News: Malawi

Francisco remembers the last straw. He was eight years old and there was no food in the house. The walk to school was long. He couldn’t do it anymore. 
 

Sitting in the American camp office and laughing about campers and cultural differences, you couldn’t feel farther away from the harsh world Ireen paints with her stories. But they are her life—though it’s hard to believe this soft-spoken, confident, beautiful young Malawian woman was once fighting on the street for food to bring back to her abusive father and dying mother. 

When I was a kid, our telephone was mounted to the wall in the kitchen; its long, curly cord almost touched the floor. We didn’t have an answering machine so when the phone rang, we answered. 

On Saturday, June 6, 35 Malawian high school seniors celebrated the end of their high school studies at Children of the Nations' International Christian Academy. Finishing high school is a rare and prestigious accomplishment for any child in Malawi, where drop-out rates are high due to school costs, teenage marriages, and other social pressures. You could feel the excitement and sense of accomplishment in the air as these young students celebrated this milestone.