By Amos Phiri Chigwa

Mchinji, February 27, Mana: Community members from Senior Group Village Head Diti, Traditional Authority Dambe in Mchinji have breathed a sigh of relief after receiving iron sheets for a classroom from a humanitarian, Anthony Masamba.

Masamba will also foot the cost of roofing the classroom, which has stayed for three years without a roof, giving learners a more conducive place for studies than under trees which they used due to lack of classrooms.

Speaking in an interview over the weekend after the gesture, Masamba expressed his concern about challenges faced by schools in Mchinji North East Constituency as a whole.

"Schools are facing numerous challenges in this constituency, children are learning under the trees, lack of enough infrastructure and enough teachers are forcing children into early marriages. We cannot keep on watching our community fall like this, we need to do something,” said Masamba.

Masamba called for support from community members, saying it will lead to improvement in the development of this community.

"Our community is trailing in terms of development; we cannot wait for someone somewhere to do something for us. We need to start supporting ourselves wherever we can if we are to live a better life. We should not depend on government to do everything for us but rather we should try to help the government in achieving its development goals,” he said.

Masamba said he is targeting five schools with the development of infrastructures, desks, and many other assorted items as this will give a chance to the youth to play an active role in achieving the Malawi 2063 agenda.

Headmaster of Diti Primary School, Rowlings Mbendera, who also happens to have taught Masamba, hailed his former student for his efforts of trying to improve the education standards of the community.

"This is the spirit that the nation needs if we are to achieve Malawi Vision 2063. Masamba has shown how passionate he is to improve the wellbeing of his community.

“At this school we are suffering a lot, we do not have desks, and we have few classroom blocks. Coming in of the Iron sheets for the school block will help us to solve the problems of learning under trees, and mixing classes when rains come,” said Mbendera.

Senior Group Village Head Diti congratulated Masamba for the donation.

"We have suffered for a long time as a community; we built this school block on our own as community members three years ago, and throughout the period we have been hunting for the iron sheets but to no avail to the extent that we decided to thatch it with grass," said the chief.