Brain Gym® in Malawi

About Malawi

Malawi is among the poorest countries in the world. Primary education is not compulsory. The constitution entitles everyone to five years of education, but students often receive far less. Government schools have an average of 100-200 children per class, while private schools have 50-70 students per class. There is no specific training for nursery school teachers—teachers are often high school graduates. Teaching is mostly done through oral repetition with few visuals. Blackboards and chalk are poor quality, there is often no electricity for indoor lighting, and rarely are there pencils and notebooks. Learning involves sitting still and not asking questions.

Making a Difference with Brain Gym®

Since 2011, Sigrid has spent five to six weeks each year training a group of educators, nursery school teachers, and youth leaders from different towns in South Malawi to teach the Brain Gym® activities and cooperative games. The work is now spreading into private schools around Balaka which have shown interest in the Brain Gym® program. This increasing interest requires materials and translation into Chichewa, the local language.

The training program has been entirely volunteer-based. Up until now, the materials needed have been provided by Sigrid with some donations from close friends. The local missionaries are ready to print the needed materials in Chichewa if sponsors are willing to sustain the costs. If you feel moved to help this project, please donate today.