But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and will give you a complete account of the system and expound the actual teachings of the great explore
Many rural pupils have no school library in Malawi. Some have no textbooks. Some learn in schools with no safe place to keep a single book.
CRIDOC's School Libraries & Resource Centres project tackles this gap. We work with schools and communities to build, stock and run each school library in Malawi that we support. Every child has a right to information and education. A library helps make that right real.
Our lead example is the school library and teachers' offices at Chimvite Primary School in Lilongwe Rural South West. The community built it with us. USAID funded it under its Self-Help Project. It was officially launched on 2 May 2012.
CRIDOC exists to give people access to information on child and youth development and rights. A school library in Malawi puts that information in front of the children who need it most.
A good school library in Malawi helps in many ways:
The last point matters. Donors want to give books. But a school without a secure room cannot keep them. That was the problem at Chimvite.
Chimvite Primary School is at Mpingu, in Traditional Authority Milili, Lilongwe Rural South West. Like many rural schools, it lacked basic buildings. It had no school library in Malawi's sense of the word: no shelves, no reading room, no lending.
CRIDOC staff visited the school on 21 November 2009 as part of routine advocacy work. The school had no library. It had no proper offices for teachers or the Head Teacher.
The Head Teacher worked from a makeshift office. It had a grass roof, walls of grass and tree planks, and no doors. No learning materials could be kept there safely.
This blocked CRIDOC too. We wanted to donate books from our own collection, which we access through the National Library Service of Malawi. Without a secure room, we could not.
We want pupils to use their right to information and education. So we chose to build one structure with two uses: teachers' offices and a library room. A school library in Malawi works best when it has a safe home.
Mr Alex Lijanga, the Head Teacher, explained the need. Pupils in his village, he said, have no access to basic learning materials, including textbooks. He added that Braille materials, children's novels and games would greatly lift standards.
CRIDOC visits the school and finds no library and no proper offices.
The USAID grant contract is signed.
Work begins with the community.
The building reaches window level.
The library and teachers' offices are officially launched.
The Chimvite project shows what a village can do when it leads.
The school authorities and people around the school worked with the Chimvite Community Based Organisation (CBO). CRIDOC helped them organise. Together they moulded bricks and raised the walls of an unfinished building. They hoped that well-wishers might one day help finish it.
CRIDOC also worked with:
Mr Mailosi Lamitoni chaired the committee. He said he was impressed by the speed of progress. He called it a sign of how excited people were about the school library in Malawi they were building.
Work began in January 2011. Within about three months, the building had reached window level. Community members gave their time freely to keep it on track.
USAID noticed what the community had done. Through the American Embassy, it backed the project under the Ambassador's Self-Help Project. This scheme supports community projects where people have already shown they will help themselves. You can read more about USAID on its website.
The contract was signed on 2 December 2010. A signing ceremony took place with the then US Chargé d'Affaires, Ms Lisa Vickers, and the then CRIDOC Director, George Kayange.
USAID funds bought:
The community's bricks and labour came first. The funds finished the job.
The school library and teachers' offices were officially launched on 2 May 2012. Mrs Diana Enzi cut the ribbon. She also donated assorted items to the library on behalf of the American people.
The building now gives Chimvite:
A building needs books. CRIDOC has gathered donations of books and other materials for the school library in Malawi from many partners. They include:
We plan to add more than textbooks. We want the shelves to hold Braille materials, children's novels and games. A rich school library in Malawi serves every child, including those with sight loss.
The USAID funds covered construction materials only. They did not cover shelves, textbooks, a solar panel or computers. CRIDOC and the community keep raising money for these.
We are now mobilising:
Solar power lets pupils and teachers use the school library in Malawi when the light is poor. It also allows computer learning in a village with no reliable power.
Chimvite is our model. The same steps can work at other schools. Tap a step to read more.
We want to reach more rural schools with this approach.
You can help a rural school get its own library. Here are some ways:
Every book on a shelf gives a child more to read. Please join us.
Support Us (opens in a new tab)