It’s been 25 years since the start of a friendship between communities on opposite sides of the planet that would blossom into the University of Livingstonia in Malawi, which turns 20 this year.
Now, in what they recognized might be their final visit together, the founders of that friendship are comfortable saying the torch has been successfully passed on.
In a love that started in 1998, Reverend Howard Matiya Nkhoma, 78, and his wife of over 55 years, Mariya Nkhoma, 75, of Malawi, met Henry, or “Hank,” Kirk, 87, former president of Centralia College, and Jenny Kirk, 75, of Chehalis.
Over the following years, working together through correspondence and trips across the world, the four would play key roles establishing the university.
This month, the couples and Owen Singini, 66, are together once again in Washington — after a drawn-out visa complication for Singini that required intervention from U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell’s office. A driver and a chief of his village in Malawi, Singini serves as a mediator for civil conflict, often preventing people from needing to attend court.
This Sunday, a service at Westminster Presbyterian Church and a lunch with more events to follow will celebrate the Malawians’ visit. It will begin at 10 a.m. at 349 N. Market Blvd., Chehalis.
Today, Howard Matiya Nkhoma says the university plays a role that helps the entire country of Malawi.
“Out of 6,000 who graduated and qualified each year that they could go to university, the two government institutions would only take about 2,000,” Nkhoma said.
Of the few who had the means to study abroad, he said, few came back.
“With these that come through our school, our university, they started at home. And I want to believe about 90% of them are in Malawi (still),” Nkhoma said, adding a nod and an affirming “Mhmm.”
Beyond advising from Henry Kirk’s experience as a college administrator, the Chehalis couple rallied Rotary Clubs, their church, Westminster Presbyterian in Chehalis, along with the entire Olympia presbytery, schools and individuals throughout Southwest Washington for funding, trips and other support.
“Maybe Henry was a spark plug, but the relationship developed between many people and we were sort of the hands and feet,” Jenny Kirk.
The first year, she said, the graduating class had 35 students. Sixteen years later, the University of Livingstonia graduated 817 in one class and had distributed over 4,000 bachelor degrees. Each of those people, Jenny Kirk said, is educated both in their subject and in teaching their subject.
“It's a very wonderful thing. It was an idea, a dream, and it became real,” Henry Kirk said. “That’s a terrific opportunity, of helping make a dream come true.”
Parents to nine children, the Nkhomas also operate an entirely volunteer-based orphanage. As Presbyterians, Howard Matiya Nkhoma said this allows people to put their faith into practice.
“They grow up with support with the school fees, where some of them go through secondary school,” he said. “One orphan we supported is an engineer in the electricity supply of the country. He was supported with money from here (raised by people in Lewis County).”
Helping the little ones, Nkhoma said, is equal to cooking for Christ.
“It promotes love and unity in the community,” he said.
