Accolade honours African link-up

JUDITH TONNER

Big-hearted pupils and staff at St Margaret’s High have earned a special award recognising their work and continuing links with an African school.

The Airdrie secondary has earned “schools partnership award winner” status from the Scotland- Malawi Partnership in recognition of their “outstanding” fundraising for Chisitu secondary and the surrounding community in the Mulanje area.

Donations from St Margaret’s help to provide education and health resources, while the school has teamed up with international charity Mission Rabies to help tackle the threat posed by rabies in an area of Malawi which is a hotspot for the disease.

Their efforts last year included marking world rabies day with fundraisers ranging from a bake-off to two teachers climbing Ben Nevis, raising funds which allowed Mission Rabies to educate more than 80,000 schoolchildren and vaccinate 20,000 dogs in in the Thyolo region; plus sending a contingent to Malawi to help organise a teacher conference and paint a community mural sharing rabies safety advice.

The Malawi school has also benefited from vital ICT equipment, teaching resources and sanitary products provided by schools across North Lanarkshire.

Mission Rabies chief executive Luke Gamble said: “With the help of the pupils and staff at St Margaret’s, we were able to expand our programme into new regions of Malawi, protecting 80,000 more children from this terrible disease; and we were able to run education workshops in Mulanje for the first time thanks to their help.”

Addressing the St Margaret’s community directly, he said: “All this takes huge amounts of work, but that is much easier when we have people who care as much about beating rabies as we do.

“You have climbed mountains for us this year – literally – and that pushes us to do more; it’s been great to see the mural go up in your school and the stencils you have created to help spread our message in Malawi.

“You are amazing ambassadors for the charity, your videos always inspire us and we hope they will inspire more children to get involved with the charity.”

North Lanarkshire Council leader Jim Logue, who is the chair of the Mission Rabies group at St Margaret’s, visited the school in his Airdrie Central ward to praise pupils and staff for their award and wider global citizenship activities.

He said: “It can be very difficult for the schools in Malawi to provide a full education for their children, and the outstanding work of the Malawi partnership is vital at boosting education and health in the country.

“The support given by St Margaret’s is helping to make a massive difference to the lives of vulnerable people living in Malawi, and the efforts put in by our terrific North Lanarkshire pupils go a long way to helping their educational development.

“It’s helped build partnerships and friendships between the schools in both countries, and the links developed create a shared understanding which will benefit all those involved.”

St Margaret’s head teacher Stephen Snee said: “We’re delighted with the award from the Scotland- Malawi Partnership and would like to thank them for their ongoing support and encouragement throughout the years – it’s been invaluable, particularly with our education programmes.

“We’re also deeply motivated by the praise from Luke Gamble of Mission Rabies acknowledging the positive role we’re having in Malawi, and would like to thank Councillor Logue for agreeing to oversee our group when it formed, and Dr Claire McGoldrick from University Hospital Monklands for being our patron.”