A poet,
A politician,
A writer and an orator.
A teacher and lecturer.
A promoter of the Irish language, and the person who set up the first Irish TV Station (TG4).
A renowned humanitarian,
an inspiration.
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None other than Uachtaran na hEireann. (President of Ireland.) Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabina visited Malawi.
The President was on three week Presidential tour of Africa in November of this year. He visited Ethiopia, Malawi and South Africa. To Malawi this was the first ever official western presidential visit. While he was here in Malawi, he visited local projects and NGO’s that are supported by Irish Aid. In his few days, he made some powerful speeches to inspire change in many areas including that of female education and agriculture. He linked the shared history between Ireland and Malawi. We both gained independence from the UK, Ireland almost 100 years ago and Malawi 50 years. He also mentioned that both countries could learn a lot from each other and work together to make a better future for everyone.
To take a quote from our President’s speech,
“Ar scath a cheile a mhaireann na daoine.”
This is an Irish saying that translates literally as
People live in each other’s shadows, we are shielded from the sun by each other, we rely on each other for shelter. People need each other.
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I was honoured with an invitation to meet the President and his wife Sabina at an official reception at the Irish National Embassy in Lilongwe, the capital. The President spoke about the lack of places available for students wishing to attend secondary school in Malawi. There are only 4,000 places available for the whole country each year. This makes it extremely difficult for any Standard 8 student to enter secondary school, even though they have passed their primary state exams. Our President is advocating for a much needed development form the Malawian government in this area. There is an urgent need to build extra secondary schools to provide an opportunity for each child who passes the primary state exams to attend secondary school education.
On the night I had the opportunity to speak directly to the President. I told him all about our project. He was fascinated by the idea of twinning our schools. He said that he hopes that this could be a blueprint for other Irish schools to link up with schools in Africa so that both could develop and learn from each other. Sabina also seemed intrigued with this concept. I also got to meet many interesting Irish people who work in Malawi for Irish aid and organisations like Trocaire, Goal, Concern and the World Food Programme. I hope to link in with these organisations in the future to help develop Matandani school.
“The Twinning Idea”
Chatting about Scoil Bhride & Matandani
It was a lovely night and an honour to meet our President.
