Rose Mbendera

A Profile of our Adult Education Manager

Mrs. Mbendera is one of our newest employees, having joined Bola Moyo in Balaka in January 2008. Rose leads the adult literacy classes that take place in the afternoon every weekday at the Bola Moyo Center. The lessons she gives to our adult students include English, Mathematics, and Chichewa (the local language). Her students are generally women aged 16 to 65 who either had to drop out of school around 2nd or 3rd grade, or who never had the opportunity to attend school at all in the past.

Rose originally hales from Mchinji district in the far west of Malawi, although she spent many of her formative years in Zambia. She moved to Balaka in 1972 when she married her husband, who is a retired police officer. She has five adult sons.

Bola Moyo WomenRose was a housewife for 32 years, but after her children left home she decided to dedicate her life to promoting adult literacy and education in her community. She developed her own adult literacy program and curriculum, which she taught in Balaka with spirited dedication solely on a voluntary basis for six years. In early 2007, we decided she was so talented that we would swoop her up and give her a job to continue doing what she does best.

She also manages the Adult Education portion of ALiCE, where women who have reached at least Standard 5 can study a more formal curriculum to eventually take their Standard 8 exams. In the future we hope to expand the program to support students who want to go onto secondary school and beyond.

Rose is an invaluable employee who has been instrumental in the success of our adult education programs. Zikomo kwambiri (thanks very much), Rose!