Rice way for city pupils to help out school in Malawi
RESOURCEFUL pupils have sold one tonne of rice to pay for 11 of their peers in Malawi to go to secondary school.
Hillhead Primary School P7s set up a social enterprise selling rice grown by farmers in the African country.
Profits from the sales are enough to pay for secondary education in Malawi where high school is expensive and not compulsory.
Principal teacher Gary Thomson, has been working with his senior pupils to oversee the year-long project.
He said: “I was so proud of them when we hit our one tonne milestone. It was a great moment – especially as I was beginning to dream of rice. It has been really inspiring to see how engaged the children are with this project.”
The scheme is the brainchild of Scottish fair trade organisation JTS, which has challenged schools to sell 90kg of rice – the amount of rice sold that would enable a Malawian farm- er to pay for a year’s basic secondary education for one child.
Hillhead Primary was so quick to sell its first 90kg that the school decided to take things one step further and raise enough cash to send 11 children to school.
Pupils who are engaged in the project in Malawi have their education guaranteed for six years.
Youngsters at the West End school have been selling rice once a month in the playground and at school events such as the Christmas fair.
And they took a stall at the Gibson Street Gala, where they sold 600lbs of rice.
Pupil Ella Kennedy said: “I think it’s a good thing to be involved in because lots of people don’t have what we have and we should try to do something to help them.
“My gran bought some rice and my dad made a delicious curry with it.”
Her classmate Keyaan Sadiq added: “I enjoyed being part of the rice challenge and helping children in Malawi get a chance to go to secondary school.”
The project began as a Social Enterprise project for P7 but Mr Thomson says it will now be embedded in the school’s curriculum.