Temwa’s community literacy programme is making a difference to children like Nolia
9-year-old Nolia is from the district of Chipayika in northern Malawi. Like most children her age, she enjoys playing with friends and learning new things at school. Nolia’s parents have always understood the importance of education, as both were fortunate enough to complete secondary school education. In Malawi secondary school is not state-funded, but primary school is. However, due to limited resources, they were unable to fully support their bright and bubbly daughter to engage with her education fully.
Both of Nolia’s parents work to make her upbringing relatively comfortable. Although this meant that, despite their best efforts, they didn’t have as much time as they would like to help Nolia with her homework. Nolia needed more help to ensure she could make good progress at school and not fall behind.
Through Nolia’s school teachers, her parents found out about Temwa’s community literacy programme, and where they got help for their little girl to join our reading camps.
Temwa’s community literacy programme has transformed how Nolia accesses education, and she has gained confidence in her own abilities. Nolia says of her achievements: “I have been able to polish up my literacy skills. I am now able to read fluently in Chichewa and English… Having good literacy skills helps me understand tasks and answer correctly during class work, as well as during examinations”.
“When I finish school, I want to be a doctor”
Nolia is also proud to report ‘I have been in the top 3 positions in my class! Nolia’s class consists of over 65 learners, and she has maintained this fantastic progress for the past 3 classes. Now she is one step closer to developing the right skills to fulfil her goal of becoming a doctor and giving back to her community.
Education drives Equality
Education can help people pull themselves out of poverty and continue striving towards more equitable societies. According to the UNESCO Institute of Statistics Malawi’s literacy rate is 65.75 percent of the adult population (those aged 15 and over.) Temwa’s community literacy program is having a great impact across the communities it serves, by facilitating meetings across villages to raise awareness of the importance of education and literacy. A growing number of parents are encouraging their children to go to reading camps because the evidence shows that those attending are improving their literacy skills. And more and more parents are now taking part in education activities in the communities.