Likuni Boys Secondary School
Educating the young, particularly those most neglected. In Malawi about 70% of our people do not know how to read and write. When free education came in Malawi after the multiparty democracy in early 1990s, we saw young and not so young taking advantage of the situation. By then the government had not enough teachers and school blocks to meet the growing in flow of interested students. One way to cater for everyone was the creation of Community Day Secondary Schools in every part of the country. Even with the creation of these new open day secondary schools, there are still many more young people who are left out. It was not easy too to get qualified teachers to teach them.
At the background, you see Likuni Boys Secondary School block, a school which took position one in the whole Malawi in the Malawi School Leaving Certificate results of 2010. We owe the good results to the hard working family spirit of teachers under the dynamic and wise administration of Brother Joseph Murakho and well disciplined students. The school is surrounded by young people who never qualified for any secondary school and whose financial muscle is negligible to go to expensive upcoming private secondary schools.
The brothers and their lay colleagues took a hard decision to offer these neglected students some form of schooling after the normal school hours of the internal students. When you reach the school you are filled with awe to see the numerous students interested in schooling coming from the surrounding shanty places. They use the same school blocks of the boarders. We share what we have and this qualifies in what Christians say as a sense of solidarity. You can see that the uniform is still an issue as you see them walking home after classes in their ordinary clothing. If brothers and the lay staff did not take this initiative, the government alone could not afford to cater for them.
Of late, for the sake of order, Brother Boniface Chirambo, who is the school bursar, looked for funds from Beit Trust to build a separate school block for such unfortunate students. It is behind the tall trees you see at the edge of the school block but on the right hand side. Of course it is outside the fence. Thank God the response did not delay and the son of our late lay staff, Mr. Buya from Mtendere won the contract of building the block. As I was leaving Malawi, a two classroom block was complete and ready for use. They will need another generous donor to complete the next two classroom block. I know with education of the youth many generous people will come in with something small.
The quotation from the Bible that comes to my mind is when the disciples asked Jesus to chase the people and look for food elsewhere. Jesus refused to chase. He asked them to do something for them. He was filled with compassion and pity. They under estimated the food they had when compared with the mob that was there, difficult to count. They had a boy with two fish and five loaves of bread. He told them to bring them forward and he prayed over them and multiplied them so that everyone had more than enough and they had some left over.
Generosity is our virtue number one. Solidarity has a place in our apostolic endeavors as Marists. We were founded for the most neglected students.
Bravo dear Brothers and staff of Likuni Boys Secondary School for having compassionate heart for these unfortunate students. Your reward is assured in heaven.
To our dear unfortunate students appreciate the generosity of the brothers and staff by working hard. As Mary at Cana, l would strongly urge you, “Do whatever they tell you.” I know the Happy Gang temptation which may be yours too at this stage of life. You might be coming to school with diverse motives like to take drugs and give teachers headaches and heartaches. Some of you may come to win a lover. Of course some of you may come just to pass time with friends. Champagnat our Founder had gone through that experience when he frequented the taverns but he changed and stuck to his aim. Your aim here is to pass just like your colleagues in the normal. You are blessed to be at the best school in the country and among the hard working teachers. Use your time wisely. At the same time take Christians values with you as shields against temptations which adolescent stage brings. Tighten your belts of idols which modern sets before as baits to attract you to misuse your golden opportunity. Many young people who take Christ seriously do not easily become allies of the satan. The devil can take advantage of you when you part from Jesus who always defeats him. Have wonderful times at Likuni and may God bless your efforts. You came to learn and you will leave to serve. This is our motto at Chassa secondary school in Zambia. Multiply the generosity that you are enjoying now to those brothers and sisters of yours who are loitering around in your homes places. Share what you have with them generously. I feel pride of you.
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Brother Simeon Banda, fms, Matola.