Girls Hostel in Choma

11th March 2016;

Today was another of those motoring experiences, like cross-country driving.  After the rainy season and for most of the year, the roads compete with the potholes, dykes, drains and channels for space!
On our way we picked up Mary’s friend for about the last grueling 3 kilometers.
He asked were we from Northern or Southern Ireland and told us he had been in the UK often, as a flight attendant with Malawi Airways.  Maybe this was in the days when Malawi could support an airline rather than just a Presidential jet.
All in all an amazing man.
We were on our way to a meeting with the relevant people in Choma day secondary school, a school run by the community. We met with the new head tracher, the school board, the PTA and one woman from the mothers group who seem to be in charge of the girls hostel which we are trying to get up to some king of standard. We were involved in a two hour session which looked like going on for hours after we left
This man is Kettlewell Chimiliro, a board member representing the District Education Manager. One of his quotes for Mary: 
 
When we educate our women/girls we will bring them up to the level of the men, educationally. When you educate a man you educate an individual, but when you educate a woman you educate a nation.
 
The group had great appreciation for our assistance and the fact that we were supporting 15 girls in the school and paying school fees.
The process will be slow and sometimes painful, where they are the driving force, asking for assistance where they can’t do it themselves.

This is the only way to build and develop a community. The handout scenario has failed for 60 years and will continue to do so. We try to enable people to empower themselves.