Campaign for Female Education (Camfed) says providing bursary support alone to secondary school students is not enough, as school leavers face many challenges to establish themselves in society.

Aluberia Dave, one of the beneficiaries of the Camfed schemes-Pic by Lapken Kapoto

Camfed District Operations Secretariat for Mulanje, Mike Mabvuka made the remarks over the weekend when the organization presented a K2 million grant to 41 school leavers who were beneficiaries of Camfed bursary scheme.

According to Mabvuka, the seed money grant is intended to provide the girls an opportunity to live an independent life after school through businesses unlike just staying idle a thing he said could increase poverty among the girls.

“These students in the first place, come on a bursary scheme because their guardians had failed to pay for their education; and some of them sometimes may fail to do well in secondary education to proceed to tertiary education.

“However, others may do well and go through, but after college you find that they are failing to find a job due to the current unemployment levels in the country. So we decided that to provide the small scale business lessons and a grant of K50, 000 each as a start-up capital,” explained Mabvuka.

Commenting on the development, District Commissioner for Mulanje, Fred Movete hailed Camfed for the gesture which he said had always been in his district council’s plans but lack of funds crippled its implementation.

The DC added there has been an increase in the number of needy learners this year who have been requesting for bursary support in the district due to last year’s floods and dry spells which he said has increased poverty among households.

One of the beneficiaries, Veronica Supelo, 22, of Njema Village, T/A Chikumbu pledged to put the money into a business venture to enable her support her two siblings who are in form two but are also lacking.