In my penultimate year at King's, a
group of Sixth Formers, including
Charlotte Dathan and myself, took
part in Mr Lloyd's yearly expedition
to India to help build homes as part of the
KCAP Project. We found it an inspiring
experience and, as a result, Charlotte and I
started to plan a similar charitable project
that we could undertake after King's.
We settled on Malawi, and we were
fortunate enough to receive funding in the
form of a Michael Baker Young Traveller
Award. This was hugely beneficial to the
trip, as it meant we were able to continue
with university and carry out the project
during the first summer break without
difficulty.
In summer 2014 we were able to spend
seven weeks in Malawi carrying out the
project. We stayed with the head engineer
at the Lujeri Tea estate in the Mulanje
region, in southern Malawi. During the
first week, we visited all of the local
primary and secondary schools, collecting
information about their facilities and
materials - which were, as was expected,
very minimal. We felt it was important,
before we put anything into action, to gain
a greater understanding of the Malawian
education system, and the ways that the government and other organisations
(such as the tea estates) are involved in
supporting the schools.
After deciding on the areas and the
schools which needed the most attention,
we split our time between two projects:
teaching English to primary school
classes at a school named Cheringwe, and
starting a girls' group at a local secondary
school, which was focused on education
about sexual health.
Inspiring Ideas
Another very important aspect of the trip
was providing desks, as we had found that
the simple lack of desks in the schools was
a real problem. Using a generous £500
donation from the Helen Richards Trust,
we set about sourcing a local carpenter
and commissioning 23 desks to be built.
We had the huge satisfaction of seeing
these installed in Cheringwe school during
the final days of our trip. Even more
exciting, we discovered that, upon hearing
about the 23 desks, a large firm based in
London, which was associated with the tea
plantation, had commissioned a further
1,000 desks! This was extremely exciting
and rewarding to hear.
Luckily, we also had a short time at
the end of the trip to travel around,
visiting Cape McLear and then South Luanguwa National Park, Zambia, for an
unforgettable safari trip.
Later, we were also able to send over,
by shipping container, several hundred
science and maths textbooks, which were
donated by Sidcot school. This was both a
brilliant and a successful trip, and is one
which we'll never forget.
The Michael Baker Young Traveller
Award is a fund set up in memory of
Michael Baker, who taught geography
at King's from 1971-1994. Its aim is to
help young people from his school to
travel on worthwhile causes. The girls
would like to express their great thanks
to the Michael Baker fund, as well as all
those who donated to the cause.
Helping Hands
Bryony House, OA, tells how an award from the Michael Baker Young Traveller
Fund helped to make a big difference to the lives of schoolchildren in Malawi
Trips
The settlement around the tea estate
A classroom before the arrival of the desks
Some of the children from the schools
The children arriving at school
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