2009 High School Classrooms in Manyesa, Malawi  

Overview

Background
Malawi, located in southeast Africa, is one of the poorest nations on earth. Its per capita average annual income is $44 a year, far less than $1 per day per person. Twenty per cent of its population lives on less than $.15 per day. Half of the country’s 12 million people are under the age of 15. A former British colony, Malawi, suffers from periodic drought conditions and irregular harvests. Literacy rates range from 49% for women to 65% for men.

The Proposed High School in the Village of Manyesa
ODFL, working with the Kasimu Education Fund (KEF), will build a new two-room high school classroom in the southeastern village of Manyesa. The project includes construction of 10 pit latrines to assure sanitary operation of the school. In 2006 and 2007, KEF built four primary school classrooms, the first such classrooms the village had ever enjoyed. Prior to the primary school classrooms, students had attended school under a tree.

The construction of the four primary school classrooms in a two-by-two-room configuration was partially underwritten by the European Union. The EU was impressed that local parents hand made 160,000 bricks to build the school. Parents committed a similar effort to help with construction of the new high school.

The new high school will serve the graduates of eight primary schools from the surrounding area. The nearest high school is 17 km away. The long-range plan includes construction of a science lab, a library, and an administration room at the school. The plan also provides scholarships to train two additional teachers at a cost of $600 each.

The Malawi government currently pays the salaries of seven credentialed teachers who teach approximately 1,000 students in the village. In March 2008, Burlingame High School in Burlingame, CA held an ODFL fundraiser where it raised $1,300 which paid for the desks in one of the classrooms. They seat 74 students.

In September 2008, ODFL sent 250 pairs of used tennis shoes for students in the village. The shoes were donated by students at Los Altos High School in Los Altos, CA. In December 2008, ODFL held its first ever Count Me In! used calculator collection where it collected used four function calculators and sent those calculators to the students.