We have been spending the month of November screening though hundreds of applications: the Jacaranda school is the only free primary and secondary school in Malawi, and numerous students are willing to enroll with us. Thanks to the secondary schoolblock we just finished building, we were able to accept 90 new students. We gave priority to orphans left out of school and in dire need of help. Our headmaster and teachers visited the houses where the children live, to meet the relatives and to assess the situation on the ground. Many students will have to walk up to two and a half hours every morning to reach the Jacaranda school. Most of them live with their grandmother or an older sister or brother. For all of them, learning at the Jacaranda school is a great chance to completely change their lives, finish their studies, graduate and find a qualified job. Meet a few of our new students below (these pictures were taken when we visited their homes). And please help us equip the Jacaranda school, so these teenagers can truly succeed in life! Thank you.

Elizabeth, Matthews and Peter are brothers and sisters. They lost both their parents and live with their grandmother (sitting in the middle), who cannot afford to send them to school. Last year, we enrolled Elizabeth in Form 1, but we could not take in her brothers because of lack of space. This year, thanks to our new secondary schoolblock, both Matthews and Peter are joining our Form 3 class.

Bertha in front of her mud bricks and thatched roof house (with all the children of the neighborhood!). Below, Bertha stands along the path leading to her home.

Bertha is 19 years old and in January 2009, she will start Form 1 (first year of secondary school) at the Jacaranda school. She is much older than the regular age at this level (14 to 15 years old), because she dropped out of school and stayed home for years. Bertha stopped going to school because she could not afford the school fees at the secondary level. She lives with her sister and survives with the litte maize the two girls are cultivating; they also do "piece work" for their neighbors, tending their garden and fetching water. Bertha's mother died when she was a little girl. Her father abandoned her years ago. Bertha's dream is to become a nurse.

Martha is an 18 year-old girl who also dropped out of school because her mother could not afford the fees. Martha's father died in 2005. Her mother provides for her and her sister with the maize and vegetable they grow in their small garden. In the picture below, Bertha is busy taking care of the maize. In January 2009, she will join our school.