A Community Building Their Children’s Future

Located in the village of Luhunga, the area of Mwefu has long been one of the most impoverished communities in the NGO’s project area. One of the hardest hit parts of any village in terms of HIV prevalence, Mwefu has long been criticized as an area that had too much apathy, and not enough community involvement as too often the area’s parents had fallen into the trappings of alcohol abuse and had nearly given up hope on seeing development for their neighborhood. In the past year and half things have changed dramatically. 

At the end of 2011, an immense storm hit the neighborhood and destroyed the local primary school. Many outsiders speculated that the community would just be resigned in the fact that they would no longer have a school, as the prospect of re-building would be too daunting. The neighborhood of Mwefu surprised many people however, when immediate plans were made to build new classrooms, and parents of the children at the school who had seen the benefits of education, started carrying sand, stones, and water to help mason workers build new classrooms. The parents also contributed collectively over $1,000 to pay for timber, cement and other supplies to build new classrooms for the students who had to walk over 6 miles to the nearest school while construction was underway in 2012. The school is now built even stronger than before, with even more classrooms than ever before, and in partnership with the NGO (made possible through donations from African Book Box) more classrooms are being built, and the parents continue to contribute to this day.

The NGO has supported the Mwefu community as it aims
 to start a feeding program for its children

UK that has enabled us to contribute to this program as well to get the program started and encourage the neighborhood to continue contributing for years to come. With the donation, the NGO supplied Mwefu with all dishes, pots, pans, cups, and plates for the school so that students will not have to borrow plates and dishes from home, and the school board has said that this will ensure that the program continues uninterrupted from now on, as parents will be more encouraged to contribute food and supplies now that the school will have the resources to keep the program going.

Mwefu parents turned out in droves to support their children's education

The parents were told about this school meeting only a few days in advance, but they arrived in huge numbers- over 100 parents came to show support to the NGO and the school’s programs. We are so very excited to see this community get on its feet and contribute to its own development in partnership with contributions from the NGO. Plans were announced by the NGO to finish construction of two more classrooms, while the community will contribute to finishing two other classrooms.

The tragedy wrought by the storm a year and half ago has been forgotten, and now the community has banded together to build a better school to create a brighter path for the future of its children.