Traditional Authority (T/A) Ngwelero of Zomba District has embarked on educational self-help initiative aimed at raising funds for needy students in the area in order for them to attain secondary school education.
According to T/A Ngwelero the idea was conceived after realizing challenges that some of students especially those from poor families were facing in terms of accessing secondary school education upon completion of primary school.
“Due to high levels of poverty in my area, a lot of learners were failing to continue to secondary school, then we decided to come up with a community bursary initiative whereby every village will be contributing financially towards the project,” T/A Ngwelero said.
Area Development Committee (ADC) Chairperson for the area, Ferson Somanje said the introduction of Early Childhood
Development in 2009 greatly improved primary education in their area and the number of students got selected to various secondary schools, however, government bursary program through Local Development Fund (LDF) was not enough to carter for all needy students in our area. Somanje said, therefore, community members decided to embark on self-help initiative.
Coordinator of the initiative Fredrick Siyadi has appealed to well-wishers and Organizations to assist the project as the number of beneficiaries is on the rise due to the increase in students selected to different public secondary schools from the area.
So far, 25 boys and 12 girls from the area are benefiting from the initiative.
By: Chisomo Chiwanda