Mission Statement
The Sinthana Project takes its name and foundations from the Chichewa verb ‘Kusinthana’, meaning ‘to exchange’. This project aims to provide opportunities and space for community members to meet and develop their skills. In the spirit of ‘Sinthana’ there is always an opportunity to exchange skills and share learning both within the village, nationally and internationally. We believe that education and opportunity are key to successful community development, and we hope to provide a platform to encourage this. To provide learning and development opportunities for those who left school early or were unable to attend at all is as important to the community as supporting and complementing school curriculums and classroom activities.
How it started
We realized that in books there are hidden treasures. The aim was to transform our community into the a reading culture. We believed that through reading of books our children could excel in their studies and by that can become better citizens of the community. They would no longer need to rely only on fishing Industry or early marriages.
We started our first library at the Cape Maclear public primary school. This was back in 2007. It started from a large book donation from the United Kingdom. The UK project was called “Malawi Educational project” and was established in Bristol. In 2012 this organization also supplied the funds for the first building on our own plot of land. The Sinthana project was born.
After the initial funding the UK Project support was withdrawn. Since then, Sinthana has been supported by the French association “Learn and Live in Southern Africa”. They provided the further funds for all activities and additional building projects. We are where we are today because of the support of this association.
Sinthana is now proudly 100% self-sustainable for the salaries of all 16 staff.
The Sinthana Team
We currently have a staff of 16 dedicated people. We staff 6 teachers for the nursery school, 1 ICT teacher, 2 guards, 2 chefs, 2 farmers, 1 babysitter and 2 managers.
