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| Edinburgh Girls High School - Form 1 Students October 2012 - July 2013 |
Welcome to a long overdue update on developments in Malawi
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| Water is Life - a day of thanksgiving |
Those of you who have been following our progress over the years will remember no doubt that we had a serious problem finding a source of water. We had several unsuccessful attempts when drilling for a borehole, not least of which being a contractor who absconded. We had two beautiful classroom blocks but with no water supply we could not open the school. During the period from 2010 to 2012 we used the classrooms for adult literacy classes, hygiene and nutrition classes and sensitisation meetings with the local community. Finally at the end of 2011 a source of water was found and a borehole was sunk 65 metres down. This presented another problem as being so deep an electric or diesel pump was required to bring the water from that depth to the surface.
The funding for the borehole and subsequently for the installation of a solar powered pump and storage tanks was raised by the Corrigan family in memory of their son and brother Owen. Ojo's well is now fully operational and the family were here in May 2013 to see the difference this has made not only for the school but for the people in the surrounding communities.
We opened the school as a non-denominational school in October 2012, a month later than the Government schools but despite that we had a large number of applicants. However due to lack of boarding facilities we had to turn students away. At first we had only 5 girls but over time the number increased to 32 girls. Interest was growing thanks to our signage on the main road at Engoncolweni and the striking uniform or our girls - the kilts donated by students of Mary Erskine Girls School, Edinburgh.
We were in desperate need of funding for a hostel to accomodate students and the Solon Foundation, Switzerland came to our rescue. We received a substantial grant and work commenced at the end of November 2012 with a deadline of 8th January 2013. The hostel was built in record time with running water installed allowing us to have girls boarding from 9th January 2013.
Hi Janet. It was wonderful to visit the school in June along with staff and pupils from St Maurice's High School. I am planning to visit Malawi again next June, this time with some of my pupils from Our Lady's High School, Cumbernauld. Hope you are now off the crutches! Keep up the good work!
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