Plan Malawi, First Lady’s charity sign agreement
Plan International Malawi has provided a grant worth K1.5 billion to Shaping Our Future Foundation (Soff), an organisation which First Lady Monica Chakwera established.
The funds will go towards girls’ education.
Plan International Malawi Country Director Phoebe Kasoga and Chakwera, who is Soff chairperson, signed the agreement at Kamuzu Palace in Lilongwe Monday.
Sixty percent of the grant will go to Soff as an implementing partner, targeting 950 secondary school students, 75 percent of them girls, for four years.
Chakwera bemoaned financial challenges that, she said, are keeping intelligent girls out of school, some of whom end up marrying early.
“If we want Malawi to change, let us educate girls. My commitment is to girls’ education,” she said
Kasoga said the organisation recognises the importance of girls’ education due to gender equality challenges, but that boys ought to be brought on board so that they are not left behind.
Under the project, Plan International Malawi would construct very important person latrines in schools, implement menstrual hygiene management, support mother groups and engage parents to ensure more girls are in school.
Deputy Minister of Education Monica Chang’anamuno lauded the grant.
Mathews Kasanda is a journalist who holds a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from University of Malawi (The Polytechnic).
In 2015, Media Institute of Southern Africa awarded him the Best Print Media Education Journalist of the Year accolade.
He joined Times Group Newsroom in September 2019.
