Clement and Olive grew up in Embangweni, Malawi. Life was hard but they both worked hard at school and Olive became a mathematics teacher in a secondary school and Clement worked as a carpenter whilst teaching skills in a technical college. Not long after gaining their professional positions they got married and started a family.
In 1994 Clement was awarded a scholarship to study in the UK and earned a honours degree in Quantity Surveying. Since then Clement has worked in the UK as a quantity surveyor, in the council and as a mathematics lecturer at college and university. Olive currently works as a mathematics lecturer.
Over the past years Clement and Olive would regularly return home and when they did they would fill their suitcases with clothes and other items that they would buy from car boot sales and charity shops to give to their family and friends back home. After a few years they decided that this was not enough and that they wanted to give something that would be more permanent and would give a lasting change to their home community.
In 2011 they started making plans to build a school in their home town. They conducted a survey of the local people and the demand was for a secondary school and for skills training. 80% of Malawians don't have a secondary school to go to and many grow up without any skills that will help earn money in the future.
Clement and Olive decided to form the Mzipa Liberty Institute of Technology that would teach secondary school subjects and then train youngsters in agriculture, motor vehicle repairs, carpentry and more.
On the 18th November 2013 the school opened with one building including two classrooms funded solely from the pockets of Clement and Olive, they even pay the teachers wages.
The local community is fully behind the project with many teachers expressing an interest to teach at the school.
The school needs to be expanded due to the local demand. The current plans are to build a second building and a well stocked library that would be the only public library in the area.
The Mzipa Liberty Institute of Technology would welcome donations of any size to help free the community from poverty through education and training.
