Welcome to the home of the Malawi Education Project

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Watch us on YouTube - MEP, the Cape Maclear story so far...

'Working in Malawi, and in particular meeting the staff and students of the schools, has been a truly amazing experience. This project has already impacted many lives, and will continue to improve many more in the future.'
Ellen Doherty, Assistant Project Coordinator.

In the two years I have been involved with MEP, it has evolved into an organisation that has identified a realistic role to fulfill in the country, which is to improve levels of education for school children through library access and development, and in turn giving them more potential for their future.
Joe Volk, Finance and Events Coordinator

'I'd seen the kids beg a foreigner for a pen, you just can't ignore the look in their eye from the heart. All the resources exist, some are just in the wrong place and need moving'
Lou Fitzpatrick, Project Founder and Coordinator

'Many people especially in Cape Maclear say that MEP is a hope for a society in which all people can be truly equal'
Brighten Ndawala, Project assistant.

'I can see that this project is to benefit the Malawi Education system tremendously'
Simeon Hau, Secretary for Ministry of Education, Malawi

'...That's the bottom line - a poorly trained teacher in a poor teaching environment teaching a poorly prepared student... they have the recipe for failure. That's what we're dealing with, and this project is very good to help us out of there'
Head of Ministry's Educational Development Management Unit - Roy Hauya

'That's what children of that age actually need - to be in contact with something they can read, some stimulus in terms of drawing, pictures. They are not there! If they can get that within the first 3 / 4 years of their lives, they have got a much, much better start. By the time they get into Standard 4 / 5 they have got a much broader understanding of things, so it (Malawi Education Project) is a very, very worthwhile investment'
Head of Ministry's Educational Development Management Unit - Roy Hauya

About the project

Malawi Education Project (MEP) is a Bristol (UK) based Charity that aims to support education, literacy and access to learning resources in Malawi, South East Africa.

Why Malawi?

Malawi is currently the worlds' 13th poorest country, and one of the least developed, with an average literacy rate of just 63%. The country is politically stable and conflict-free, and became a multi-party democracy in 1994. Free Primary education was also introduced in 1994, and with it came new problems for an already overstretched system. Class sizes increased dramatically, putting extra pressure on teachers to manage classes of up to 100 pupils. Although there is no fee for primary education, financial barriers still remain in the form of purchasing uniforms, pencils and exercise books. Educational resources are minimal to non-existent in most government schools, with an average of less than 1 textbook per student, and because of this the quality of mainstream education achieved is low. The problems are much worse for girls than boys, who complete Primary school in much fewer numbers.

How we started

MEP began life as a book donation project, collecting surplus educational resources - including books, sports kit and stationery - and shipping them to Malawi in 2006. In doing so, MEP created two pilot libraries, in Cape Maclear Primary School and Sambani Secondary. Energised by the success of the pilot, MEP came back to the UK where support for the project had grown, and decided to turn this good idea into a sustainable, effective and efficient charity, with the vision of helping thousands of the worlds' poorest children to gain an education that will in turn assist the development of Malawi as a Nation.

What we've achieved so far

MEP is a relatively young organisation, founded as a one-woman mission to impact on poverty in Malawi, still pending charitable status. Since it's creation in 2006, the project has:

installed two pilot libraries, in one rural government funded primary school and one urban private secondary school
supported the development and further resourcing of the Cape Maclear library with Chichewa books as well as supplying locally manufactured tables, benches and shelving
supported training for school staff on how to effectively use the library and librarianship training
employment and training of a full time library assistant, and creation of systems of library management, lending and monitoring
helped Cape Maclear library become a well-used space, impacting on progression to secondary education, improved literacy levels and engagement of school children into the usage and relevance of books
initiated holistic packages of library service development at Cape Maclear, which will form the basis of MEP's future library service development work
successfully overseen the collection of resources and their final installation at both libraries, to our knowledge making MEP the only charity in Malawi that oversees the installation of books into libraries, ongoing stock control and library service development

A fresh look at our strategy

In November 2008 MEP set out to develop the strategic direction of the organisation. This resulted in MEPs' first annual review in January 2009, facilitated with international development professional input and evaluation of the project's progress to date. Simultaneously a fact-finding trip to Malawi raised a series of questions about the project's direction and gathered the most up-to-date information available on educational needs in Malawi through a series of meetings with Malawian Government, National Library Service, DfID (the UK Department for International Development) and district education authorities. It also highlighted the number of well-researched resources donated by a variety of charities to the National Library Service that are stock-piled within the country, undistributed due to financial and logistical constraints.

A brand new direction

These processes have facilitated a number of recommendations for the project's future direction. The pilot installations at Cape Maclear and Sambani schools had followed a donation-based model of development. This has raised questions around the cultural and developmental delivery implications in regards to good practice. It is more widely considered good practice to support the ?Book Chain' within the country, utilising local publishing and curriculum and culturally relevant resources rather than to undermine the development of in-country publishing. It also highlighted that MEP needed to clearly identify its community and consult with the community more fully, adopting a fuller Anti-Oppressive Practice working model, and engaging the community as partners in project delivery, together with improved quality assurance processes, and robust monitoring and evaluation frameworks to monitor the impact of the project.

Goodbye donor-led, hello community-led

In response to the above Malawi Education Project seeks to justify its existence more effectively and undertake a series of changes in the approach to resource generation and the creation of libraries. The new direction of MEP aims to make the project user-led, community and consultation-led, and strongly evidenced. The role of MEP in the process has readjusted to the role of facilitator, in partnership with communities, government and NGO's, rather than sole benefactor. MEP has decided to focus on library development and cease book collection and donation from the UK. However MEP will ship book resources already collected, but will focus in the future solely on collecting other educational resources that cannot be accessed in-country, such as sports and science equipment. Resources for MEP supported libraries will be sourced from a variety of outlets, including book donation organisations and direct from local publishers.

Future Plans

Having gained charity status in the UK, MEP is now on a major fundraising drive and preparing to register as an NGO in Malawi. The charity is currently identifying strategic partnership organisations, and developing its needs assessment, community participation and monitoring and evaluation strategies. Cape Maclear primary school is receiving continued support, including increased training and extra locally published resources being fed in to the library.

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