Sijali Msumba, a 36-year-old woman, is one of the mentors from Usisya Reading Camp located in Mchulu Village Development Committee, Traditional Authority M’bwana. The Reading Camp, which began operating in 2020, was organised by a local church with mentors meeting with children twice per week on Tuesdays and Fridays. According to the Malawi National Commission for UNESCO, the illiteracy rate in Malawi stood at 35% in 2023, exemplifying how Malawi’s education system is underfunded and facing inadequate resourcing. Extreme poverty often means education is not prioritised however this limits future opportunities and the ability of those living in Malawi to shape their futures. Significantly, research at UNESCO has shown that world poverty would be more than halved if all adults completed secondary school.
To combat the lack of education persisting in Malawi, Temwa’s Community Literacy Project provided educational opportunities for children and the wider community in Nkhata Bay North by creating an enabling and inclusive environment for literacy; improving reading and writing skills, and boosting library services. The project saw a large increase in community-led initiatives and primary school enrollment alongside the local government supporting plans to improve education provision.
Mentors of the Reading Camps have maintained positive relationships and interactions with schools attended by the children from reading camps through consultation surrounding developing plans of activities and lessons. Mrs Msumba stated that “teachers always support us with teaching materials, we go and meet them at least twice a month.”

The number of children attending the reading camps in Malawi has increased in the past 2-3 years with a 70% attendance rate, and throughout the project’s final year Temwa has supported teachers and 48 Reading Camp mentors to organise local spelling bee competitions across the schools. Following the success in attendance at these events, where 264 Reading Camp learners demonstrated their improved literacy skills and 2130 people attended, more competitions were held in schools in the Uplands and Lakeshore; expanding the levels of literacy throughout Malawi.
Whilst the Community Literacy Project has now been phased out by Temwa, Mrs Msumba believes Reading Camps have a high chance of remaining operational and impactful. She said “reading camps play a big role in improving a child’s literacy, something every parent would like to see” and “mentors still want to be able to help children in their community to be able to read and write so that they grow up to develop and bring change in their community”. Alongside teachers across the world, Mrs Msumba has been able to educate children in Malawi on a scale perhaps not previously seen as possible as the result of Temwa’s Community Literacy Project. She has graduated over 30 children who show a 70% rate of literacy skills, working to decrease the overall illiteracy rate in Malawi, expressing how “these playing materials Temwa has been supporting has attracted a lot of children to reading camps”.
With the Community Literacy Project phasing out, Temwa’s involvement in increasing literacy rates and working with the community to improve the education system has not stopped. The commitment to help teachers and the lives of the children they teach continues with Temwa’s new Early Childhood Development (ECD) Project in Nkhata Bay North. The three-year initiative seeks to transform early childhood education in the region by bolstering community-operated preschools. With minimal government funding allocated to early education in Malawi and privately owned preschools prohibitively expensive for most communities, the project will ensure that all preschools meet national minimum standards and provide a vital foundation for formal education, addressing the educational gap in these communities.
The ECD Project is currently supporting 13 preschools and in February 2024, 26 caregivers (2 from each of the 13 operating preschools) underwent training conducted by council officials. The training, which lasted five days, equipped the caregivers with the essential skills necessary to deliver preschool services to a national standard. It ensured that teachers were supported in their ability to prepare children for primary education; harnessing the importance of education and its capacity to make a huge difference to the lives of children in Malawi. The success of this project in just its first year is extremely promising for the remainder of the initiative; epitomising just how essential it is for teachers and mentors like Sijali Msumba to receive support for them to deliver education to national standards and in an affordable manner for community members living in poverty.
To find out more about Temwa’s Early Childhood Development Project by reading its mid-term report here