My name is Chisomo K. Mwenelupembe. I am 14 years old. My home village is Chiputula. My father had died on 3 June 2009, he was a business man. My mother is a business lady. 

I was born in a family of four children. I am the only daughter in my family. I have three brothers. The first one is in Mzuzu University, he is on the loan. The second one is in Form 3. I am the third one now and I am in Form 2. The last one is in Standard 5. All are in school but it is difficult [for] my mother to find fees for us. I walk 20km to reach Chisala each day. 

I like my new school because if it was not there I could have dropped out [of] school. But now I am happy because I will reach my goals. My favourite subjects are English, Mathematics and Chemistry. 

If there was no Chisala School here, many people [would] have been married because schools are far from Chisala. Even we would have been drop out from school to just stay at home without something to do. 

I will improve my school by working hard so that I can reach my goals of being at job so that I can help my family. When I finish school, I want to become a doctor so that I can help people who are in need of treatment to be healed. 

Lastly, I would have to thank Mr Howard and DATUM and other donors for building this school for us so that we can reach our goals. I would like to say that if there is some who can help to do so for us for some materials, money, etc… 

When we start this school we were facing many problems and these problems were shortage of desks and chairs, shortage of water and electricity were also a problem. But now these problems are solved. 

My name is Magret R.P Chiwindo, I am 14 years old. I belong to a family of 9. 

I come from Malanda village (Chintheche), where my tribe belongs. I have one brother and one sister who are all learning. My father is a farmer and my mother is a business woman. 

I walk 5km to reach the school. I like my new school because it is when I pretend to achieve my goal. My favourite subjects are English, Mathematics, Geography and Social Studies. 

Chisala was opened on 7 September 2015, it began with 50 students and we didn’t know that Chisala would grow as it is now. We are proud of this school because if Chisala was not built, some of us may now be in marriage and maybe others would just be staying in their homes. 

If Chisala was not built, I could go to Mzuzu so that I can attend another school to be taught. I should show a good image so that when finishing schooling I should become a role model. 

I would like to be a lawyer so that I could judge some cases and bring justice to the country and within Malawians. 

Although I come far to reach the school – about 25km – I encourage myself to work hard in my school work so that I can achieve my goal. I would like to help my fellow relatives and even to tell my friends they should work hard at school so that they should self-manage and even help their fellow relatives. 

Lastly, I thank Datum and Mr Howard and donors for constructing our school and assistance with constructing the laboratory, library and computer/IT room. 

My name is Benjamin Phiri, I am one of the students at Chisala Community Day Secondary School. I am 15 years old, I live at Ulaya village. My mother’s name is Linily Chitambo and my father’s name is Lameck Phiri. My mother and father are separated but I live with Mum. 

My mother is a farmer she cultivates the garden in the rain season while my father is not doing anything but just stays [in] and as of now he is in Salima District. We are three children in our family – one boy, two sisters. My sister stopped school in Form 2 because of fees, and another one is married, 

At Chisala Secondary School, there are hardworking students and teachers, and there is a good relationship between teachers and students. There are almost 225 students. 

We thank Datum and Howard and other donors of this school – without them to build this school, maybe another girl was married, and other students stop school and others may be going to a school that is far from here. We are requesting you to do like this in other districts and areas in Malawi.