By Lesnat Kenan and Levison Lester

Lilongwe, May 8, Mana: Shaping Our Future Foundation (SOFF) which is championed by the First lady Monica Chakwera is making progress in empowering girl education for the past two years in the country.

In an interview with Malawi News Agency (MANA), Education Programmes Coordinator of SOFF, Lawrence Kayesa confirmed the development after a well-known businessperson based in USA, Chawezi Chacha Banda donated seven laptops worth k14 million to girls who performed excellently in the Malawi School Certification of Education (MSCE).

Kayesa said as part of appreciation, donation will target 2,500 underprivileged girls in various secondary schools and universities across the country.

"We are making progress as a country in shaping girls education. In the past years girls were behind in terms of education, but this time around we have parents, guardians and various organisations supporting girl child education”, Kayesa said.

He also said that there are number of girls who performed well during the last year's MSCE which was not the case in the past years.

Kayesa further highlighted that despite the progress in girl’s education, there are a lot of challenges hindering girls to go further with education.

He said, increase of school fees and lack of enough resources like laptops are some challenges being encountered.

Lilongwe Girls secondary school Student Sphiwe Ngalande, who is among girls who has performed well expressed her gratitude saying the laptops will help her in her studies.

"As a student, this laptop is going to help me so much since am about to start college studies,” She said.