Banda Hill Primary School

We were contacted by GVH Mzengeleza in 2016 asking for support in developing Banda Hill Primary School. The community built, wooden structures had been gutted by fire, forcing learners to school out in the open or in their now blackened and unsafe classrooms. Banda Hill had over 300 children across four classrooms and was in a very sorry state when we visited. However, we found very quickly that the community at Banda Hill wanted change and wanted better, spear-headed by some very inspiring, leading ladies....

Theresa Kachindamoto, now world famous for breaking up child marriages in Malawi is the Senior Chief presiding over this area. The Group Village Chief is Mrs Mzengeleza who comes to the school weekly to monitor our work and is a very present and active leader. The school Head teacher is Mrs Bendere who has been excellent in organizing both staff and students whenever we visit and in maintaining the school. They are a very active leadership team and, as a result, we have achieved some remarkable developments over the past two years...

In April 2017 a fabulous team of volunteers from Bishop's Stortford College, Hertfordshire, travelled to Malawi to help decorate two brand new classrooms, a staffroom and a store room at Banda Hill. They worked hard to raise funds for the development back in UK and did an incredible job creating 'walls that talk' and bright, inspiring learning environments. They also helped develop a Permaculture Garden and planted trees in the school grounds. 

In the months that followed the community at Banda Hill then developed a flower garden and extended their Permaculture Garden. They built their own fences and dug their own well to ensure its survival. They also planted over 300 trees to create shaded areas and to protect the new classrooms from wind in the future. As a consequence, after building two classrooms, a staffroom and a storeroom for them in 2016-17 we provided three additional classrooms, officially in spring 2018. A further three classrooms, toilets and 60 desks and chairs were provided in 2019 together with a borehole- a game changer for the school community and permaculture garden.