tribal textiles

2009 at Malimba Community School has definitely been eventful so far this year. Flooding meant the school had to shut for a week; although luckily it was not as serious as in 2006 and it was not long before the pupils were able to safely return to their desks.

The flooding did not prevent the building of the Jojo Harris Malimba School Dining Hall which was officially declared open in March!

Headmaster Peter and teacher Andrew Malumpha stand knee deep in flood water in the Malimba School drive.(left) Children using the Jojo Harris Malimba School Dining Hall. (right)

The Malimba School Fund had agreed to help the school build a kitchen and storeroom to safely store the food that is being provided by the World Food Programme and give the children a suitable space to eat their meals in. It will also provide the students with another learning space. The building has been in construction over the past couple of months and is now complete.

Julie, General Manager of Tribal Textiles describes the opening day of this crucial new addition to Malimba School:

I received my handwritten invitation from Peter Chisenga, Malimba Schools' headmaster. The opening ceremony was to be held on Thursday 12th March and aptly this fell on a public holiday to mark 'Youth Day'.

As is usual for these sorts of events the school invites all those who have been involved in running and supporting the school to come along and participate in the celebrations, along with key figures from the local community including local councillors, headmen and Nduna's (local dignitaries who work closely with the chief).

The Honourable Chief Mnkhanya was guest of honour and arrived wearing a beautiful robe and matching hat; one of his first duties was to cut the red ribbon that had been suspended across the entrance to the building and a great cheer let out as everyone surged into the new building.

The master of ceremonies was one of the teachers, Andrew Malumpha, he has recently completed his teacher training, funded by the Malimba School Fund. Andrew welcomed everyone and we all stood to sing the National Anthem, followed by a prayer. Next some of the pupils, all wearing matching outfits, performed a traditional dance much to the delight of the audience. There was not enough room for everyone to fit inside so many of the pupils gathered around the outside of the building and leaned in eagerly to watch and hear what was going on.

Various speakers expressed their gratitude to all those that have worked to support the school. The Headmaster gave particular thanks to all those who had donated money to pay for this new building. Christina (Gid) Carr spoke on behalf of the Malimba School Fund and said how Malimba personified the concept of a community development with everyone working together, the school staff, parents, and sponsors have all helped to build and grow the school from its very small beginnings to how it looks today. Gid took this opportunity to remember dear Jojo Harris and thank her family and friends, who have so far raised over £9000 for Malimba, without which we would not have been able to afford to construct the new building.

We then were treated to a play performed by some of the pupils and clearly there are some future stars amongst the children, they were very entertaining and produced great laughter and amusement. Then some of the more mature local ladies performed traditional dancing and the chief was soon on his feet joining in.

As tradition dictates, the Chief is the last to speak and expressed his happiness and gratitude to all those involved in Malimba School and encouraged everyone to continue to work together to make an even better school for the community. He announced that building should be named after Jojo Harris and said that everyone referring to the building should not forget to use her name.

The formalities were then over and everyone stopped to enjoy lunch together and later in the afternoon there were netball and football matches with parents pitched against pupils.

* Jojo Harris was a great supporter of the school during the time she lived and worked in Zambia. Sadly she died in July 2008; her family and friends now work to raise funds for the charity set up in her memory. You can view the details at www.makemesmile.org

Extra curricular activities at Malimba

Whilst Malimba School focuses on ensuring children are given their basic education it is always great to be able to develop the creative and athletic talents of the students. In the western world we have long understood the benefits of sport and art in education so it is always wonderful to share this with the Malimba pupils where possible.

Tribal Textiles organised a drawing competition for Grade 6 and 7 pupils at Malimba. The students were asked to draw their favourite thing. They took to the task with great zeal and you could have heard a pin drop as the classroom, full of approximately 30 pupils, drew silently. Heads were bent low enough for noses to touch the paper and the only noise was when pupils would jump up and down in their seat, hand reaching for the ceiling, so as to get their teacher's attention and ask to borrow a coloured crayon.

The competition lasted an hour and there have been some stunning entries. The winning student will be given huge prestige; their picture will be adapted as a new design for Tribal Textiles which will be available to buy in the Tribal Textiles shops or for wholesale buyers all over the world. A percentage of proceeds from all sales of textiles in this design will go towards the Malimba Community School project.

We will update you on the winner of this competition and the new design in our next newsletter…

The Malimba students also eagerly await the Mfuwe inter-school sports competition which will kick off in the beginning of June. Here the local schools gather to compete in different sporting challenges such as football and netball. Naturally, what with Zambia being the football loving nation that it is, the students look forward to these events with a healthy competitive attitude.

Lack of sports kits is the major setback for the Malimba pupils and teachers. We would be extremely grateful for any donations towards this as it will enable as many pupils as possible to take part in what has to be one of the highlights of their school calendars. It would cost just $6 to buy one sports kit or $90 to buy enough sports kit for the whole team!

We are, of course, hoping for Malimba School to win the inter-school sports competition and we look forward to updating you on the results in our next newsletter!

Leaving the most important till last, due to the recession Malimba Community School is facing a particularly tough year in covering the running costs as donations have (of course) dwindled. To cover the basic running of the school we need to pay teachers' allowances and the watchmen salaries at a cost of $575 per month. We also need to keep looking to the future and continue funding the training of our up and coming trainee teachers at a cost of $1,900 per year. We appreciate that times are hard for everyone but hope that some of you may still be in a position to dig a little deeper and support Malimba through this lean time.

The Malimba children thank you for your support.

Contact us at sales@tribaltextiles.co.zm to find out how you can help,
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