Upendo Kids Are Going Places
Fall is here and the kids at Upendo Children’s Village have returned to school. It’s hard to believe that our oldest kids are 17 and many are planning to attend university. Young people in Malawi don’t often have the chance to complete high school.
It’s humbling and gratifying at the same time to think about the opportunities we are providing to these children. We are already preparing for the day when they “graduate” from Upendo and begin to follow their dreams.
Thank you, everyone! Your support makes all this possible.
WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
Our kids are all in school and many of them will one day attend university. Young people in Malawi don’t often have the chance to complete high school. It’s humbling and gratifying at the same time to think about the opportunities we are providing to these children.
We are already preparing for the day when the oldest kids “graduate” from Upendo and begin to follow their dreams. Bishop Samuel has broken ground on our own secondary school on property adjacent to the Village. Soon we will be able to educate the children ourselves.
“Train up a child in the way they should go, and when they are old they will not depart from it.”
— Proverbs 22:6
Teach
A NEW THING
The 2017-2018 school year is in the books and the report cards have arrived. Good news! All of our Upendo kids did extremely well in school. Luke was #1 in Standard 7 for all of Mzuzu! Lawrence, Gift, Joseph and Vitumbiko finished at the top of their class all three semesters! The top scoring kids in many grades were all from Upendo.
We appreciate the work done by our on-site tutors Shekinah, Wisdom and Janie. Some of our kids arrived at Upendo behind in their studies and our tutors give them the extra attention they need to thrive. Thank you everyone for helping raise up the future leaders of Malawi!
Next door to Upendo, between the Village and the church, foundations are being laid for a Upendo Secondary School on land owned by Bishop Samuel. His vision is to build an independent alternative to the local state-run schools. The Upendo kids will attend for free, while the families in the neighborhood will pay a fee to cover teacher salaries, maintenance costs and supplies.
The plan is to build 6 classroom buildings and a fully-plumbed, stand-alone restroom.
While not in the original construction, the plan is to also build a trade school to provide advanced skills training to graduating students.
Funding for the initial phase of construction came from a generous donor in the U.K. The stone, cement, sand, bricks and labor were obtained by Bishop Samuel and most of the foundations are already near completion. We are waiting on the Lord for funding to complete the work.