With an education, a young woman in Malawi can delay marriage and children and forge her way in the professional world, so parents do all they can so their daughters can continue at school for as long as possible.
Why don’t girls live at home?
Even with parental support, girls are still expected to help care for younger siblings and carry out household chores whenever they’re at home. After a long walk to and from school, few girls have the energy for homework when the chores are done.
Things are easier for girls who can afford a place in the girls hostel at All Saints School. They’re free from domestic responsibilities, and thanks to the newly installed solar panels, they can focus on their studies in the evening.
It’s also safer for girls if they stay at school. Home may be up to 10 km away, and walking that distance on lonely rural roads can be dangerous for a teenage girl on her own, so a term-time home at school is the ideal solution.
There are 120 girls at the hostel at All Saints and it’s a place full of laughter and energy, but they desperately need more basic equipment.
There are not enough beds in the hostel, so most girls sleep two to a bunk. Not all the beds have mattresses, and hardly any have mosquito nets.
The only place to store belongings is a bag under the bed, and for girls in the top bunk, there is no storage at all.
Our plan to help
We want every girl in the hostel to have her own bed, mattress and mosquito net. This means working with a local carpenter to repair the existing broken beds, build new ones and construct a shelving unit.
The girls often study on their beds, and a shelf for the girls with top bunks will give them a place to keep their book.
Can you help?
The total cost of this project is £3,000, and we’re over halfway there thanks to generous donations from one family’s birthday celebration and Rotary Wetter, Germany.
We just need a further £1,045.
If you’re able to help us reach this target, we’ll be able to get the girls hostel up to scratch over the summer break. Thank you.
Cramped and uncomfortable with nowhere to store belongings
Christina’s graduation
‘If I want to protect myself from STIs, AIDS, early pregnancies, early marriages, it’s school. I can always change my way of living if I’m educated.’
Christina is 17 and has just graduated from All Saints School. Her parents saved so that she could stay in the girls hostel for her last two years to focus on her exams.
Christina’s favourite subject was social studies and she now hopes to become a social worker.
We asked Christina to tell us how she feels her life will be different thanks to her education.
