Welcome to the eighth 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.

A gift of £60 could pay for a child just like Annie to attend secondary school for a year

Annie Manda worked hard at Mwaya primary school and finished in the top three of her class. When she finished primary school at the age of 13 she was faced with having to leave school because her family couldn’t afford the expensive secondary school fees. In Malawi, primary school education is free but many children don’t have the opportunity to attend secondary school as their parents can’t afford the fees.

Many pupils drop out of school after their last year in primary school with sadly only 13% of pupils going on to attend secondary school. This is not only due to the expensive school fees but in the case of girls their parents often expect them to work around the home – in addition many girls will fall pregnant and go on to get married at a very young age, making it difficult for them to go back to school.

Because her parents couldn’t afford to pay for Annie to continue in education and as she is the oldest of four children and the only girl, her parents would probably have expected her to stay at home to help with chores and look after her youngest brother. Her other two brothers attend the local primary school.

Fortunately for Annie, she was awarded a scholarship from RIPPLE Africa to attend Kapanda Secondary school. Kapanda is a modern building built by RIPPLE Africa and has an excellent learning environment including the best equipped school science laboratory in the region. Thankfully Annie doesn’t have very far to walk to school and has continued to excel at school. Now at the age of 17, and in her final year at secondary school she is looking forward to enrolling at nursing college when she finishes.

RIPPLE Africa selects pupils to attend Kapanda Secondary school on merit, and focuses on those who have shown promise in primary school and don’t have the funds to attend secondary school.

Your gift will give one pupil the same opportunity as Annie to attend a year of school at Kapanda Secondary school.

On behalf of children like Annie a big Thank You for taking the time to read more about one of our education projects.

Tawonga Ukongwa!