There was jubilation at The Lilongwe Academy School on Thursday when First Lady Gertrude Mutharika’s Beautify Malawi (BEAM) Trust presented prizes to the school for emerging national winners in My Clean School My Pride competition months ago.

The Lilongwe Academy was crowned ‘Malawi’s cleanest private school’ on June 24 at a colourful event held at Sanjika Palace and graced by Madame Gertrude Mutharika and Chinese Ambassador Wang Shi-Ting.

The school beat fellow private schools under the Independent Schools Association of Malawi (ISAMA) across the country. Receiving the prizes on behalf of the institution Principal Richard Chikudo said expressed gratitude while singling out some specific benefits of the achievement to the school.

“We are proud of BEAM and of course the First Lady for initiating this competition because it has greatly assisted in changing the mindset of pupils and staff at the school in as far as good sanitation practices are concerned. We are happy and grateful for these great prizes. As a school this is motivation enough for us to continue to take care of our surroundings and keep high sanitation standards to retain the championship.”

Apart from the beautiful gold-plated trophy and the certificate, the school also went away with a mega 5000-litre water tank, a 37 inch television set, a desktop computer, horse pipes, wheelbarrows, shovels, rakes, swivelling trash bins and watering cans.

BEAM launched ‘My Clean School, My Pride competition’ in October last year under the Clean Schools Project which targets both public and private education centres to ensure good sanitation and waste management practices in schools.

“Beautify Malawi thought of the idea of working with the students in schools realising that when you train a child, you have trained the future generation.

“The expectation is that these students will become change agents by replicating the practice in their homes and communities,” said the First Lady on June 24 during the prize presentation ceremony in Blantyre.

St. Patrick’s High School of the Southern Region came second while Phwezi Girls Private Secondary School of the Northern Region finished on third position. In the course of the competition, schools that won at Zone, District and Regional levels were also awarded.