wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Malawi village church builds a school system

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Note #8766 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

June 14, 2005

Malawi village church builds a school system

PC(USA) congregation in Indiana shares in community's dream

by Toya Richards Hill

LILONGWE, MALAWI - There is a Sunday gathering taking place far off the paved
highway, down miles and miles of dusty roads.

	It is across crude bridges where women hand-wash clothes in streams,
and where yoked oxen pull loads of maize that will sustain many households.

	The people assembled are members of the village of Chibanzi - a rural
community more than an hour's drive from this capital city - and members of
the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP).

	The Chibanzi congregation has nearly completed construction of a
nursery school, and has begun making bricks for a first-through-eighth-grade
primary school that will serve village students and those who now must walk
many miles to learn ¾ Presbyterians and non-Presbyterians alike.

	On this day, church members meet to worship and give thanks: to the
Lord, from whom their blessings flow; and to the members of First
Presbyterian Church in South Bend, IN, without whom their schools might not
be coming to life.

	"This is the vision of the congregation," the Rev. Robert Simeon
Banda, pastor of the Chibanzi church, told a large crowd packed into pews
made of cement-covered brick. 

	But if the vision is not supported, it will die, Banda added.

	First Presbyterian Church of South Bend, a Presbyterian Church
(U.S.A.) congregation, is financing the construction of both Chibanzi
schools.
 
	First Presbyterian has more Malawian members than any other PC (USA)
congregation. It became connected with Chibanzi after members formed the FPC
Malawi Association, which works with the larger congregation to minister to
the needs of Malawians in the South Bend congregation and in their home
country.

	After careful research, the Malawi Association chose to establish a
relationship with Chibanzi, part of the CCAP Nkhoma Synod. So far, First
Church has committed more than $10,000 to Chibanzi for construction,
equipment and teacher salaries for one year.

	A five-member delegation from the church recently visited Malawi. On
Sunday, May 29, that group was in Chibanzi for the dedication of the nursery
school.

	"This is a partnership," said Phyllis Wezeman, director of Christian
Nurture at First Presbyterian Church, the delegation leader. "This is
something we are doing together. It's going to be up to everyone to keep the
vision alive," she said.

A faith walk into the future

	The money committed by First Presbyterian Church will cover
construction and initial expenses enumerated in a proposal Banda submitted to
the South Bend congregation, but no one knows how the schools will survive
after that money runs out.

	"We are doing it by faith," said Banda, adding that "substantial
money" is still needed to pay teachers' salaries and operating expenses.

	He said his aim, as spiritual leader of thousands in the village and
the surrounding area, is to teach the people that they can largely sustain
themselves.

	"The mindset is that we are poor," he said, "but we want this to be
supported locally."

"You are rich," Banda tells his people.

	The people often don't have access to clean water or enough food. It
will be a challenge to persuade them that they can afford to provide
education for their children.

	Agriculture is the main source of income for the people of Chibanzi,
but drought has hit the area hard, and many fear that people will go hungry
this year.

	Some residents peddle wares at roadside - everything from colorful
fabrics to bicycle tires to bunches of bruised bananas.

	Malawi is a relatively small country in south-central Africa,
bordered by Zambia, Tanzania and Mozambique. The literacy rate is 58 percent.
Life expectancy is about 37 years. The HIV/AIDS infection rate is burgeoning,
and the disease has left thousands of orphans in its wake.

	The country has "so many orphans because of HIV/AIDS," said the Rev.
Winston R. Kawale, general secretary of the Nkhoma Synod of the CCAP. That is
the case in Chibanzi, too, he said.

A head start for the children
 

	Helping orphans is one goal of the new schools in Chibanzi. But
equally as important is the  over-arching mission of improving the
educational system in Malawi as a whole.
 
	Malawian children often don't start school until they are as old as 7
or 8, Banda said, so when they get to primary school, they are already far
behind.

	Banda said planners want to "link" the nursery school, for children
ages 1 to 5, and the primary school - so that the children entering primary
school are ready. The ultimate goal, he said, is "improving the education
standards."

	Kawale, whose synod has made establishing nursery schools a priority,
agreed. Now, when these children start primary school, "at least they will be
able to read and write," he said.

	"We are glad that the minister here (in Chibanzi) took that vision
very seriously," he said. "We praise God for this congregation."

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