Mphatso Nursery school is located in the Southern Region of Malawi. It is among the first 10 schools Bambino Foundation (our partner in Malawi) established in 2008. The school is owned by the Mkaombe community and Jessie Custom is the sole teacher that has been working there since its establishment.

Jessie Custom and her husband were simple subsistence farmers in the Southern Region of Malawi and struggled to survive solely on their farming income. After participating in a teacher training from Bambino Foundation, Jessie was offered the position of operating the Mphatso Nursery school with 25 students attending the first year. The training she received at Bambino Foundation gave her the possibility to provide quality education to the children in her community and offer them a good foundation for primary school. By the end of the first year, 17 students were able to graduate. This result amazed the Head Teacher of Mkaombe Primary School so much that she started a personal campaign to recommend parents to send their children to her school. With this support and encouragement, Jessie managed to not only increase the number of students attending her school but also broadened her knowledge and skills to give tutorial classes to students in need.

The sustainable growth of the Mphatso Nursery School, is very much a result of the community’s efforts. It soon became necessary to build an appropriate school infrastructure to meet the increasing number of students. The community mobilized to construct a classroom block by molding bricks and contributed some money to buy iron sheets. A member of parliament from the community even donated some chicks to be raised as an income generating activity to support the school.

Not only has the school gained strong grounds, but Jessie managed to construct a roof for her house and is able to pay for her daughter’s secondary school fees with the money she is generating from the school. She has also been able to create work for others in her community by hiring people to work in her garden while she is busy teaching at the school.