There are countless stories of the sacrifice and dedication of the teachers who, day after day, work tirelessly on the noble mission of educating the younger generation. On this World Teachers’ Day, we are happy to share one of these stories, that of Jessie Custom in Malawi. Her journey illustrates teachers’ invaluable work and dedication. 

Jessie Custom is a community preschool teacher who comes from a village in the Southern part of Malawi. She started serving as a teacher in 2008 after attending the first cohort of Bambino Foundation training in 2007. Following the first phase of the training in Lilongwe, she started to implement what she had learnt. The first step was to meet the village headman to discuss with him the possibility of starting a school. The village headman helped mobilize the community and raise awareness of the new school to be set up. This was a welcome idea as the community had only one pre-school which was not consistent. With the help of the village headman and a few friends, the school started and about 17 children were enrolled. The school was named Mphatso, which means “Gift” in the native language. This school was a gift to the community after staying so many years without a pre-school.

Jessie’s class in session; the Parent-Teacher Association of the Mphatso Community School.

At the beginning, the school faced a number of challenges. Some obstacles were created by a community-based organization and Jessie had to meet with them to progressively resolve them. In addition, despite the training she attended, she still had little teaching experience.

Nevertheless, Jessie persevered in her efforts and as graduated students went on to study at the nearby Nkaombe primary school education, they were always leading in performance, prompting teachers to get involved with Mphatso preschool. The primary school started to accompany Jessie to strengthen her capacity to conduct lessons and sometimes helped with learning materials.

Jessie teaching her students.

In parallel, Bambino Foundation’s coordinators visited the school every week to work with Jessie in addressing the issues faced. The Foundation would also create spaces for teachers of different schools to meet and reflect on their service. As the school grew, a well-organized Parent-Teacher Association was appointed and started functioning in support of the school. 

The regular accompaniment and reflection spaces helped Jessie to develop certain abilities, qualities and skills that enabled her to gain confidence and ease in her work as a teacher. When the number of schools accompanied by Bambino Foundation in the area increased, Mphatso community preschool became a center for learning, where teachers of other schools could come and learn together.

Mona, Jessie’s daughter, secondary school student.

Today, most of the former students of Mphatso community preschool excel at higher levels of education. This includes Jessie’s children, who have themselves gone through Mphatso community preschool. One of them is in the first year at university and the other in secondary school. To be able to pay her two children’s school fees, Jessie has joined the village bank, where she borrows money that she uses as capital for her activities (doughnuts and chickens), supplemented by the school fees that parents pay for the services she renders to the community.

Happy World Teachers’ Day to all! May this day remind us of the debt of gratitude we all owe to teachers like Jessie!