SPONSOR JUDITH
The first time that we heard about Judith’s story was from the headmaster of Kazomba primary school. We arrived to this school for the first time thinking that was one of the schools that we were supposed to work with.
Kazomba primary school is already being assisted by DFID (English organization for Development) and JOCA (Japanese aid on Development) so we decided to continue to focus on the other schools that are in rural areas and more in need. After all, this is almost an urban school, very near Mzimba town and well organized, with 19 teachers.
But for one particular reason, our help was requested by the headmaster. A girl called Judith could not learn in the same way like her colleagues in Kazomba school. She has something different from the rest, she cannot hear. This school, despite of having good results at national level, doesn’t have specialized teachers that could properly teach her in sign language.
He told us about the existence of one school in this region named Embangweni School for the Deaf.
We wanted to know more about this school, if could be possible to help Judith. We decided to visit the school to see the methods and conditions, application forms and fees.
The environment lived there was just amazing, we felt true happiness in children’s faces. They were not regarded as with some incapacity but like normal. All the world there was adapted to them, all the teachers and learners communicate in sign language and they were just happy playing around.
We spoke with the headmaster that told us that Embangweni is a public school, however there are some school fees: 10 000kw per term for food fee and 1000kw per term for hospital fee.
Each year has three terms so we decided to go ahead with the decision of sponsoring Judith’s studies in Embangweni school. She had already been at that school but due to lack of money, her family couldn’t pay these fees anymore. When she was in Embangweni she could socialize with her colleagues, unlike in Kazomba school that she struggles to express herself.
On the next day that we came back from Embangweni, we had a meeting in Kazomba school with the headmaster Mr. Dickens, Judith and her grandfather to tell them our decision to pay her the studies until the end of secondary school.
Judith will start the studies in Embangweni on September because they don’t accept students in the middle of the school year. However, we agreed everything with her family and Mr. Dickens. The inscription form was given to the family, and the headmaster in Embangweni school confirmed that a place is there for her.
We decided to give the money for the first year to Mr. Dickens, the headmaster of Kazomba school. He will keep the money until it’s time to pay the first fees. We trust him since the first thing that he was worried about when we met, was the future of one single student. This revealed us humanity.