After a Kayaking expedition went wrong back in 2016, I ended up in the Malawian fishing village of Chazuka. After being taken in and receiving such warmth and hospitality from local people, I grew a great affinity for the place and spent 6 months immersing myself in the community.

One day I was sitting underneath a mango tree, teaching some children the alphabet and a young man approached and asked ‘Alex, can I be a teacher at your school?’ This was the moment from which the Chazuka project was born. The project began with the idea to build a school but soon became something much greater.

Our mission is to build a resilient and sustainable community within Chazuka village.

Over the last couple of years, we have been building a nursery school. The aim of the school is to provide a holistic education for pupils. Literacy, numeracy, expressive arts and practical work will be taught in equal measure, with enthusiasm and creativity. Each child will be given 1msq of land where they will learn to grow food. They will also take practical classes to manage the fish farm that we aspire to build next to the school. This will teach skills that will enable the children to contribute to economic growth within the village as they grow older.

I return to Chazuka village in January and one of the main goals is to finish the building work. However, this is just the beginning. Sustainability is at the heart of our ethos and therefore we need to resource the school, train teachers and provide healthy lunches daily to provide the sustenance children need to learn. We are working closely with a local Malawian charity who will provide the training for the teachers and work in collaboration with the villages to promote independence and growth.

The future of the Chazuka project will see local people create a brighter future for themselves. The vision is a village in which children enjoy and benefit from a good education, where women are empowered to gain employment and where land will be utilised to its capacity with modern farming techniques.

Your donation makes a difference.

£12 will provide one bag of cement.

£30 will provide school lunches for one child for a school year.

£50 will provide learning materials such as text books, stationery, musical instruments and gardening tools.

£100 provides a salary, support and training for a teacher for one month.

In addition, if you feel like you could contribute your time, ideas or skills to the project please do get in touch. With the project in its infancy, there are plenty of opportunities to take a lead on different aspect. Get in touch to find out more.