Shaping Our Future Foundation (SOFF), an organization founded and chaired by the First Lady of the Republic of Malawi, Monica Chakwera, says keeping girls in school is a vehicle towards life transformation, women’s economic empowerment and Ending Violence against Women and girls in Malawi.
SOFF said the social and economic benefits of secondary education are directly linked to poverty reduction, shared prosperity efforts in Malawi and social equity and inclusion of underprivileged students fosters a more balanced and just society
Speaking when presenting a 5-month July-November,2024 Education Plus Initiative of empowering adolescent girls and young women project to the District executive committee in Dowa, the organization’s Programs Coordinator Lawrence Kayesa, said the project will provide bursaries to 10 needy students at Dowa Secondary School who will be identified through Ministry of Education Vulnerability Criteria and assessment and verification.
Kayesa said the project will also provide mentorship to 200 primary school girls and 300 girls from Community Day Secondary Schools. It will also strengthen networks of existing community leaders and build their capacity to collaborate with a network of chiefs, religious leaders, political leaders, and parent groups to champion policy implementation at the community level through bylaws.
He further said that Her Excellency, the First Lady, will lead high-level advocacy through media appeals for such community structures to implement bylaws on education, elimination of child marriages and gender-based violence.
The coordinator said the project will collaborate with the Dowa District Council for integration and monitoring, knowledge retention of girls and women engaged as well as community-led advocacy initiatives that will promote ownership beyond project tenure for sustainability purposes.
“The project will hold inter-face meetings between education sectors and the community level and conduct media appeals for Her Excellency Madam Monica Chakwera,” said Kayesa.
In 2024, SOFF maintained support of a bursary scheme to 1,054 continuing students in 121 secondary schools across Malawi of which 202 students have written Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) Examinations.
54 students under the SOFF bursary scheme sat for the MSCE Examinations in 2023, 47 students passed, and 25 students were selected to public universities such as Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences (MUBAS), College of Medicine, LUANAR, University of Malawi, Mzuzu University and Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST).
Education Plus Initiative; The EmpoweAdolescent Girlsgirls and Young Women project will be implemented with support from the UNAIDS at a total budget of K51,982,350.00 and Dowa alone will get K16 million.
