EVELYN PHOCAS | MANGOCHI

My name is Evelyn Phocas. I was born in 2001 in Mangochi District. I am a girl and I am in form 4 at Nankhwali Secondary School. English is my favorite subject. I also like writing poems and stories aimed at advising my fellow students and entertaining them. When I grow up and finish school I want to be a nurse.

Our school likes organizing trips every term. Our class likes doing debate more than once per week and being in groups doing discussions as a way of learning. Mr. Emmanuel Bisayi is our teacher and he is also the Head Master of Nankhwali Secondary School. I am a well-known girl at this school and I have so many friends but my best friends are Alena, States, Daina and Emmanuel.

I am living with both parents and my parents are peasant farmers and they also do a small scale business. I have two brothers and three sisters making a total of six.

We have seen people who are building the water pumps and we think that they are trying to bring sources of water at this school. They are building water pumps through UNICEF Malawi with the help of German NATCOM. We have talked to them and they have explained to us that they are building water pumps with the help of German NATCOM through UNICEF Malawi. The teachers have also explained to us clearly what is happening.

The biggest problem at our school is that we have a source of water a borehole at this school which produces salty water of which many students are not happy to drink. Therefore, we walk a long distance to find water sources with fresh water.

In addition, girls at this school are doing self-boarding; as such they are at risk of being raped since they are used to get fresh water in the river that is at a long distance than where the borehole is.

Our school experiences poor sanitation or unhygienic conditions since the school is lacking water. People found here are not taking any action to end this problem. As students, we walk a long distance to find water for cleaning the classes, toilets as well as the hostel where the girls are living. Girls are not living comfortably since they are lacking good and safe water.Unhygieniccondition cause a lot of diseases at Nankhwali and some diseases are coughing and diarrhea. This slows the development of our school and makes other students not to fulfill their ambitions.Unhygienic condition results in unhealthy body conditions of students at this school.

Long distance for us students to have fresh water. Distance from school to where we get fresh water is almost 3 km than distance from school to where the river is. As a result, students decide to fetch water in the river which results in water borne diseases. We drink unsafe water which results in low education since no one can attend lessons while he/she is sick.

Lastly, time is another problem. Long distance for us to find fresh water also contribute in disturbing time for studies as we use more time to find fresh water because we cannot live without. Quarrels among learners on who is going to draw water first due to long queues occur.