Lilongwe Science Academy, Malawi

The Lilongwe Science Academy was founded just outside of the capital of Lilongwe, by Elton Chingapa, with the aim of creating an affordable high school education with a science focus ultimately aimed at employment in a country with a high rate of unemployment. Elton grew up in Kangoma but had the opportunity to be educated in the west. Unlike many of his peers he returned home to marry and to contribute to the community by creating a school. Like many parts of rural Africa, young people, and women in particular do not make it through high school. The costs are too great and the need for them to work at home in order for the family to survive too essential. Elton and his peers worked with community members to make school affordable, in part by having almost no overhead, and taking low teacher salaries. The students expressed great interest in learning, nonetheless keeping them in the class all the way through graduation remained difficult when it was so hard to find jobs in Malawi.