rote: removing obstacles to education

The work of ROTE started in 2017 when Paul and Francesca Meager and their now two adult children joined Iris Global in Pemba, Mozambique for one year. Their role was to teach English in the Iris school which educates 3,000 children. It was a life-changing year and they were drawn particularly to the shocking numbers of street children who were more attracted to the life of begging than education.

Being aware of the long term commitment not just to the children, but to their families too, Paul and Francesca took up the challenge of enrolling six boys into school. They provided all the equipment and personal support they needed, and started up a homework club as all the boys struggled to read and write. Homework Club was very successful and was able to help many more children in the school. Paul and Francesca have a long term goal of setting up many more homework clubs in local schools to assist those who struggle academically.

They also realised the need to support the boys’ home environments too. In a country that suffers torrential rains for around three months of the year, the bamboo and mud built houses are constantly crumbling. In 2019, with the help of Bourne Christian Centre, they raised £6,000 to build the first cement block house for one of their sponsored boys. Chauale, who was orphaned at a young age, and lives with his sister and cousins, now has a solid home with electricity and bunk beds and continues to attend school and homework club. Since 2019 Paul and Francesca have continued to fundraise and have been able to build a further 4 houses using local builders and traditional building materials of bamboo and stones but with a cement finish rather than mud as this will not wash away with the heavy rains.

In 2022, Paul and Francesca returned to Mozambique to continue the work of ROTE giving more children the chance to access an education and support throughout their school lives.

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