As sole provider for his family, nine-year-old Gift is exhausted and, despite hopes of being a teacher, gets little chance to study
After his day at primary school in Mchengautuwa, in Malawi’s northern city of Mzuzu, the nine-year-old goes home to make charcoal cooking stoves. Gift, who lives with his grandmother, two younger siblings and another relative, started making the stoves after being trained by his grandfather when he was six.
His grandfather, who had provided the only source of income for the family, died earlier this year after a long illness. So Gift took up the mantle as the provider for the family.
Before moving in with his grandparents, Gift lived nearby with his parents until they divorced.
Gift says he can make up to 10 cooking stoves a day, but it gives him very little time for his homework. His grandmother sells the stoves for about a dollar apiece. But the market has become flooded with other people making the same product and demand has gone down.
Before they sold five in a day, now it is one or two, barely enough to buy food.
“I would like to be a teacher when I grow up. They look smart and know a lot of things,” he says.
“Gift is a very bright student, hardworking and friendly,” says his teacher at primary school in Mchengautuwa, Annie Kalasa. “He is always present for school and readily participates in the classwork.