Balaka West Needs School Meals For Children To Stay In School-Hon Shanil

Member of Parliament for Balaka West, Patricia Shanil Dzimbiri has sent an appeal to Government to consider introducing school meal programme in her constituency as food shortage affecting most families in the area brings panic of school drop outs and absenteeism among pupils. 

Over, 6 million Malawians will again this year face food shortage as droughts and floods in most parts of the country have affected yield of maize which is a staple food situation. The situation is likely to have a huge negative impact on education of children from most vulnerable poor families that have no food because children will be hungry to go to school.

Speaking in the National Assembly on Wednesday, Honorable Shanil Dzimbiri made the plea to Government that her area needs school Feeding Programe to keep children in school.

She said for two consecutive years, her area has been badly hit by floods and drought rendering more families going without food due to low harvest. 

Honorable Shanil fears that most learners will drop out of school as they will focus on fetching food than education and urged Government to begin providing porridge when school begins.

“I stressed on the point of school feeding programe due to the hunger in my constituency” said Hon Shanil Dzimbiri later in an interview, and she stressed “My constituency has been badly affected, because it is two consecutive years, last year we had floods and people did not harvest enough and this year we had drought so people haven’t harvested anything.”

She then said “So I feel very strongly that if Government introduce this school feeding programe it means so many children will be enticed to go to school looking forward to eat something from school and at the end of the day they will learn looking. So, they will be enticed to go to school looking at the situation in their homes.”

The Balaka West legislator indicated that areas including T/A Chamnthunya, Sub T/A Phalula and Sr. Chief Nsamala are some of the most affected villages.

She said in total, there are 37 primary schools but almost half of these schools do not have school feeding programe. She noted that the school feeding programme mostly porridge being provided in other schools has shown that it is an effective tool to encourage pupils to continue with their education regardless of hunger situation in their homes as such schools continue to register low absenteeism’s and drop outs when compared to schools that do not offer school meals.

“Interesting thing is that pupils who stay close to the schools that do not offer school meals they prefer to go to far schools that offer porridge. They pass schools closer to them and goes far distances to find schools that are offering school meals.” She noted 

“So, I strongly feel that it can work wonders.” She added who said she would be happy if Government comes to her rescue in September when new school session begins “I will be very happy and it will register tremendous figure of students going to school, I bet you.”

Among other things that Honorable Shanil Dzimbiri also highlighted in the National Assembly when contributing to the debate on the 2016/17 National Budget motion, was on lack of secondary schools to reduce school dropouts among girls.

She said the existing Community Day Secondary Schools are much far apart, preventing a girl child to go to school because of long distances.

“We have three Community Day Secondary Schools which are far apart and prohibits a girl child to have a desire to go to school because of long distances” she said urging Government to ensure that there are more secondary schools in her area that are closer to encourage girls to go to school 

“Right now they end up getting married quickly, so there is nothing to entice them. So if the school is nearby I feel that the girl child will remain in school.” She emphasized while indicating that areas of Group village Chiyembekezo and Mkomwa needs Community Day Secondary Schools and those communities have already mobilized resources including bricks and sand, redden themselves to help Government once it consider helping them with secondary school

Girls Work Hard In School To Achieve Your Dreams- National Assembly

Chambo girls pose with Speaker and Legislatures

The National Assembly asks girls to remain in school and work hard in their education to achieve their dreams.

The message was said on Tuesday when 94 girls from Chambo Girls Private Secondary School in Mzimba had a rare opportunity at Parliament Building of interacting with Speaker, some cabinet Ministers and female legislatures.

Kaliati speaks to the girls

In their encounter, Chambo girls were offered some motivation talks on how to pursue and achieve their dreams and some female legislatures made recounts of how they defeated challenges in their lives to become what they are today. One legislature said her family could not provide her with school fees for the belief that it could be a waste of time educating a girl who will possibly get married to rich men in future. Others narrated how in the face of financial challenges but worked hard to pursue education.

Msowoya 

Speaker of the National Assembly, Richard Msowoya, Minister of Gender, Patricia Kaliati, Minister of Sports, Grace Chiumia, former First Lady Shanil Dzimbiri, and Jessie Kabwila were among number of legislatures who inspired girls with words of encouragement on self confidence and hard work in school for them to become future leaders.

Kabwila, Msowoya, Nyalonje 

The girls were brought by Mzimba North Legislature hon Agnes Makonda Nyalonje who wanted to offer Chambo girls a platform where they can meet with role models to get some words of motivation on how they can pursue and achieve their dreams.

Agnes Nyalonje said organized the visit to expose the girls to number of role models so that they learn from them how they managed to become leaders in their society.

Mzimba North Legislature while encouraging Malawian girls to work hard in school, offered hope that National Assembly and female parliamentarians as well as education committees in particular, are working hard to ensure that education system is improved to enable girls to access to quality education.

“We are also fighting for the girls hostels, because we know that when girls have to walk 10 kilometers or even longer sometimes to go to school, there is no way we can expect them to stay focused when they get to school and there is no way we can expect them to attend school all the times” said Nyalonje

She also noted the recently passed Marriage, Divorce and Family Relations bill which safeguards welfare of girls as one way the National Assembly is protecting and ensuring that girls remain at school.

“There are programmes being undertaken by Government and NGO’s that empower girls and encourage them to stay in school including bursaries.” She added

Then she offered a word of encouragement to girls “My message to girls is focus on education, push those around you to give you opportunity. Sometimes it is not always about waiting to be given it but girls too have to take initiative and they have to believe in their selves, and they have to have confidence, to claim that which is theirs and never give up” encouraged Njalonje

Rachel Vachi

“When I came here I was so much encouraged by the speeches that we need to have self confidence and that we can do anything but we should not be flirting with boys but love school first.” Said one student Rachel Vachi

She added “Watching deliberations in the Chamber I got encouraged by the courage that female parliamentarians have. They speak boldly on issues of national importance in the face of men.”

Wendie Chimbayo

Another student Wendie Chimbayo said “As the parliamentarians have told us that the sky is the limit, I would like to encourage girls that we have to work hard in school because doing so we can achieve anything. We also need to stay focused no matter how big are challenges that we are facing, lets aim to achieve our goals.”