Reporting Back from Malawi

By Philippe van den Bossche on 02.05.10

Last week I travelled to Malawi to meet with team leaders and make site visits to foundation projects.

I have a great deal of good news to report back from my trip. However, I want to take a moment to focus the encouraging progress of the Raising Malawi Academy for Girls. I also want to introduce you to Anjimile Oponyo, our newly appointed CEO and Head of the Raising Malawi Academy for Girls.

RAISING MALAWI ACADEMY FOR GIRLS PROGRESS

Last Tuesday, having just flown in to Lilongwe from New York, I went directly to Anjimile’s office to collect Markus Dochantschi of studioMDA and Ishmael Patel of IM Designs—two partners involved in designing and building the RMAG project—and drove out to the site to review what progress the contractors have made.

I was very impressed to find we are almost finished with phase one of construction (the clearing and the grading of the land) just four months after breaking ground. Everything is moving on or ahead of schedule, and it appears the site will be ready for our bricklaying ceremony this April when the construction of the buildings will begin in earnest.

To see progress on this scale is absolutely amazing. Touring the site I began to feel as though the opening of the school would soon be a reality. Knowing that in two short years the Raising Malawi Academy for Girls will be ready to welcome 450 girls, selected from every part of Malawi, inspires me to double my efforts to ensure this school lives up to its promise.

ANJIMILE OPONYO

That Friday, Anjimile hosted a dinner in my honor. The entire Raising Malawi Academy for Girls team (50 people including architects, partners, engineers, and board members) joined the reception.

Each time I am with Anjimile, I am reminded how remarkable she is and how fortunate we are to have her working on this project.

One would be hard-pressed to find a more qualified person to develop the curriculum and lead the efforts at our academy. With a background in education, intimate knowledge of Malawi, and experience in administering schools, she is able to pool together a wealth of wisdom that few people, if any, can match.

Anjimile was raised and educated in Malawi. As a young woman she taught high school, worked in the Ministry of Education, and held a position as national women’s coordinator. From there she went on to receive a Masters Degree in Education from The George Washington University. And for her doctoral studies, she focused on the attitude of Malawian parents towards their girls’ educations.

Her resume also includes stints at the World Bank Regional Training Programme and the International Monetary Fund, and a sabbatical at the Harvard Business School. At the time she contacted us about the RMAG position, Anjimile was hard at work building schools in Lebanon as part of the United Nations Development Programme.

During my visit she told me she’s has already started looking for teachers to staff the school. Hiring women is important to her, and hiring Malawian women to teach these girls math and sciences is doubly important. She wants these teachers not just to educate, but to serve as role models for the girls to reinforce the message that they’re able to do anything. In this way, one sees that Anjimile’s focus is not just on teaching the girls a textbook education, but continually ensuring the environment at the academy will inspire and empower her students to lead productive lives.

In the coming weeks she will also begin the work of developing a comprehensive curriculum while continuing to line up support for the academy around Malawi. She tells me the academy has been well received from within the government as well as around the country; having met with Malawian officials during my visit, I know this to be true.

Anjimile has agreed to update us as she continues to shape the vision of the Raising Malawi Academy for Girls. Her coming dispatches will not just be detail the latest hirings or the arrival of books—her posts will also layout the unique concept behind the Raising Malawi Academy for Girls, one of empowering and educating girls in a protected environment. This is just the beginning, as we hope to see this innovative model employed in other countries around the world.