What We Do
School Tuition Sponsorship
One of our key programs is support for youth to attend school and further their education. This has remained one of the most evident needs in the community, and the request we hear most often from families and young people alike.
There are several barriers for youth in Malawi to complete their secondary (high school) education. A lack of infrastructure capacity, as well as large distances to schools are two such barriers. Another large barrier for many students is the cost of attendance. While primary school is free in Malawi, secondary school is not. The added expense of school fees, coupled with associated costs of schooling, often make it impossible for families to pay, leading to a high incidence of school dropout.
In response to these issues, the School Tuition Sponsorship Program became the first of our formal education initiatives and continues to be one of our core programs. The program covers not only school fees but also associated costs, ensuring students have all the materials needed for educational success. Additionally, we offer Extended Learning Programs to sponsored youth, including computer lessons and annual leadership workshops.
Before being accepted into the School Tuition Sponsorship program, students are interviewed to assess their school performance, work ethic, and level of need. When students are accepted, they agree to act in accordance with the academic and behavioral stipulations of the program, including maintaining expected school scores and not engaging in behavior harmful to their health or educational achievement. It is important that non-residential sponsored youth are supported at home, which is why we require parents and guardians to sign an agreement to enforce their youth’s school attendance. Additionally, we hold yearly meetings with guardians to review students’ performance and ensure guardians are working in partnership with our policies for promoting their youth’s academic achievement.
There are many more youth in the community waiting to benefit from the School Tuition Sponsorship Program. To learn more about sponsoring a student in Malawi, Africa through D2D, please click on the button below.
Residential Youth Program
Without meaning too, we started a residential program in 2010 when one young person was in desperate need of a place to live. From that small act, the program grew and, over the years, many others have found their home at our campus through the Residential Youth Program.
The Residential Youth Program has been one of our longest running and most successful programs. By providing a stable family-oriented home life, a comfortable living environment, three nutritious meals a day, and emotional support, the youth in our care are able to concentrate more fully on their academics. The youth in our care comprise mostly secondary (high school) students and a select number of especially vulnerable primary students. We have seen measurable results from the Residential Youth Program, with live-in youth being routinely at the top of their classes and recognized as leaders among their peers.
To be considered for the Residential Youth Program, a young person must demonstrate a need and a desire to live in a controlled setting. Upon entering the program, residential youth commit to and are expected to follow the Code of Conduct, which includes following behavioral expectations, meeting school performance requirements, and performing assigned chores. About one third of our residential youth are orphans, having lost both parents, who are referred to us by local chiefs or school administrators. Another one third of our residential youth are from households with a single mother who is struggling to support them. The final one third are from families in the surrounding community who see the value in the structured environment.
Residential youth are overseen by a Residential Youth Manager who lives on-site, monitors academic progress, provides mentorship, and ensures all policies are being followed. Additionally, the house and its residents are overseen by a Residential Youth House Management Committee comprised of the local chief, a health advisor, two parental representatives, a human rights advisor, and the government’s Child Protection Officer for the area. The committee holds regular meetings and is required to approve all incoming and outgoing youth for the program. We also have regular communication with the Malawi Government’s Office of Social Welfare, who conduct regular inspections of the house and who we send official reports of student progress.
Girls’ Empowerment Programs
In addition to the universal barriers faced by both genders in Malawi, females face further difficulties accessing education. Males are often prioritized to attend school over their female siblings, particularly if the family cannot afford school fees for each child in the family. Girls who do attend secondary school (high school) are more likely to drop out due to additional pressures such as early marriage and pregnancy. Figures from the World Bank show that only 27% of Malawian girls enroll in secondary school, and over half of girls in Northern Malawi are married by the age of 18. Early marriage and a lack of education are detrimental to a girl’s future, often resulting in lower earnings for women, increased health risks, higher instances of intimate partner violence, and higher rates of poverty. When a girl is educated, the impact extends beyond her future alone. Ending child marriage and educating girls also affects Malawi’s development by reducing population growth, increasing standards of living, and reducing poverty (World Bank).
Our School Tuition Sponsorship Program, which presently offers school fee sponsorship to girls in the area, is complemented by our non-formal Girls’ Empowerment Program, which targets females at local primary and secondary schools in an attempt to tackle the inequality in access to education between males and females.
Girls Club:
In response to high rates of girls’ school dropout seen in our catchment area and throughout the country, we developed a comprehensive non-formal education curriculum to be administered during weekly Girls Club sessions. Girls Club provides an all-female safe space for life skills development, with the ultimate goal of promoting girls’ educational attainment. Lessons are facilitated by female Girls Empowerment staff members, held in separate sessions for primary and secondary (high school) girls. Topics include self-esteem, leadership, goal-setting, study techniques, and healthy relationships. By beginning at the primary level, we encourage girls to remain involved in Girls Club throughout the remainder of their time in school, the highest-achieving of which are considered for the School Tuition Sponsorship Program upon reaching secondary school.
Female Mentorship Groups:
This initiative aims to provide a strong sense of support and guidance to secondary Girls Club members in a small-group setting. Each small group is paired with a female leader from the community, who leads discussion on topics such as goal-setting, healthy relationships, and career selection. By providing the girls with positive role models, mentorship encourages each girl to focus on her education and achieve her goals.
Income-Generating Activity:
The newest initiative of our Girls’ Empowerment Program is the start-up of a chicken raising income generating activity (IGA). IGAs are businesses usually run by a small group as a way of generating money for personal expenses. Surveys of the secondary school girls in our programming showed that the largest cause of female dropout was due to a lack of funds for basic needs such as toiletries and other person items. As a result, many girls become reliant on older men to help them finance their basic needs. A chicken raising business is a sustainable way for girls to earn pocket money to support themselves while they finish their education and sets them up for continued economic independence. Trainings on record keeping, budgeting, business management, and chicken-rearing are held to prepare the IGA members to manage the business independently. Once it is off the ground, we look forward to seeing the girls take complete ownership of the project.
Extended Learning Opportunities
Determined to Develop’s Youth Sponsorship program, which offers school fee sponsorship to many students in the area, is complemented by our non-formal and extended learning programs offered to youth.
Technology Center:
The D2D technology center provides rural Malawians the chance to learn to use and operate a computer, an opportunity they might not otherwise have access to. Housing 17 fully-functioning computers, the center offers lessons to locals of all ages which are facilitated by trained Malawians and international volunteers. Over 430 hours of lessons have been given in the technology center to 203 local primary school students, secondary school students, and community members.
Leadership Initiatives:
Leadership training is crucial to both ensuring the sustainability of D2D programs and developing the future leaders of Malawi. This is why D2D intentionally tries to include a leadership component in all of its programming. This includes hosting twice annual leadership workshops for all D2D sponsored youth. The workshops are three-day events that take place on holiday breaks, and lessons focus on leadership skills, goal setting, health, and safety.
Local Education Partnerships
Supporting local schools and increasing the overall standard of education in the Chilumba area is important, not just for the success of our sponsored students who attend these institutions, but also for their peers and the community as a whole. This is why we remain engaged in both the infrastructure and management of the area schools we partner with.
Nursery Schools:
Quality nursery school education has been proven to help build a strong foundation for a child’s physical, mental, emotional, and social development. Unfortunately, there are limited resources available for nursery schooling in Malawi at this time. A large-scale survey evaluating nursery education in the Chilumba catchment area found problems such as underutilized school curriculums, little teacher training, and a lack of funds.
In response, D2D helped build, and continues to be involved with the running of, four local nursery schools. This has included constructing school infrastructure, developing school curriculum, providing school materials, and administering teacher trainings. To date, over 2,800 nursery school aged children have benefitted from this initiative.
Access to adequate nutrition early in life is crucial to children’s health and educational outcomes, with nutrient deficiencies in childhood having been shown to lead to learning and behavioral problems alter in life. To combat hunger and poor nutrition, we began a two-year school feeding initiative in 2015, providing nutritious meals of likuni phala, a fortified porridge, for students at Tilipo and Phulano nursery schools. Over 2.5 million nutritious meals were served to nursery and primary school through these D2D feeding initiatives between 2015 and 2017.
Primary Schools:
Our feeding initiatives also benefitted students at two area primary schools, Sangilo and Hara Primary, giving them the energy they need to focus on their education. In addition to feeding initiatives, we have taken measures to improve sanitation at Sangilo Primary through the construction of a kitchen and latrines. Poor sanitation practices lead to the spread of waterborne diseases like cholera, making sanitary kitchens and toilets crucial to improving students’ health outcomes. Finally, we have offered support in the form of donating footballs and other sports equipment to the surrounding primary schools.
Secondary Schools:
To further support sponsored youths’ education, we have established and continue to maintain partnerships with area secondary schools (high schools). We have supported the local school, Khwawa Community Day Secondary School, by electrifying the whole campus, building two classrooms which are used by 400 students each day, and establishing latrines. We also have contributed to Khwawa, Thunduti, and Fulirwa Secondary Schools in the form of books, science equipment, desks, and teacher trainings. As a member of the Parent Teacher Association and School Management Committees, our staff maintain our relationship with the local secondary schools and ensures they are meeting the educational needs of the youth who attend them.
Wasambo Education Foundation
Following a 2013 large-scale survey of the educational needs of Northern Malawi, it was found that the largest barrier to educational success in the area was a lack of infrastructure and access to school facilities.
Wasambo Boys High School:
It was based on these findings that we, in partnership with the University of Dayton, commissioned a new boarding school for boys, which established a national reach within its first year of operation, welcoming a class of 75 students. Wasambo High School accepts students entering Form 1 (high school first years) in the effort to provide them with a quality education throughout the entirely of their secondary schooling.
Wasambo High School’s mission: “To deliver the highest quality education at an international standard but accessible to all, where students can thrive while reaching their fullest potential” is made possible by its committed international faculty and sound infrastructure. As a boarding school, Wasambo High School provides students with a supportive and structured living environment, allowing them to fully focus on their education. The Wasambo High School campus, located a short distance from the D2D office, has continued to be developed since the school’s inception in an effort to accommodate a growing number of students.
Wasambo High School is run through the Wasambo Education Foundation, a not-for-profit entity which governs the school with a Malawian Board of Governors. All funds provided for the high school, whether from school fees or donations, go into the system of the school for operations and development. Funds are also used for scholarships to students from the Wasambo area who show strong academics and leadership skills but lack financial support.
To learn more about Wasambo Boys High School, please visit: wasambo.org
Wasambo Girls High School:
To more fully realize gender equity in education, we plan to commission a separate girls boarding school in the coming years, pending financial backing.
Wasambo Technical College:
Technical education is an affordable and marketable alternative to university education. Presently, no technical education facility exists in the Chilumba catchment region, serving as a barrier to pursuing technical education for prospective students in the area. Of the 50 youth interviewed in a large-scale technical education needs survey, 100% expressed interest in attending technical college if one were built in the area. Based on community interest and broader data supporting the value of technical education, we are pursuing the establishment of a technical college in the Chilumba catchment region, pending financial backing.