Some of our Girls

9th January 2017

Mzgora CDSS (Community Day Secondary School)
 
These girls, with Jacquie go to this new secondary school which is about 25 km from Mzuzu.  We are connected this area as we built three classrooms for a feeder primary school in 2007. The area has grown up out of the forest and now they have built this school with the assistance of Government.
The school has just 64 Form 1 students, boys and girls, and has two teachers
We are supporting these 10 girls
 
In looking through their details:
 
Half live with two parents, while the rest live with relatives as a result of men AND women leaving their partner and going off with someone else. In either case the kids are left.
Half have thatched houses.
Half are over 16 years old. (had no secondary school close enough before now)
None have clean water
None have electricity
None have animals other than chickens
None have their own any substantial land, 
None of their parents have a regular job (and of course there is no social welfare)
Half have a bicycle in their house
 
Some few relevant comments from the interviews
 
“She lives with her uncle since her fathers death and her mother got married again without minding her child so the girl doesn’t know where her mother is She walks over two hours to school.”
“lives with both parents and they are subsistence farming but she have her sister who stopped school in form 1 because she became pregnant so the father will not pay any more fees for girls. This girl is so happy to see that Wells for Zoë is paying fees for her.”
“Has both parents and they are selling Usipa and her mother is selling Mandasi.  Her father will not pay fees for her because he had hoped that she will marry and he would get the bride price. If she will be educated she will promote the family of her husband not her father in future.”
 

The good news is that they all passed their first term exams.