Taking Back Lives

The village of Mazembe, Malawi is a unique place. When we first partnered with this community in 2009, they had already made 65,000 bricks, ready and waiting for someone, somewhere to come in and help them construct a classroom block. This community realizes the situation they are in is tough. There are a lot of obstacles in their way in their path out of the poverty, disease and hardships they find themselves in on a daily basis. They realize that education is crucial to learning how to better their lives and develop their community into a thriving, vibrant place where their children have a brighter future, free from poverty, starvation, AIDs, Malaria, etc.

The adults of Mazembe desired to learn to read and write English. So much so that they sought out Lauren Williams, who at the time was a RIPPLE Africa volunteer, and asked her to teach them. During her 8 months there, Lauren was able to teach these students the basic principals of English. Knowing she was only going to be there for a limited time, she began to mentor a local young man who had been translating for her. Whyman, the young man, has since been teaching this class as a full-time employee of Taking Back Lives.

When the class began, there were 5-10 students who would show up regularly. The class has since grown to over 98 students. We've provided each student with notebooks, pens, and pencils so they can adequately take notes, as well as basic curriculum for Whyman to teach from. We are in the process of developing curriculum specific to Malawi, as there currently isn't any available curriculum in their native language of Chitonga. Whyman has to read the lessons and instructions in English, and then translate them for the newer students. The more advanced students have begun to read the lessons on their own, and are quickly out pacing the limit of the curriculum. Eager to learn more, the community has asked us to expand the program beyond just English, into Math, Science, and other relevant topics to enhance their economic and personal growth.

We are excited and amazed by the response of the community. We are working with them to develop applicable curriculum and solutions on how we can affordably help them help themselves. The community has asked for a community development center, where adults and youth alike have a place to come and study. Ideally the facility will be outfitted with solar panels, lights, and hopefully a few computers connected to the internet. As you can imagine the costs involved with such a facility, and the shipping costs to get the materials to such a remote village are not cheap. For the time being, we are looking into dual-purposing the classrooms we will be constructing in the summer of 2012 for Mazembe Primary School, to meet both the needs of the school and the community at large.