By Tione Andsen, MANA
Female students at Chigodi Community Day Secondary (CDSS) in Lilongwe will have smile wide when school reopens as they have been provided with a hostel and cooking shelter constructed by World Vision Malawi to the tune of K22 million.
The hostel, based in the area of Traditional Authority Mazengera, will accommodate 40 students and those being targeted are girls that are in examination classes.
Headteacher, Gladson Mankhambo
Chigodi CDSS’s Headteacher, Gladson Mankhambo said the hostel shall help the girls who are in the examination year so that they have ample time to study since long distances to and from the school was affecting their performance
“We have female students who were travelling more that 10 kilometres everyday to school and this made some to drop out due to long distances and other major issues,” Mankhambo said.
He added that some girls had challenges in sourcing their food and water where they were staying but now their life would be made easy hoping their concentration in class would improve.
The kitchen
He said some of the students had challenges of being burgled and others were staying in houses that leaked during rainy seasons.
He also said the school management is yet to decide on how much the boarders will be required to pay as rentals as there is need to raise some funds for maintaining the facility.
School Health and Nutrition Coordinator for Lilongwe Rural East Education Division, Joseph Kanyangala believes that the performance of female learners would improve since they would be living within the campus.
He pleaded with World Vision Malawi to continue reaching out to more schools so that such academic improvement is evenly distributed.
Kanyangala noted that the kitchen needs to have environmental friendly cooking facilities in order to save the environment.
Coronavirus alert
“We have noted that the cooking facilities will consume more firewood and the end result is that the school will be spending more in buying wood.
“We ask WVM officials to revisit the issue of the cooking facilities,” he said.