Malawi
The warm heart of Africa
Malawi is a comparatively small country in the southeast of the African continent, Malawians like to call their country "The Warm Heart of Africa". It is best known for its impressive Lake Malawi, which stretches over 570 kilometers and provides fresh water and fish. The country is rarely a topic in the European media. There are hardly any religious conflicts, terrorism or armed violence. Poverty and hunger after crop failures are the reasons for news reports, if at all. The society is agricultural, and economic output is very low.
Poverty, hunger, lack of medical care, high infant mortality, low life expectancy: with an HDI (Human Development Index) of 0.476, Malawi ranks 170 out of 188 in the human development ranking published by the United Nations (as of 2016, the value ranges between 0 and 1; Germany has an HDI of 0.926).
Kaseye Girls' Secondary School
335 students
Xulendo Digital Library
335
students
In a rural area, near the small town of Chitipa, northwest of Karonga, is Kaseye Secondary School, a boarding school for girls that began its work in 2007. The majority of the 335 students come from all corners of Malawi, but some also come from neighboring Tanzania. The director, Sister Clementina Phiri, is extremely proud that her school is one of the best in the northern region, only 12 years after it was founded. Unfortunately, however, the necessary educational materials are very often lacking, and mobile phone connections are also severely limited in this remote village. But since September 2019, Kaseye, one of our three new project schools, has also been learning with Xulendo Digital Library, so digital materials are now available despite the poor internet.
St. Mary Girls' Secondary School
650 students
Equipped with our Xulendo Digital Library
650
students
Equipped with our Xulendo Digital Library
This girls' boarding school was opened in 2016 in the north of Malawi. The aim of the school is to also enable girls to enjoy their right to education. In Malawi, it is not yet a commonplace for girls to go to school. They often have to help in the household and in the fields from a young age onwards. In rural areas of Malawi, early pregnancies are also a big problem. If you are pregnant, you are not allowed to go to a regular school.Against this background, this boarding school for girls was founded near Karonga in 2016 and is attended by 650 students from all over Malawi. Here we came across particularly motivated students who contributed many ideas to the progress of the project. Three of them have even started to take up programming.
Eswazini Community Day Secondary School
130 students
Equipped with our Xulendo Digital Library
130
students
Eswazini Community Day Secondary School is a government day school in Mzimba District. The rural school is attended by 91 students, some of whom travel up to 10 kilometers. Every morning and evening, they walk long distances to be educated at the school. There is no running water, and the electricity supply, like the Internet, is very unreliable and sometimes not available at all. Lack of textbooks has long been a problem. Since 2017, our Xulendo Digital Library project has been helping to make the students' journey worthwhile.
Chaminade – "The School of Champions"
550 students
Equipped with our Xulendo Digital Library
550
students
Equipped with our Xulendo Digital Library
Chaminade is located in northern Malawi near the town of Karonga. The boys' boarding school has a long history dating back to 1955. Currently, around 550 students attend the school, live here and spend their daily lives on campus. Because of its good reputation, Chaminade is also known as "the School of Champions". Since 2016, classes have been taught here with the help of the Xulendo Digital Library. In his Blogpost , principal Island Mtambo introduces the School.
Bangwe Day Secondary School
1200 students
Equipped with our Xulendo Digital Library
1200
students
Equipped with our Xulendo Digital Library
Bangwe Day Secondary School is located in the south of Malawi, not far from Blantyre, the second largest city in the country. Kalani Mwandira, who was previously a computer teacher in Chaminade, our first project school, has been working here since July 2019. Kalani, who is already very familiar with the technology, has already led many workshops with us and can be considered a true Xulendo Digital Library expert, had told us that his new school and its 1200 students could benefit significantly from the Digital Library. Therefore, during our project trip in fall 2019, we also brought the new Xulendo Digital Library version for Bangwe Secondary School, which Kalani introduced on-site. Bangwe is our largest project school, the second school in the south, and one of three that joined in 2019.
Licoma Project
35 students
Equipped with laptops
35
students
Equipped with laptops
DOLYS is a training center that serves the disabled, orphans, and less privileged youth on Likoma Island - a small, impoverished island on Lake Malawi. The Malawian initiative launched in the summer of 2018, and one of its main goals is to teach youth computer skills, promote and empower entrepreneurship, and train youth and orphans in carpentry and joinery, graphic design, fine arts, general painting, and computer programming. We supported the project with a laptop donation.
Burundi
Lycée S. Kizito School
864 students
Technology donationk
864
students
Technology donation
The Lycée S. Kizito School is a relatively new school near Gitega, the capital of Burundi. It is currently home to around 864 students from the first to the tenth grade. The association 'Konvoi der Hoffnung e.V.' has been supporting the region and the school for a long time. For the opening of the new library of the Lycée S. Kizito School in 2018, they approached us. We were very happy to support the project with technology.