UrbanPromise International » ProjectTEACH

A young girl with learning disability succeeds at Project TEACH

admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:55:43 +0000

A Message from Sullivan Kandulu the leader of Project TEACH in Malawi!

Thomas A Kempis wrote in his book The Imitation of Christ that “The only educated man is one who has abandoned his will to do God’s will”. He continued to say that “his concern is not about what’s best for him but what’s best for others”.

At Project TEACH we run AfterSchool program, summer soccer leagues, and soccer clubs. We have been running these programs close to two years now and this have been made possible by people like you who have not put your interest first but of kids here in Malawi. Every month you pour out your support so that we run these programs. You may not be physically with us here in Malawi but with your support you are actually with us and we thank you for the lives that you are changing.

That reminds me of Mercy Mussa a 5th grade girl we have at our AfterSchool program. When Mercy was very young she became very sick and her parents and doctors thought it was malaria. She developed anemia and doctors carried out blood transfusion and later on they discovered that she also had epilepsy, leading to a learning disability. She has been repeating classes after failing final exams.

Her younger sister Caroline is in 7^thgrade and before both started coming to our afterschool program, Caroline used to tutor her. Last year, Mercy failed the 1^st and 2^ndtrimester exams. We started working with her and we made sure that she was getting all the help she needed. To everyone’s surprise she started picking it up and was able to pass her final grade 4 exams and now she is in grade 5. Mercy is a very hard working girl and she has never missed a single day of AfterSchool program.

In the past six months we have seen the number of kids in our AfterSchool program increase from 20 to 30 kids.

Sullivan Kandulu

P.S. The soccer clubs and leagues are also going great and we have reached out to more than 450 teens in Mulanje so far!

Independence Day

admin — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 09:23:47 +0000

July 6th is Malawi’s Independence Day. This year was the celebration of its forty-fifth anniversary of autonomy from Britain. In the bigger cities, like Lilongwe and Blantyre, activities such as soccer matches and traditional dancing are held in the stadiums. In villages like Luchenza, where we are staying, things are calmer, and families typically celebrate in their homes. This is not, however, the case for Project Teach and its 20 fourth and fifth graders, and six street leaders, who participated in the first annual Independence Olympics. A variety of fun games were organized for the children to compete in as teams. They really enjoyed themselves, and it was fun being a part of it. The most memorable moment came at the very end, when Sullivan gathered his street leaders for a “meeting”. In the meantime, we equipped all the children with water balloons. Inconspicuously we surrounded the street leaders and let fire all our water balloons, methodically soaking each leader. The children were SO excited! Lindsey also captured a great photo of the carnage in action. It was definitely a day to remember.

Tomorrow we are leaving Project TEACH and heading to Lilongwe to visit ChristCares, set up last year by Robert Manda. Sullivan will be driving us up the road to Lilongwe, which I hear is quite pot-hole ridden. Even if the trip is slow, the country side is incredibly beautiful, and there is always a lot of activity alongside the road, like markets, to view.

Visiting Project TEACH and spending time with Sullivan has been wonderful. We are looking forward to what lies ahead. Stay tuned . . .

ProjectTEACH

admin — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 10:16:55 +0000

The flight into Malawi was beautiful. Rolling hills are surrounded by peaked mountains. Rivers and streams cut through the country side between villages connected by winding dirt roads. We could have gone without the attempt to land, then, sudden abort due to something in the runway, but on our second approach everything worked out just fine and we landed with the passengers bursting into applause. We were met at the airport by Sullivan and Vincent (both have finished internships at UrbanPromise). It was great to see them and be warmly welcomed by familiar faces.

We dropped Vincent off at his place in Blantyre, picked up a few necessities at the store then drove the rental car 45 minutes to Sullivans’ house, where we’re staying, in Luchenza. ProjectTEACH, initiated by Sullivan, is actually located at a Primary School in Mulanji, which is just across the river in the neighboring village. He compares it to living in Philadelphia and crossing the Benjamin Franklin bridge everyday to work in Camden. Although, Luchenza is no Philadelphia, and this is no Ben Franklin bridge!

We went to see his ProjectTEACH in action today. Sullivan has really hit the ground running since he returned last year from UrbanPromise. He immediately launched a summer soccer league, drawing in 13 teams. He also coaches multiple basketball and soccer teams at secondary schools, focusing on leadership development. All while establishing an afterschool program for 20 fourth and fifth graders where he has utilized the UrbanPromise model, hiring teenage street leaders, training them in leadership while filling essential needs for these primary students, such as a meal, tutoring, and spiritual growth.

It doesn’t matter where you go, children are always adorable and funny, and Malawi is no different. When the afterschool program was finished, Lindsey and I sat in the grass with a couple children, brave enough to sit by us, watching Sullivan and one of his team’s practices for their game on Saturday. It was fun trying to communicate with the children, making them laugh and having them watch our every move with wide eyes.

For dinner we drove to this new lodge/restaurant that everyone has been telling Sullivan about. It is located up Mount Mulanji (Malawi’s tallest mountain) and has a very nice atmosphere. I couldn’t resist tasting Malawi’s traditional meal of Nsima and Chomba (pictured). It was delicious. Last year, the interns kept saying that if we ever went to Malawi we would have to eat Chomba (fish only found in Malawi). Well, we came to Malawi . . . and we ate Chomba.