Education in times of emergencies
The devastating Cyclone Idai in Malawi left over 80,000 households displaced, losing property, homes while others lost their lives.
In response to the devastating effects of the floods that followed, the Malawi government, local organisations, individuals and the international community moved in to support and fast track the recovery from the natural disasters in various ways mainly through donating relief items.
However, the floods did not only affect people at household levels but in school learners were also affected and traumatised. In response, an Education in Emergency program was introduced by the Education Cluster in the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology to among others offer psycho-socio support to children and community members that were affected.
DAPP Malawi through its four Teachers Training Colleges of Chilangoma, Amalika, Dowa and Mzimba has deployed 25 volunteer teachers in eight of the nine districts namely Mangochi, Balaka, Zomba, Phalombe, Mulanje, Thyolo, Chikwawa and Nsanje.
Through the District Education Managers Officer, the newly graduated teachers were allocated in various schools where they will be working for three months from June 2019.
Chisomo Ben is a volunteer teacher at Nyangu primary school, in Livunzu education zone, Chikwa district, who arrived at the school on 7 June 2019.
He said apart from teaching in classes he works with community members to encourage them to continue sending their children to school.
“We were trained to offer psycho socio support to families, this is to ensure that they do not create fear in their children who were traumatised, we promote water, sanitation and hygiene activities as well as engage in extracurricular activities for the learners and these are mainly sporting activitie,” he explained.
The head teacher for Nyangu school Mr Emmanuel Thonje applauded the Education in Emergency program for coming in as a relief to the school since two teachers had left the school after their houses got washed away by flooding water.
DAPP Malawi through its TTCs trains teachers who are not only groomed in their career but are also humanly prepared to become change agents in rural areas where they will be teaching by playing leading roles in community building efforts.
To date, DAPP has trained over 2900 teachers in its four Teachers Training Colleges.
