Oasis of LifeNets Nursery School in Lilongwe, Malawi

Oasis of LifeNets Nursery School
Lilongwe, Malawi

(last updated September 6, 2010)

In 2006 LifeNets considered a project proposal by a husband-wife team of Howard and Ruth Elia. Both are schoolteachers with a dream to build and operate a nursery school in a busy area of Lilongwe, the capital city of Malawi. When this building is fully complete, it will accommodate 100 nursery school children age three to five years old. The school will be self-sustaining. The school opened on July 7, 2010 as the dream is being fulfilled...

We are so excited about the opening of the Oasis of LifeNets Nursery School which happened on July 7, 2010. Here is the announcement that was sent out by Howard and Ruth Elia:

Report from Howard Elia:

The last K100 000 has now been put to use We have all the spaces between the roof and the wall (which the builders call B filling). We bought and installed pipes for electricity, we bought sand for plastering, we bought one door and the door frame, we bought a three glass window we bought a meter cage for the electric meter box.

Glasses we can afford, floor can be done in the future. Other minor things will be done in the future. I think we really need electricity for audio/visual aids for delivering lessons. We need to do windows for security of our learning materials plus most importantly in Malawi we are in winter and temperatures can drop from the normal 28-30 degrees Celsius to 7 degrees in Lilongwe. If our windows are left undone our little students can be exposed to pneumonia.

This is one area the city officials will be looking for when they come to visit before they give a go ahead to the start of the school. We are still on track to start in June.

I would like to assure you that the work done there is commendable. It is a structure that attracts attention and good comments from passers by. I believe you will be impressed when you see it physically.

With a lot of thanks,
Howard.

The project was begun in May 2007 after the purchase of a plot of land and the start of construction. In October 2008, Victor and Beverly Kubik along with Scott and Collette Lockwood and their daughters Michala and Kirsten visited the school site on October 12, 2008.

Progress towards completion is proceeding and as we include photos below from our 2008 visit plus a visit from LifeNets Malawi board chairman Elifazi Salawila on February 28, 2010. The roof was added after their visit.

Four teachers will be hired for the school. The Elia's have named the school Oasis of LifeNets.

From the Elia's: "To invest in education has always been our dream. We can see such a dream turning into reality because of LifeNets who have seen us this far and proved that they wont let us walk alone."