By Chisomo Phiri

As one way of ensuring that teachers have good houses most especially during this rainy season, a Balaka-based non-governmental organization under the banner Child Focus organization has moved on to renovate teachers’ houses at Sosola Primary School in the district.

Speaking during the launch of the renovation project on Saturday, the organization’s Founder and Executive Director Thomas Sendeza said his organization has been conducting inspection of the situation at the school where it observed that there is a lack of proper houses for some teachers.

He said in the process of inspection, the school head teacher together with the school management committee asked the organization to help the school with the renovation of the teachers’ houses and construction of one change-room which can help the girls at the school to change their sanitary pads while at school.
” we have been inspecting the situation for so long and we found that some teachers lack good houses. It is for this reason why we are here to launch this project where we are are going to renovate teachers’ houses, construct 5 toilets for boys and one change-room, a room which will allow girls to change their sanitary pads while here at school thereby minimizing absenteeism which comes among girls the time they are on their period”, he said.

Sendeza said at Sosola Primary School, there are 36 teachers of which only 3 reside at the school due to lack of enough teachers’ houses.
” Here at Sosola Primary School, we have 36 teachers in total but only three reside at the school since the houses are not enough for all to reside here. The other teachers communite to work from far places which is not good. So us as an organization have committed ourselves to start renovating two houses which are in a very dilapidated state” said Sendeza.

He added that teachers play a very important role in the development of our nation Malawi, and as such they need to have proper housing so that they continue their duties well. He said this why they partnered with the school and the school management so as to assist the school with the renovation of the two teachers’ houses and add up numbers of teachers residing on campus.
” We are renovating these two teachers’ houses so as to add numbers of teachers residing here on campus. We are also constricting a one change-room where girls will be changing their sanitary pads . This is after knowing that lack of sanitary facilities at the school is contributing to the high absenteeism rate and poor performance among girls in classes, he added.

He said at the school , there are still four more teachers’ houses that need to be renovated, calling on other well-wishers to join the move as their organization is currently passing through economic hardships such as financial challenges.
” We are a small and growing organization, we lack finances and office space so that we can make more impacts to our communities. We therefore, ask well wishers to support us with resources so that we can reach out to more unprivileged children. Both government and and other stakeholders need to work together in the provision of teacher’s houses, said Sendeza.

In her remarks, the Head Teacher at Sosola Primary School Jean Mapwesera commended Child Focus organization for the renovation works at the school.
” On behalf of the school, I want to thank Mr. Thomas Sendeza for the great job that his organization Child Focus has done here at Sosola Primary School for renovating teachers’ houses. We hope that the renovation of these two houses will help teachers because at first we only had few teachers that were staying on school campus. The teachers would like to see the houses to be completed as soon as possible so as to relieve them from the great need of the houses”, said Mpwesera.

In his words, one of the school learners Wilson Taonga who is in standard 7 also thanked Child Focus organization for the great development at the school.
” We the students from Sosola Primary School are very happy with the development that you at Child Focus are doing by constructing the toilets and the teachers’ houses which will help our school have more teachers thereby improving the teacher-learner ratio. We will also be able to ask our teachers school-related questions during off school hours”, Thanked Taonga.

Sosola Primary School has over 916 learners with very limited number of toilets which are not in good conditions. The toilets are damaged and dangerous to be used by learners. The renovation project of the teachers’ houses and the toilets is being financed by the World Connect Malawi.
Founded in 2018, Child Focus is a registered youth-led non-governmental that aims at providing better learning environment for underprivileged children in marginalized areas in Mawi. Its main focus areas are in education, Sexual Reproductive Health Rights ( SRHR) and environment.