Congratulations to Fumbani for having the winning essay in March!
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Sarah’s blog 19/4/24
After a bit of a delay due to exams then school holidays (with the holiday study school), the winner of March’s essay competition for S3 at Bright Futures Secondary School has been announced. Fumbani Sichamba received his prize money this week – well done Fumbani!!
Now that S3 have been writing essays for the past few months and becoming more confident in their abilities, we are going to introduce these essay writing competitions for S1 and S2. Having a prize to work for each month will motivate students and writing essays will give them more practice at expressing their thoughts on paper.
We hope that you enjoy reading the students’ essays as much as week do. Thank you for helping us support these vulnerable students, Sarah x
The S3 class at Bright Futures Secondary School were asked to write about ‘my journey to school’ and the content of some of these essays was really difficult to read.
Some students are walking a huge distance to get to Bright Futures Secondary School, others cannot get to school when it has been raining as it isn’t safe to cross the swollen rivers. Risk of girls being attacked and also being bitten by snakes are some of the difficulties these young people face. Even having no raincoat to wear is just something we cannot comprehend when it is the rainy season. Yet they are desperate for a good education. They are desperate to have the chance to have a better life.
Obviously the answer to a lot of the issues that have been mentioned is to build dormitories at Bright Futures Secondary School. These are already on the list for future projects as we knew about the difficulties the young people were facing. However, reading their essays makes their struggles more real. How we wish we had the money to build dormitories immediately, but we have to be realistic. Unfortunately, we cannot do everything at once. Things are improving for these young people but it makes me sad that they still have huge challenges and struggles. Nothing is straightforward or easy for them. Dormitories will be built but not this year (unless someone wins the lottery or has a magic wand!!).
Mathius Nyondo was the winner of January’s essay competition. I hope you enjoy reading his, and the other S3 students’ essays. Thanks, Sarah x
S3 students at Bright Futures Secondary School deserved a treat for passing their S2 national exams
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Sarah’s blog 13/09/23
Schools across Malawi started back on Monday. We were so thankful that the new classroom block at Bright Futures Secondary School was finished in time for the new term starting.
We decided that the S3 students deserved a treat for passing their S2 national exams. The whole class passed and this story was even picked up by the national news. An amazing achievement for some of the most vulnerable students in Malawi. Many of them are orphans. Most don’t eat properly every day (apart from their cooked lunch at school) and most have missed school at some point to try and earn a pittance to buy themselves and their families some food.
After lessons finished on Monday, the S3 students were given bottles of fizzy drinks and sweets. These are things they would never have. They also had a meal of goat meat, rice, beans and vegetables. Again, meat is something that they might only have once or twice a year at The Feeding Programme. Rice is far more expensive to buy than maize so they don’t usually have rice either. Everyone was really happy and delighted to have these unexpected treats. The students were telling their friends in S1 and S2 how they must work really hard to pass their exams too.
The aim at Bright Futures Secondary School is to keep class sizes smaller than the average to ensure that these vulnerable students get the attention they deserve. However, class sizes remain very small as we need more help to feed everyone. Food prices continue to rise and students must be fed as, for many, this is their only meal of the day. How can they concentrate if they have not eaten? If you can help by either sponsoring a teenager’s education or commit a monthly amount towards school lunches then please get in touch contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com . The bigger the team who are supporting school lunches at Bright Futures Secondary School the more young people we can help to educate.
Thank you to everyone who has supported the school project; Bright Futures Secondary School is an amazing learning environment. There will be more photos and videos later in the week as school supplies are handed out. Thanks again, Sarah x
