One man’s passion to support needy youths

By Chrispine Msiska

Christopher Lemose, 41, quit his job as a primary school teacher to run his Tiyamika Orphanage at Puwere village, Traditional Authority Simphasi in Mchinji District.

It is a tough venture such that sometimes, an idea comes to him to abandon his dream of helping needy children in the area as he is struggling to find resources to support the orphanage.

But he still vows he won’t quit without a fight.

“I will fight to the end and fulfill what God called me to do,” he told The Sunday Times.

His facility has supported almost 500 needy children.

In 2018, Lemose started out helping students from government secondary schools in the area.

A father of two children, he started with 31 of them. Looking at the number of people approaching him for help with their needs, he decided to just open a centre.

After some four years of work, he opened the school section on January, 4 2021 with only Form One class that had an initial enrollment of 154 students—93 girls and 61 boys.

These learners made the 2022 Form 2 class. Out of the 101 learners that sat the Junior Certificate of Education examination that year, 71 percent of them passed. Lemose said he got inspired to help because of his own background.

He was born in a poor family that struggled every day for basics.

“I’ve experienced it all. I understand the pain when you are poor and have nothing.

“It was out of passion and I was only concerned with the plight of girls and boys who at that time were marrying off, drinking and getting pregnant.

“Every time I asked them why they got married while young, I would get responses like ‘I have no tuition fees’ or ‘I am an orphan or abandoned’.

And then there were also issues on lack of food and clothes.

“I then decided that the best solution to this problem is to follow the calling of God by reaching out to those children who have nowhere to go,” said Lemose, who says has a degree in Theology and is studying towards a masters with a US university with support from other partners.

Lemose said after resigning as a teacher to follow his passion, he found himself back into employment with an NGO. It was his way to raise money which he was spending on his initiative.

He used part of the money to buy the land on which the centre is situated. Appreciative of his initiative, chiefs gave him an extra portion of land for expansion.

“I joined teaching in 2009. I quit in 2013. While building the centre, I was also sharing God’s word in primary and secondary schools. But soon, I realized I could not sustain the project. That compelled me to go back to work. I got a job with Fawema [Forum for African Women Educationalists in Malawi] but I also quit two years later to focus on the calling and stay close to the children,” he said.

Thus far, Tiyamika Orphanage has assisted hundreds of children since it started, producing four pastors and four teachers.

A few more have joined teaching and others are in technical collages.

Apart from providing secondary school education, the centre also trains youths on HIV and Aids and teaches them the word of God.

Lemose said while the centre has made several milestones, they face a raft of challenges. These include shortage of food for the youths to an extent that they ran out of maize sometime back.

There is also lack of proper infrastructure, shortage of classrooms and teaching and learning materials and lack of clothes for some of the learners.

Currently, all staff are volunteering because most of them are his former students who decided to support his work after seeing how it helped them.

He teaches Mathematics, Bible Knowledge and English at the school. He also expressed gratitude to some people of goodwill who have been supporting some of the children with clothes and other necessities.

“Our centre has been consulting authorities at Mchinji District Social Welfare office who have always said they do not have funding as well to extend to us,” he said.

“Our vision is that when reaching the year 2030, we should be keeping at least 1,500 needy youths and taking care of 500 elderly people,” he said.

Asked whether he is only trying to make a name for himself and use this to run for political office as Member of Parliament, Lemose said that is not his interest, describing himself as “a reverend with a mission”.

Senior Group Village Headman Puwere commended Lemose’s initiative and its impact in the area. He too called on people of goodwill to support the initiative for it to grow so that it helps more children.

Education activist Benedicto Kondowe also lauded Lemose.

“He needs support because ordinarily if the community did not see hope in this school it would not have survived in its six years of existence,” said Kondowe.

He said the project is also of particular interest considering the sacrifices Lemose and other are making to get things running for the sake of the children.