The Dalitso Project
There is a pre-school nursery class, which caters for up to 30 children. These youngsters come daily to the centre and receive their breakfast, uniforms, clothes, soap and lessons!
When the children reach primary school age, they are assisted with school uniforms, school books, and materials, clothes, soap and lunch daily.
We also provide afternoon classes (primary school in Malawi finishes just after noon), so that the children have every opportunity of completing school and gaining a way to support their family in the future.
When the children reach primary school age, they are assisted with school uniforms, school books, and materials, clothes, soap and lunch daily.
We also provide afternoon classes (primary school in Malawi finishes just after noon), so that the children have every opportunity of completing school and gaining a way to support their family in the future.
Statistics from Unicef suggest that just under half of pupils who enrol in primary school will complete primary school and we want to make sure that our children not only pass, but pass with flying colours.
In Malawi, children must sit an end of primary school exam and this (if passed) will determine which secondary school they can go to. This is another reason for us to assist with extra lessons before this exam as we want as many of our children as possible to go to the better schools. The system is tiered so that the top schools in the country select from all across the nation. These are called National Secondary Schools and are boarding schools which have some additional government funding, allowing for things like science labs, computer suites and libraries. When these schools are filled to capacity, the district level schools can then select the best students from their district. These schools are also boarding schools but much less well funded and often still struggle for school text books or things like computers. Once those schools are full, the local day secondary schools can select the best remaining from the local area. Unfortunately these schools often do not have any qualified teachers or materials and the pass rates at such schools are notoriously low. Furthermore, there are far more passes of the primary school exams than there are places in secondary schools so those who are not selected to the local government school must find places in private schools.
Secondary school in Malawi is fee paying and school fees are very expensive for everyday Malawians. Taking Unicef's figure of the average wage of a Malawian being $320 (USD) per year, school fees for National secondary schools often equate to the average citizen's annual salary or sometimes more.
While day secondary school fees are much less they equate to around the average Malawian's monthly wage per term (3 terms per year). It's therefore of no surprise that the secondary school attendance rate is around 10% for both boys and girls.
At Dalitso we believe that this needs to change. So a huge part of our work is in providing secondary school fees, uniforms, support and allowances to any of our children who continue on with their education.
In Malawi, children must sit an end of primary school exam and this (if passed) will determine which secondary school they can go to. This is another reason for us to assist with extra lessons before this exam as we want as many of our children as possible to go to the better schools. The system is tiered so that the top schools in the country select from all across the nation. These are called National Secondary Schools and are boarding schools which have some additional government funding, allowing for things like science labs, computer suites and libraries. When these schools are filled to capacity, the district level schools can then select the best students from their district. These schools are also boarding schools but much less well funded and often still struggle for school text books or things like computers. Once those schools are full, the local day secondary schools can select the best remaining from the local area. Unfortunately these schools often do not have any qualified teachers or materials and the pass rates at such schools are notoriously low. Furthermore, there are far more passes of the primary school exams than there are places in secondary schools so those who are not selected to the local government school must find places in private schools.
Secondary school in Malawi is fee paying and school fees are very expensive for everyday Malawians. Taking Unicef's figure of the average wage of a Malawian being $320 (USD) per year, school fees for National secondary schools often equate to the average citizen's annual salary or sometimes more.
While day secondary school fees are much less they equate to around the average Malawian's monthly wage per term (3 terms per year). It's therefore of no surprise that the secondary school attendance rate is around 10% for both boys and girls.
At Dalitso we believe that this needs to change. So a huge part of our work is in providing secondary school fees, uniforms, support and allowances to any of our children who continue on with their education.
Another major part of The Dalitso Project in Thyolo is the infant rescue program. The centre at Thyolo is situated nearby to the government hospital. Our administrator Christina has built up a great relationship with the hospital which is great for our children and is helpful for us sourcing many things such as mosquito nets. It does mean however that when local women die in childbirth at the hospital, the maternity department often send the babies and their families to the centre to join our infant rescue program. As Unicef estimate that 1/3 of women in Malawi will die in childbirth, it is a very common occurrence for babies to be orphaned at birth. For the poorest of families it is very difficult to provide for an orphaned baby without a wet nurse as the cost of formula milk is approximately £12 per month and yet 62% of Malawians live on less than 93p per day (Unicef 2013).
The infant rescue program is designed to facilitate the survival of these vulnerable babies. The families are provided with formula milk, porridge, clothes and blankets. See our twins Praise and Precious at 3 days and then 3 months. |
In 2015, Malawi was devastated by severe floods which wiped out most of the crops of many subsistence famers in many areas. The Thyolo region was particularly badly affected with many homes also being washed away. The homes most at risk were the mud brick built, grass thatched roofed homes of the poorest people. Of our 180 daycare children, we estimated that approximately 40 of their families lost roofs, or walls or their homes were completely washed away. Through the generosity of some of our supporters, we have been able to rebuild 4 of these homes. We chose to rebuild these not using mud bricks and grass thatch which of course contributed to the problem, but using cement and tin roofs with proper foundations, with cement kitchens, washrooms and toilets also being built. Whilst we acknowledge that this increases the cost significantly and means that we can rebuild less houses, it does mean that we are building homes to a quality which improves health in the population.