By: Steve Chirombo

Dedza, December 7, Mana: Ministry of Education on Friday said the handing over of a classroom block by Welthungerhilfe (WHH) at Chilanga Community Day Secondary School (CDSS), in Senior Chief Chauma’s area in Dedza district was a big catch.

Principal Planning Officer for the Central West Education Division, Andrews Yobe, stated that the development was welcome considering the diversity of the division and the high demand for education services in the area.

“Central West Division is a big division with 205 schools and the coming in of this school is a big thing to us. We have so many learners who are struggling to access education. And this additional school means more access to our learners in the division,” said Yobe.

He further added that it was impressive to receive such a blessing from WHH who were doing other things in the area but after being approached to address the challenges affecting the education sector, they came in to assist.

“They willingly accepted and assisted us with this beautiful structure which is a big relief to us as a ministry and also as a division,” he said.

On his part, Senior Chief Chauma, said seeing WHH providing primary school infrastructures, impressed him a lot as the future of children in his area was secured.

“The development here is because of the vision I have together with my communities. We believe in education and having seen that we only had a primary school here, we thought a CDSS was also ideal so that our children can easily move from one level to another,” said Senior Chief Chauma while calling for concerted efforts to care for the infrastructure.

WHH Project Coordinator, Khumbo Munthali, said their entry points into the area were primary schools bailing out almost ten under Chilanga Teachers Development Centre (TDC) and one under Kaphuka making it a total of eleven.

“For the Senior Chief, having seen our interventions in primary levels, he approached us if we could scale up. And as WHH, we sourced funds for the cause. We did this as we value the relationship that exists between us and the communities here,” said Munthali.

Dedza District Council Vice Chairperson, Councilor Joseph Kwenda, expressed gratitude at the development saying it has changed the face of the district.

“We hope our collaboration will continue as we look for more development initiatives such as these in other areas,” said Kwenda.

Apart from handing over a classroom block, teacher’s house and also provision of a solar system and desks at Chilanga CDSS, the organization also handed over the same to Kadzomba primary school apart from constructing Menstrual Hygiene Management facilities at Linga, Mkundi, and Msapuka primary schools, all to the tune of K250 million.

The works were made possible with assistance from Water for All, Selbs. Los, Kulturstiftung Annelie and Wilfred Stascheit in Germany.