10,000 erasable writing materials in Malawi ‘the Warm Heart of Africa’

Malawi is located in the southeast African region, sharing its borders with Mozambique to the South, Zambia to the West and Tanzania to the North. It’s a small country, compared to other African countries. Malawi is also known as the “warm heart of Africa”, and accurately so. Malawi’s people are jovial, welcoming and peaceful, making you feel entirely welcome and at ease in their lovely country. Like in many developing countries, most public schools in Malawi are in a sorry state. This is evidenced by the dilapidated infrastructure and the deplorable learning conditions. Most school-going children lack basic needs including reading and writing materials. This is a major reason why children lack the motivation to go back to school. Retaining children in schools in Malawi is a major challenge.

Correctbook Africa is yet to establish an office in Malawi, therefore this support was done through our partners World Vision International Malawi and Plan International Malawi. Each organization received 5,000 erasable exercise books, 5,000 pens, 5,000 wipes and 750 ink stations. All these activities were facilitated by Edukans Malawi, the Correctbook partner in the Teaching with Impact Program. Edukans played an integral role in facilitating the communication among all parties. They also provided storage for the Correctbook materials after the production till they were handed over to both organizations. Additionally, Edukans took the lead in organizing the handover ceremony.

First on the itinerary was a meeting at the Edukans Malawi office in Lilongwe on 4th July 2022. Samuel met with Mr Limbani Nsapato – Country Director, Edukans Malawi, Ms Yamikani Givah - Institution Fundraising and Partnership Officer (Edukans Malawi), Mr Dickson Kalinga – Finance & Admin Manager and Ms Rianne Driessen - Institutional Partnerships & Funding Coordinator (Edukans International). In the sage words of Dale Carnegie – An American Writer, “An hour of planning can save you 10 hours of doing.” With this in mind, the team went through the next day’s program just to ensure that the handover event organized by World Vision Malawi went according to plan. Samuel also inspected the materials just to confirm that they were properly packed and labelled.

Tuesday 5th July was the red-letter day. World Vision Malawi had organized a symbolic handover ceremony at Chigodi Primary School, one of the beneficiaries of the donation. The event was graced by Plan International, Edukans among other guests. The day’s program entailed some presentations from the children and some speeches from the involved organizations. Afterwards, Samuel went to one of the classes where he demonstrated the use of the Correctbook. The excitement among both the children and the teachers as he did the demonstration could not go unnoticed. It was priceless and they now know that learning will now be fun and easier. They can afford to make mistakes. Most of them were seeing the ‘magic’ of the Correctbook for the first time.

The highlight of the day’s program was the presentations from the children. Most outstanding was a song where the children were highlighting what they wanted to be when they grow up. This was a nostalgic moment for all the attendees. From the speeches, one message that came out visibly was the fact that good and quality education is needed in Malawi. This cannot be achieved when there is a lack of reading and learning materials at the school. Correctbook was lauded by all the speakers for donating the materials which will go a long way in ensuring that for the next year, children have access to endless writing materials. As Correctbook, we will frequently be in touch with our partners to find out the impact the materials are having at the schools.

It was Samuel’s first visit to Malawi. He found out that roasted rats or rats on skewers are a delicacy among some locals. This is strange since, in other countries, rats are considered rodents and not edible. Too bad that Samuel didn’t get to have a bite of the so-called ‘delicacy’. Also, this was the first ever donation in Malawi. Moreover, beyond supporting 10,000 children with endless writing materials, Correctbook has now gained two more partners; World Vision and Plan Malawi. They say that a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.