Video above: Jenny and Hannah were entertained by the ‘Thompson Girls’ at Embangweni during their Malawi visit in Dec 2024. The girls sang a hymn in sign language.
Embangweni Secondary School for Deaf Children is situated with the Embangweni Mission, established as Loudon Mission in 1902, where there is a Church, a hospital, the Donald Fraser Guesthouse and a number of schools. See explanation of the history and current situation of the school by Mrs Precious Mhone (2023).
Owned and run by the CCAP (Central Church of Africa Presbyterian) Synod of Livingstonia, this is a boarding school for boys and girls. The school has 108 students in total, 43 girls and 65 boys (2025). Many families are reluctant to send their disabled daughters to school, so fewer girls are put forward for a place here. The school strives to provide a good secondary education for its pupils over six years. The school’s work is hampered by a number of factors including:
- teachers are allocated here and ‘pick up sign language from the pupils’
- some families abandon their children once they are placed at school and do not provide for transport home or other needs
- the school has limited building space. It currently borrows two classrooms from the nearby primary school.
The Mamie Martin Fund supports girls at this school. Two of the MMF-supported pupils are ‘Alison Girls’, supported by the Scottish Government and eight are ‘Thompson Girls’, supported through a fund which celebrates the memory of Jack and Phyllis Thompson. Five ‘Pat’s Fund’ pupils started in 2022 and are funded by a kind bequest.
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