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Despite having little food, Ester is doing well at school
Life is very hard for 15-year-old Ester and her grandmother who live in Zambia. They often struggle to find enough food to eat.
Ester’s typical day involves waking at 4am to carry out household chores before getting ready for school. It takes her around an hour to walk to Kawambe Primary School where she supervises the general cleaning of the classrooms before going into class herself.
She is doing well at school where she is a prefect and plays in the netball team.
At break-time, she looks forward to receiving her steaming mug of porridge from Mary’s Meals which fills her empty stomach and allows her to concentrate on her studies.
She said: “Phala [porridge] takes away my hunger and since I don’t feel hungry, I do better in class. School is important because in the future I don’t want to be struggling like I am at the moment.”
Ester usually only eats once a day at home and even that is dependent on whether her grandmother can find bits of work to buy food. Her grandmother had planted crops but they are not doing too well because of the rains.
Despite being Malawian by birth, Ester has totally integrated into Zambian life. She doesn’t see the other members of her family very often now that they are separated by the border.
Despite the hardships Ester faces in her life she is determined to succeed.
“I want to be a nurse when I am older. I am in love with their uniform,” she said.