Blantyre, Malawi

WITH JOSHUA ORPHAN & COMMUNITY CARE

Why are we here?

We launched our first program in Africa in Blantyre, Malawi on February 26, 2019.  When compared to other Sub-Saharan African nations, Malawi has had relatively few success stories with initiatives designed to expand educational opportunities. Not only does Malawi have one of the highest rates of HIV infection in the world, resulting in over one million orphaned children, but it is also one of the world’s poorest nations, with the majority of its people living below the poverty line. Opportunities for education and vocational training are extremely limited and rarely accessible. So, children have few opportunities to improve their lives, thus the persistent cycle of poverty.

What are we doing?

We partnered with Joshua Orphan & Community Care, an incredible Malawi-based mission with over 20 years of experience helping children get access to education, basic healthcare and food. With Joshua, we built the required infrastructure for our program and trained the project officer and facilitators. 

We then gave 30 preschoolers our tablets with two major programs: English (using Footsteps2Brilliance educational technology) and Math (using Dragonbox technology). Each session lasted for 120 minutes.

What is the impact?

These children had never seen a tablet in their lives, but quickly adapted to the technology. Encouraged by their own progress with the programs, the more advanced students even took to helping their peers! Attendance increased and even exceeded our expectations because the children were self-motivated to learn. 

What’s next?

In less than 8 months, we went from educating 30 children to 54 children. We still use the same number of tablets but have added an afternoon shift to accommodate more children. The potential is to scale our program to all Joshua Centers.