By Patrick Bwanali
Last year, when I was working as an editor for Together magazine, published by Montfort Media in Balaka – Malawi, I did an article, which I entitled “Mission Possible”. In this article I featured four orphans (three from Balaka and one from Mulanje) who despite many problems orphans meet, they managed to excel with their education.
Yasinta Antonella Munlo
Little did I know that just after a year I would be working with one of them, Yasinta has just finished her Bachelors of Arts in Education, majoring in English at Mzuzu University and she is teaching English and Social Studies at Andiamo Secondary School.
Her mother raised her up single-handedly. “I don’t remember when my father died,” Yasinta told me when I interviewed her then. She also told me all she knew about her father was that he was the only bread winner in the family and he was working for Central East African Railways in the Telecoms Department in Blantyre.
She did her secondary education at St Mary’s Secondary School having passed the entrance exams. She passed with flying colours showing that it was not a fluke to be found at St. Mary’s. St. Mary’s, one is one of the best girls’ secondary schools in Malawi and it is a catholic school. She amassed 19 points: English 2; Chichewa 1; Mathematics 4; Biology 4; Social and Development Studies 3; and Agriculture 5.
What makes this story worth retelling today is the connection that Yasinta’s story has with AYCT. Once upon a time, there came in Malawi one volunteer by the name Severino Berardelli. While here in Malawi, Severino, through Fr. Mario Pacifici, decided to distant adopt a child and this was none other than Yasinta herself.
Not only that, Yasinta told our web office that she did her Primary education at Kapalamula, a school that was built by Andiamo Youth Cooperative Trust. Is this a mere coincidence? I don’t think so!
Yasinta’s story tells us that what we sow now will bear fruits in future. We may be lucky to see the fruits while we are alive like in this case but at times, we may not see them. The schools that AYCT has built and continues to build, the cooperation that is there between AYCT and volunteers from Italy… are not in vain.
Today, Yasinta is telling young girls to be “focused, determined and [to] dream in colours”. I believe this is also what AYCT and its cooperating partners must be doing.