Scotia Education Trust was founded in December 2010. Its mission is to support education as the route out of poverty.

The Trust aims to support education in rural locations close to Blantyre (a large city in southern Malawi), by investing in and managing specific projects with the provision of:-

• equipment for lessons

• buildings and basic infrastructure for schools

• school fees and other costs for sponsorship

At present, we are supporting:-

• Mitsidi Community Day Secondary School (CDSS)

• We have been building St. Vincent de Paul Secondary School (SVPSS)

• Secondary education for students from needy backgrounds. The school fees are paid directly to the schools.

The Trust has minimal operating costs - mainly bank charges. Administration by unpaid volunteers (with professional backgrounds and much experience of working and living in Malawi) means donations go to the cause. 

The Trust ensures funds are spent as expected. We work with people long known to us, obtaining quotations, bank statements to show receipt of funds in Malawian Kwacha (sent as GBP), receipts of payments and report of work completed to satisfaction before the final payment. Photographs corroborate the other evidence. The areas of our schools are well known to us after visiting many times.

We usually use local contractors known to us for many years for major building projects as well as local carpenters, welders, electricians and borehole driller. This provides employment and income for Malawians, as well as maintaining their skills. For our sponsorship programme, we are associated with Joshua Orphan and Community Care (UK Registered Charity 1114727) who do the work on the ground in Malawi for us.

Sponsorship, recent projects and earlier reports are on other pages via the menus.

You can learn more about Malawi and you can contact us by scrolling to the bottom of the page where there is an email address.

The Autum 2024 Update for Supporters can be found here.

Nansengwe Primary School which we supported for four years can be seen here.

Chiraweni Primary School which we supported for eight years can be seen here.

In 2022, a triple classroom was built. Metal desks (wooden ones may be attacked by termites) and metal bunk beds have been made and mattresses purchased.

Three classrooms in the new block were needed because of the high numbers in Form 1. It also meant that students could sit the National written exams on site rather than travel to another location. Work building a laboratory block started in 2023 and was completed in 2024. There are practical exams in Physics, Chemistry, Agriculture and Biology which can account for nearly 50% of the exam marks. In addition, a pass in the pracical side of the exam is needed in order to gain a pass in the subject.

In 2024, a library was built.

Solar power and security lighting has been installed after completion of each building at SVPSS.  Problems with batteries and inverters has resulted in a change in contractors and all is working well again at present.

Sponsorship ----->

This academic year (September 2024 -  July 2025) we are supporting 79 students in Secondary education. They were all from poor backgrounds. Their parents or guardians have minimal or no Primary education, few have employment, so they can not afford school fees, uniform, shoes, jotters and pens all of which are needed for Secondary School. Fourteen years on, we are seeing the fruits of their education. One from the first cohort of four students was employed for several years as a Radiographer at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Blantyre, the largest hospital in Malawi. More recently, he applied for training in Radiotherapy to International Atomic Energy Agency and was successful. Now in Ghana for two years training before returning to Malawi where he will work in a new radiotherapy facility in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi.

We are hopeful that our sponsored students with Secondary education will continue to progress to Higher Education or to gain employment and so be safely out of the poverty trap of their elders.