Bridget, 15, from Lilongwe, Malawi

My name is Bridget, I’m 15 years old and doing my secondary education. I have three brothers and two sisters, and live with my elder sister.

The house we live in has two bedrooms, a kitchen, a sitting room, a bathroom and a toilet. I live a few kilometers from the school. I consider myself to be lucky because some of my friends come from very far. They walk for 5 to 10 km on foot to reach their home in the remote areas. We have three terms each year and each term is about three months long.

The school buildings have been standing for over 40 years and most parts are wearing out. For instance, the ceiling has collapsed in most of the rooms. The sewerage system needs to be fixed. There are only 11 houses for members of staff. The staff room is very small and the multi-purpose hall does not have enough space to be used as a dinning hall and an examination room. The dinning hall has no tables or chairs; and when conducting examinations, desks are removed from the classrooms where students are forced to sit on the floor.

My school has a total number of six hostels, namely Nile, Shire, Volta, Niger, Zaire and Zambezi. Students are allocated according to bays. Each hostel accommodates up to 80 students. The hostels are under the care of the Matron and House Mothers. Teachers also look at the affairs of the girls in the hostels. Each hostel is allocated two house patrons.

My school receives its funding from the Government, which is not enough to carter for all our needs. The diet is very poor. We eat beans from Monday to Sunday, and sometimes once a fortnight we are given meat or eggs. Sometimes I get very depressed when the beans have weevils or are not well cooked. There are some women who sell vegetables as a supplement. Those who come from poor families are unable to buy any.

In my class we are 49 in number but we do not have enough teaching and learning materials. For example, we share ten books for an English comprehension lesson. This makes my life difficult. Mind you, there are other schools in far worse situations than mine. My teachers are hardworking and my school is graded as one of the schools which produces excellent results in national examinations.

My best subjects are maths, English language, physical science and English literature. After classes I usually go to the hostels for a rest. At 5.30pm I go for supper and at 6.30 I do homework, which takes two hours. I usually go to sleep at 10pm.

My ambition is to become an economist. The reason is to make sure that the economy is monitored for the success of my country. I really want to get Malawi off the poverty line. Poverty is something very terrible. In poor countries we have to fight for survival.