Help us promote education at Mudi CDSS

Amelie, Libby and I have been placed at Makata village in the south of Malawi. Makata is a rural yet busy village which is home to some of the kindest people and cutest kids you'll ever meet. All three of us are working at Mudi CDSS (community day secondary school) alongside some other incredible permanent staff members. The students are a mix of males and females aged between 10 - 20. All of the students are extremely keen to learn as much as possible and are aspiring to do some incredible things in their futures.

Mudi CDSS is an extremely under resourced school and this is having a huge impact on the students quality of education. Many of the classrooms have been left damaged and without entire roofs, doors and windows, and are full of rubble as a result of a recent major storm. The majority of the desks and chairs are falling apart and there aren't enough for all of the students - we often see 3 students sharing one chair and desk! The school doesn't even have any books for the students to read or study. Mudi CDSS is truly in desperate need of your help and support.

The main cause that we are fundraising towards is the construction of an all girls boarding house. Girls education is a significant issue across Malawi as although females have the right to an education, there are a range of barriers which prevent them from attending school as often as they would like. These barriers include the significant distance that girls are walking to school where they regularly encounter bullying and harassment, on top of all the domestic chores they have to do at home as their families rely on them to do a lot more than their male counterparts. The government has put an initiative in place which calls for all secondary schools across Malawi to have a girls boarding house on campus, but this is providing difficult due to a major lack of funding. It has been an entire year since the girls boarding house at Mudi CDSS was supposed to begin construction but so far nothing has been built and the entire project is at a standstill. We are currently waiting for government funds in order to restart the project, but it is impossible to tell how much longer we will be waiting. We have chosen this as the main cause we are fundraising towards as it's truly heartbreaking to see so many students who desperately want an education to be struggling to attend school. It has been shown that offering a girls boarding house in campus empowers the female students by encouraging them to stay in school and reducing the likelihood of them being married or becoming pregnant at a young age. With your support, we hope to see the boarding house up and running within the next few months.

In addition to our main cause, we are also aiming to raise enough money to do necessary repairs around the school campus (such as roofs, doors, windows, etc) and to get some much needed resources into the school. Students and staff have specifically mentioned the need for basic furniture such as desks and chairs, and for learning materials such as text books, exercise books, stationary, books to read/study, etc.

The students and staff of Mudi CDSS are some of the most incredible people we have ever had the pleasure of meeting and are extremely deserving of any support you can give them. I know this is a cliche, but honestly in a place like Malawi even the smallest donation can make the biggest impact and we would all be extremely grateful for anything you can do to help our cause.

Of course we will keep everyone updated on our project so that you can see exactly where your money is going and the impact you're making on these students lives.