Welcome to the fourth week of our 12 Weeks of Christmas stories. If you want to make a difference to people’s lives in Malawi, why don’t you buy a Christmas gift from our Christmas Gift Catalogue.

Your kind gift of £13 could provide two adult literacy classes
for 30 people

Annie Banda is 25 and has two children. Annie wasn’t allowed to finish secondary school by her parents as they wanted her to stay at home and help with the farming and chores. She ended up getting married at a very early age and because she didn’t finish school she couldn’t read or write very well.

This affected her confidence and meant that she was unable to do many of the basic things that most of us take for granted – imagine not being able to read the newspaper but having to just look at the pictures, not being able to help with children’s homework, understand forms, write letters, or read a simple story.

Being able to read and write makes a huge difference to an adult’s ability to do many simple day to day activities. A large number of adults in Malawi, particularly those in the rural area where we work, have missed out on a basic education because of high costs prior to 1994 when free primary education was introduced.

RIPPLE Africa supports adult literacy in Malawi through two adult literacy classes, one each in the villages of Mwaya and Mazembe. Each class caters to varying levels of ability, and they run twice a week in each village. RIPPLE Africa’s support includes paying the monthly salaries of a teacher and an assistant teacher at each adult literacy class and our ongoing support of Mwaya Community Library.

All the students who attend the classes are members of the library and are able to borrow books to use each week to support their learning. There is a special section in the library dedicated to books for the adult literacy classes.

Annie attends one of these literacy classes regularly and she is now able to read and write proficiently – which means that she is now able to help her children with their homework. She is delighted with the progress that she has made as are all the students who have been part of the project, and there is a waiting list for future classes! We hope soon to be able to double the number of classes offered in the adult literacy project.

Your gift will help us ensure that more adults are given this amazing opportunity.

On behalf of Annie and our other adult literacy students in Malawi, we’d like to say Thank You for taking the time to read about one of our education projects.

Tawonga Ukongwa!