Educate and Nourish 50 Students in Rural Malawi

EKARI Foundation has had a busy and exciting few months! Thirteen students from the University of Michigan College of Engineering volunteered with EKARI in Phalombe, Malawi. As part of EKARI’s Tutoring Program, the volunteers offered free small group tutoring lessons to the entire Phalombe community at the EKARI Community Building teaching English, Math, Biology, Science, and Computer Science in order to prepare students for their final high school exam. Several volunteers also assisted teachers and offered tutoring sessions after school at the local Phalombe Secondary School.

There were about 45 students from the Phalombe community who attended the tutoring sessions at EKARI’s community building, most of whom were students attending night school and whom had previously failed their final high school exam due to lack of reference materials, such as library books, and inexperienced teachers. Without EKARI’s Tutoring Program, the participating students would not have had access to small group tutoring and highly risked failing their final exam again. The University of Michigan volunteers were able to simplify the information the students needed to understand for their final exam and provide detailed explanations. Because there were several volunteers for each class, the students had more time to ask the volunteers questions and really learn. The volunteers afforded the opportunity for the Phalombe students to cover the majority of the topics in their course load, which were to be included in the final exam. Esnart, a student who participated, stated, “There are a lot of things that I benefitted from these volunteers… I understand things that I never knew before from the time I was in my school, they just explain very clearly… about physical science, right now I am able to balance equations [which I couldn’t do before]… and I know everything is possible….” EKARI Foundation also provide d all of the classroom materials including books, pencils, paper and chalk for the tutoring sessions.

In partnership with EKARI Foundation, the University of Michigan volunteers have made a true impact because the students will now have a better chance of passing their final exams; final exam scores are very important because they are part of the application process for college and trade school  in Malawi. The students have asked that the University of Michigan volunteers return. EKARI’s plan is to continue this partnership on a yearly basis!