Malosa Secondary School

Although primary school in Malawi is free, students progressing on to secondary school have to pay fees. For many parents these fees are unaffordable so that many of those who are eligible to attend are not able to do so. MACS has supported Malosa secondary school for many years. The school was built in 1928 in the grounds of an old tobacco farm. Initially it served as a Teacher Training College but for many years has provided secondary schooling for both boys and girls who attend as boarders. In April 2011, there were 590 pupils (240 girls and 344 boys) in a school with 480 places.

MACS has provided bursaries for students for some years (currently 7 girls and 7 boys) and in addition has awarded a special bursary to a priest’s child (The Bishop Donald Arden Bursary) since September 2011. The girls hostels were badly in need of renovation and in 2006 MACS built a new hostel with money donated by Aspect Capital. A second hostel has just been completed with money from a generous legacy. This new hostel is proving extremely popular with students.

De-Luxe Bicycle Ambulance

De Luxe bicycle ambulance paid for by St Catherine’s Church, Sheffield arrives in Msalawatha village, Mwanza District

WWW.MALAWIMACS.ORG - making a difference

Registered Charity Number: 1025616

MACS chairman meets the Bishops

	Bishop's Francis Kaulanda & Fanuel Magangani
MACS chairman meets up with Bishop Francis Kaulanda of the Diocese of Lake Malawi and Bishop Fanuel Magangani of the Diocese of Northern Malawi whilst they were attending a course for newly consecrated Bishops at Canterbury, January 2012

Chilema Ecumenical Training and Conference Centre

Chilema Ecumenical Centre

In the 1960’s, Donald Arden who was the Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Malawi and the very Rev Jonathan Sangaya, General Secretary of the CCAP Blantyre Synod set up a Lay Training Centre at Chilema. The church was growing rapidly and there were insufficient ordained ministers. There was an urgent need to train lay people to help in the congregations as those who were ordained could only visit some of the more remote areas occasionally.

Inititally the programme the following:        

• Training of church leaders.
• Training of women in Community work and Home crafts
• Community living
• Early child development.

The programmes have now been developed further to meet the current needs of Malawian women. Twice a year, the centre runs a Women’s Training Programme (Home Craft Workers Course) which covers the following subjects:

• Agriculture and food security    
  "Learning by doing" is the philosophy of the training program
• Food and nutrition
• Tailoring and Fashion Design            
• Clothing and Textiles
• Home and House improvement
• Small scale Business Management
• Business Communication
• Health and Sanitation
• Human Behaviour
• English and Communication skills
• HIV and AIDS issues
• Spirituality.

Women are recruited from all over Malawi and from different religious and cultural backgrounds. The minimum required qualification is the Junior Certificate of Education but the courses are unique in that women with a low educational background can be accepted as the Philosophy is ‘Learning by Doing’ When they graduate at the end of the 6 month course, they become agents of change in their communities. Because they have learnt how to be self reliant they can improve the living standards in their families.

Students taking their exams

MACS has supported the Centre in many ways and has recently sponsored 10 women on the course who completed their training in December 2011. See the project focus article for details.

Students in tailoring and fashion designing class

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