Back on the Ground in Malawi: The First School Building in Chepezi Is Complete - 11.11.2026
We have been back in Malawi since 7 November, visiting projects and talking with our partners. One date was at the top of the list from the start: Lidzinji Primary School in Chepezi.
A little over a year ago, we stood there between two classroom buildings in need of repair and the reed shelters where many of the roughly 900 pupils had their lessons. In June, we sat down in Mganja with everyone involved in the project to settle the last open questions before construction began; at that point, not a single spade had gone into the ground in Chepezi. Today, a finished school building stood in front of us: freshly painted, with a solid roof and a veranda.
Since construction began in July, we have followed its progress mostly from afar. Frank, Matthew and Patrick from our partner NGO visited the site regularly and kept us supplied with reports and photos, our Technical Advisor inspected the work, and in October word came that the first building was nearly finished. Seeing it for ourselves is something else again.
At the site, we were welcomed by the foreman who runs the work there. One finished building does not make a complete school, though, most of our conversation with him was about what comes next. We are meeting the contractor, Chiputula, tomorrow to discuss the next phases of construction.
The other big event of this trip is the first general meeting of our partner NGO, which takes place in the coming days at the guesthouse in Mganja. At this meeting, the still young organisation gives itself a permanent structure: its members elect their board and decide on the name under which the NGO will work from now on.
From the very beginning, the idea was for an organisation to emerge here that is owned and led by people from the region. All of the NGO’s members live locally, and they elect the board democratically from among themselves. For us, this is essential: the people the projects are meant for should be the ones deciding which projects to take on and how. We supported and advised the NGO through the legal process of its founding, and we would now like to attend this first general meeting as guests. We will report on the meeting and share more about the NGO in a separate post.
