Missionaries Make a Difference

When teams or other visitors from America go to Upendo one of their most important jobs is to help the children improve their English, which is required at school.  Just working and playing  with the kids improves their conversation and reading skills.  We are working on a curriculum that our volunteers can use while they build relationships with the kids at Upendo.

We are blessed to have trained teachers like Thomas Johnston and Candy Giles making regular visits to Malawi. This past year they spent time working with students who were preparing for exams to be placed in secondary schools.  They also spent a day planting fruit trees with the tutors and their students.  They put wire around each tree to protect from them the goats, and every week the kids measured the height of the saplings and wrote it on a ribbon.  It was a wonderful time of speaking English and building relationships.

EDUCATION, VOCATION & LANGUAGE

Education at Upendo Children’s Village continues to be a very high priority for us.  All the children are in school and we are committed to educating them to the highest level they can achieve.  After school our hired tutors work with the children, especially those who arrived at the Village behind in their studies.  We are starting to identify children who need extra instruction and pairing them with older kids and “mamas” who can help.

This year we hope to set up a “learning center” in the church building up the hill from Upendo equipped with stations for English learning activities, games, art, and crafts.  In the future our goal is to train our tutors in teaching techniques using manipulatives, games, writing and comprehension activities.

December 8, 2018