‘My dream is that every child has a good start in life’

“I remember my childhood days with happiness. The community I grew up in took care of us like one big family. I used to go to a school in the nearby community.  Sometimes we would have our classes in the shade under a tree because the school blocks were not enough for all classes. When the rain came, we had to run to the verandah of other school blocks and we would miss a lot of class hours. But learning outside was so much fun for us. We could see the beautiful birds playing in the trees above and we could see cars and oxcarts pass us by.

As a PMEAL-coordinator for Help a Child Malawi, I make sure that children’s voices, rights, and their well‑being are at the centre of how the programs of Help a Child in Malawi are assessed. I sit down with children to assess and evaluate the project and talk about the issues that affect their day to day well being such as nutrition, child protection, health and education and their hopes for the future. Such moments are truly valuable for me.

My dream for children in Malawi is that they are provided with a good start in life. I want all children to have access to early childhood education from an early age and succeed throughout the education cycle. I dream of a green and  healthy environment for every child, so that they can grow up with adequate nutrition, in good health and protected from violence.

A story that touched me personally is the story of Charity, a girl who was born with a physical impairment. She didn’t go to school because her mother was scared that the teachers may not know how to support her. Therefore she stayed at home for most of the time so she did not have meaningful interaction with her peers, and her developmental milestones were not on track. This changed when Help a Child went into the communities to create awareness on the importance of early childhood deducation and inclusion of all children. Aditionally, Help a Child trained teachers on how to support children with physical impairments and modified the community nursery school to make them inclusive for all children. Charity’s mother was now comfortable to enroll Charity in the nursery school again. I’m so excited to see the development process that she has went through since then! She enjoys going to school and being around her peers. She has learnt vocabulary faster and was able to talk in a year and she has mastered some numbers and letters.

These kind of stories make me super proud of our work. It brings me smiles to see the benefits of our programs for children: their life became easier and their hope for the future got restored, with parents supporting them. That is what it fuels me and keeps me going everday, together with my team.”