2 October was a special day at Thawale 2 Primary School in Mulanje. The school officially received its repaired school benches and teacher’s desks. Until then, many children had been learning on the floor because the old benches were broken. Now they sit at proper desks again and have a decent surface to write on.
Old frames, new tops
The metal frames of the old benches were still fine; it was the seats and desktops that were broken. So instead of building new benches, we kept the frames and fitted them with boards made from recycled plastic. According to the Malawian broadcaster Zodiak, the material includes plastic from old Maheu bottles. Every child in Malawi knows Maheu. In total, 111 school benches and 20 teacher’s desks were made this way.
It took longer than we had hoped. Getting hold of the material was hard work, and production dragged on for months. In mid-September the boards could finally be collected, and a week later they were fitted.
The handover
The whole school community came together for the handover. The children had painted posters thanking Bosch and MOYO. They promised to look after the benches and to study hard.
Group Village Headman Namazoma spoke about the damage to the forests in the area and asked everyone to treat the new furniture with care. Ruth Stopas from Standard 8 told Zodiak what she takes away from the project: waste doesn’t have to be thrown away, it can be turned into something useful.
Thank you!
Wilson Kachikuwa coordinated the work on the ground and kept us posted at every step. A large part of the funding came from Bosch’s “Cents for Help” programme. A big thank you to all of you and to everyone who helped in Thawale. Zikomo kwambiri!
You can read more about how we usually equip schools in Malawi with benches in our report on 1,000 School Desks for Mulanje. If you would like to support projects like this, we would be glad of your donation.
