From Bookless To Board Member:

Mathews’ Story of Growing Up in Rural Malawi

My name is Mathews Sapemba Tisatayane. I was born in a village in the central region of Malawi, a small country in Southern Africa. Growing up in a rural area of one the poorest nations on earth, life was a challenge. I had to walk four miles each way to go to school. I got my first pair of shoes when I was twelve years old.  My school had no resources and therefore a teacher’s only alternative was to write on what we called a “black board” even if it was not necessarily black as it was made from soil.

Books were something that I thought belonged to the adult world. I remember when I received my first book at the age of eighteen. It was and still is a memorable day in my life. I carried that book the whole day as it was my prized possession, and even slept with it under my pillow. Yes, that first book was my new friend whom I trusted more than anything else.

After finishing high school, I decided to become a teacher. I was inspired by my teachers’ enthusiasm despite an obvious lack of resources to effectively teach. At teacher’s college was the first time I experienced the wonders of electricity.  It was when I became a teacher that I realized what my teachers had gone through day by day. There were times when even the whole school could not afford this textbook or that. Without books to refer to, I taught only what I could remember from my own education. We would even resort to sending one of the students to walk to the nearest school to borrow a copy of a textbook. The shortage of books made many of us to even want them more.

A few years ago, I fell in love with and married a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer that came to teach in my village.  Today I am a college nursing student in the U.S. and proud member of the board of directors for the African Library Project. Though this story represents my past, there are millions of children in Africa right now whose lives are not very different than mine was as a child. Remembering my past and knowing that many children are still struggling with the same challenges I faced has inspired me to work with ALP to bring libraries to those who do not have them. ALP is my opportunity to give that little, eager child somewhere a life long trip into a better world as it should be. You too can make a difference.