Poverty is the greatest barrier to accessing an education not only in Malawi but world over. However, despite growing up amid abject poverty, as WANANGWA CHAFULUMIRA writes, Christina Sukusula has been determined to complete her education. And her grit to study would shape young minds of the current and next generation.
Many of us remember when we were children and secretly thought we could touch the sky.
We remember when we ran wild and free and always imagined the moon running with us.
We remember when we believed in the power of our dreams and no dream was too big or unachievable.
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We remember when we were children and had hope.
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In a densely-populated and dusty Eliya Village, Traditional Authority Kanduku in the precincts of Mwanza Boma, I met an 18-year-old girl named Christina Sukusula, who is an embodiment of many a people’s pasts.
Amid grinding poverty at her home and girls marrying as children in her area, Christina not only hoped for a better future but is also reshaping her destiny to achieve it.
Poverty, determination and hard work are wings that push her to success.
She looks straight into The Times Group’s camera and says: “I want to do MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine Bachelor of Surgery) and become a surgeon. I want to change the course of my family’s future. Education is very important and the only way.”
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She is most matter of fact about it, without a shred of hesitation or self-doubt.
And then she breaks out into a smile as she recalls how a dream that she has stubbornly held on to was almost shattered.
“I first did my primary school at Dziwe before I transferred to Mphande where I sat Primary School Leaving Certificate of Education examinations. I nearly failed to take the examinations due to lack of fees,” Christina says.
She did well in the examinations and got selected to Mwanza Secondary School.
“I went to school to start my secondary education with no school fees, no money for school uniform and no other school essentials. My parents knocked on several doors including Mwanza District Social Welfare Department in search of a bursary but we couldn’t get any.
“It was so difficult and demoralising but I just accepted the situation because I know my parents are poor,” she says.
Mwanza District Information Officer Brian Wasili says the social welfare department receives many applications for consideration.
“We cannot carter for all because demand for bursary is too high and the funding from government is not enough,” Wasili says.
At that time, Christina’s life seemed to be following the normal trajectory of many young girls not only in this part but many parts of the country where poverty is deep-seated.
I survey the surroundings at her home and I admit Christina comes from one of the poorest families in the country.
The compound consists of two one-bedroom houses; both have grass-thatched roofs.
Her father sells locally distilled liquor, kachasu, and some biscuits, cigarettes and thin plastics while her mother sells chips to eke a living.
“After a month at school, I was sent back for failing to pay fees worth K44,000. I stayed home for some weeks until my mother managed to borrow K10,000 as part payment of the fees. I went back to school but life was very tough,” she says.
But sometimes, there comes a wind of change so sudden and powerful that it clears all the obstacles.
Change came to Christina in the form of a Campaign for Female Education (Camfed) Malawi’s scholarship.
“One day, one of our teachers came to class and asked orphans whose guardians cannot afford to pay school fees to raise their hands up. My parents are living but I knew they were failing to pay my school fees. I raised my hand up and I was considered for further assessment,” Christina says.
She says she was told about an organisation that was willing to take care of their needs at school but first they had to take an aptitude test.
“I performed well in the test. Then Camfed had been paying for my school fees and providing me with other essentials such as sanitary pads, blankets and groceries to the end of my secondary education,” she says.
Camfed is a pan-African movement revolutionising how girls’ education is delivered.
When the results of Malawi School Certificate of Education examinations that Malawi National Examinations Board administered between June and July 2023 were released, good news out of Christina’s long and winding academic journey arrived.
She scored 10 points.
“I was the best performer in the entire Mwanza District. I think about life and I know that for me to move out of poverty, I need education,” she says.
Poverty, indeed, is the greatest barrier to accessing an education world over.
International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity’s The Learning Generation Report says the odds are stacked against girls from disadvantaged, rural communities in Africa.
It says 95 per cent never complete secondary school in the continent.
Camfed website says when families lack the income for food, transport, school fees, uniforms and essentials like menstrual products, girls are the first to drop out of school.
They are the first to be failed by the system, facing the perils of early marriage, early pregnancy and abuse.
Without the choice to write their own futures, their endless potential is wasted.
Mwanza District Social Welfare Department’s records show that 245 early marriages were registered in 2023 while 278 were registered in 2022 in the district.
Mwanza Secondary School Head teacher Henry Saka says Christina was a positive learner since she joined the school and was quite humble and committed to achieving her goal which was the drive towards her success.
“It is not easy for learners coming from poor families to cope with life at a boarding school. However, Christina planned for her future and showed that family background should not be a stumbling block.
“I ask well-wishers and authorities to assist other many Christinas outside there who might be losing their futures to poverty,” Saka says.
Camfed District Operations Officer for Mwanza Office Malumbo Nkandawire says Camfed is happy with Christina’s performance.
“She is a role model to other girls that they should not look down upon themselves. The demand for bursaries is still high not only in Mwanza. Stakeholders must collaborate and assist, especially focusing on girls who are more vulnerable,” Mkandawire says.
Christina’s father, Charles Sukusula, thanks God that he fulfils his dream of educating his daughter and bringing her up in an environment where going to school is rarely a way of life.
“It was a daunting task to send her to school because we are poor. However, Christina is a hard-working and good-mannered girl. That alone made us work hard to keep her in school whenever possible,” Sukusula says.
Luckily, Christina fought all odds to superbly complete her secondary education.
She is determined to not let her circumstances hold her back from harbouring and attaining her dreams.
She currently juggles between household chores, serving customers in her father’s shop, working in the fields, among other tasks.
And she balances it all with ease and a genuine smile before the thought of where she would get fees for her tertiary education begin to worry her.
