of the easier tasks.

Gracious Nyondo, who is in p8, is the boy in the video who is thanking the donors for bringing clean water. Mr Enock Nyondo is the headteacher. As well as thanking the donors he says that they used to have to draw water from a well or the river and is delighted that they no longer have to do this and that the children have clean water to drink.

Things we take for granted make a HUGE difference. We are so happy to see that things are changing, bit by bit, for the most vulnerable children. They deserve so much more. Thanks for reading and supporting us, Sarah x

Levison (blue Maple Leafs t-shirt) discussing the height for the taps with the plumbers

Gracious Nyondo, in p8, thanks us and the donors for the clean water at Chambo Primary

Enock Nyondo, Headteacher at Chambo Primary is thankful for clean water at the school

Great News for Chambo Primary School

We are delighted to have received a grant.

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Sarah’s blog 22/4/23

Yesterday was a day for good news. To be honest, I haven’t stopped smiling every time I think about this.

Yesterday our small team of volunteers finished the challenge to travel the same number of kilometres as the boxes we send to Malawi on a container ship. If you’d like to donate to help us build phase 2 of Bright Futures Secondary School then the link is here https://gofund.me/ece5753a and here is the link to yesterday’s story From here to Malawi – The challenge is complete! – Changing Lives Malawi we would be so grateful for any donations.

As part of trying to raise funds for our charity, I am regularly applying for grants. I’m not just thinking about The Foundation but about the whole community so when I saw a grant that the criteria was for a primary school, I thought of Chambo. However, lots of other charities are applying for the same grants so it isn’t often that good news comes back from an application. Thankfully this time the answer was ‘YES’.

Chambo Primary School, which is nearest to The Foundation we help to support, has only one classroom with desks and chairs. The children sit on the floor in the other classrooms. There are not many resources. We have already provided 17 boxes of books to help the students become more confident readers.

Lots of these children are orphans and make up the 500 children and young people we help to feed every weekend. This is the only substantial meal many of them get each week as no big charities are feeding children in primary schools in this area. At Chambo Primary School there is no water supply. There are no toilets.

We have secured a grant of £6,000 from The Kitchen Table Charities Trust, a small charity set up by John Humphries, to help the students at Chambo Primary School. This grant will provide them with a clean water supply and also two more classrooms will have desks and stools. We are so delighted as having clean water to drink will help their concentration and they will also be able to wash their hands. Thank you so much to The Kitchen Table Charities Trust for enabling us to help the hundreds of vulnerable children at Chambo Primary School.

I will keep everyone updated as this project progresses and there will be lots of photos coming regularly from Malawi. The headteacher, staff and students at the school haven’t even been told about this yet….Levison is looking forward to sharing this wonderful news on Monday morning.

So thank you again to The Kitchen Table Charities Trust for trusting us and helping make a difference to very vulnerable children in rural northern Malawi. There is still much to be done but, bit by bit, we are Changing Lives Malawi. Thanks for reading and supporting, Sarah x

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