By Watipaso Mzungu:
For years, the morning routine at Mtsiriza Primary School in Traditional Authority Chadza in Lilongwe was defined by queues and buckets.
Hundreds of learners and teachers depended on a single running tap that often ran dry, forcing pupils to spend learning hours searching for water and leaving the school struggling to maintain basic hygiene and sanitation.
That daily struggle has now come to an end.
Beatify Malawi (BEAM) Trust Patron, Gertrude Mutharika, on Friday handed over a solar-powered reticulated borehole system and a girls’ changing room to the school, fulfilling a promise she made when she visited the community last year and found learners learning under difficult conditions.
The facilities are part of the Trust’s Next Gen Hygiene Campaign, which seeks to improve water, sanitation and hygiene in schools and keep girls in class.
The new system comprises a solar-powered borehole, an elevated water tank and reticulated taps that will supply clean and safe water to classrooms, toilets and the surrounding community. Alongside it is a newly constructed private girls’ changing room designed to provide privacy, dignity and comfort for girls during menstruation.
Speaking during the handover ceremony, Headteacher Chifundo Malange described the support as life-changing for the school, which has an enrolment of over 1,000 learners.
“For a long time, water has been our biggest challenge. We had only one tap serving the whole school, and sometimes it would not produce water at all. Learners would waste time looking for water instead of being in class,” Malange said.
“With this solar-powered system, we now have reliable water throughout the day. It will improve cleanliness in our toilets, in our kitchen, and in our classrooms. Most importantly, the changing room will restore dignity to our girls. Many were missing classes during their periods because there was no private space. Now they will stay in school,” he said.
Malange said the intervention will also help reduce waterborne diseases and improve attendance, particularly among girls in upper classes who are most affected by poor menstrual hygiene management.
In her remarks, Mutharika said BEAM Trust remains committed to creating safe and dignified learning environments for Malawi’s children, especially the girl child. She said access to clean water and safe sanitation is not a privilege but a right that directly affects learning outcomes.
“When we visited Mtsiriza last year, we saw the need and we made a promise. Today we are here to fulfill that promise because every child deserves to learn in a clean, safe and dignified environment,” she said.
BEAM Trust thanked its partners for making the project possible — FISD Company Limited, which drilled and installed the solar-powered borehole system and water tank, and NBS Bank, which constructed the girls’ changing room.
The Trust said the partnership demonstrates how the private sector can complement Government efforts in promoting education, health and gender equality.
Under the Next Gen Hygiene Campaign, BEAM is targeting schools across the country with poor WASH facilities, focusing on provision of clean water, construction of changing rooms and promotion of hygiene education.
“Together with our partners, we are creating cleaner, healthier and more dignified learning environments for Malawi’s children — restoring dignity and inspiring hope, one school at a time,” an official from BEAM Trust said.
Parents and community leaders who attended the ceremony welcomed the development, saying it will not only benefit learners but also surrounding households who will have access to clean water.
For learners at Mtsiriza, particularly girls, the new facilities mark a new chapter — one where water is no longer a barrier to education and dignity is restored in the classroom.
