Over 400 children surrounding Chilembwe Primary School in Traditional Authority Mazengera in Lilongwe can now afford a smile as they now embrace a new Early Childhood Development facility courtesy of the Stephanos Foundation.
The foundation has also sunk a K14 million borehole so that the children should have access to clean water thereby preventing water and hygiene-related diseases.
Traditional leaders said children in the area had been facing a lot of difficulties to catch up academically and the ECD centre will make a difference.
According to the Village Development Center Chairperson, Hadwell Masikamu, the development will transform the children’s lives as they will have access to good water and orphans and vulnerable children will not travel long distances to access ECD services.
Mkaka tests the functionality of the borehole
Speaking during the handover ceremony of the ECD and borehole, Parliamentarian for Lilongwe Mpenu Constituency who is also Secretary General of the Malawi Congress Party, Eisenhower Mkaka, commended the gesture saying it is complimentary to the nation’s aspirations of the country, Malawi 2063 saying the project has adopted a holistic approach in developing children’s lives.
“This project is focusing on different aspects of a human being, they are focusing on the spiritual side, the physical side as well as the mental state of a person. This is the much-needed holistic approach to Agenda 2063. I commend them for these two projects they have already changed this area, “ said Mkaka.
Executive Director at Stephanos Foundation in Malawi, Clifford Kuyokwa, said in recent years they have been focusing their projects in the southern part of Malawi but now it has been two years since they started implementing similar efforts towards early childhood development in the central region.
Stephanos Foundation is also promoting conservation agriculture
“We are a child-centred organisation. As we bring interventions that focus on children well well-being, we also empower their guardians in various ways so that they become self-reliant. In Malawi, we have seen that there are a lot of orphans and vulnerable children whose educational background is poor. Our interventions seek to ensure these children are well educated and also groomed spiritually so that they become responsible citizens of the nation,” said Kuyokwa.
Stephanos Foundation is also running child adoption programmes as well as school feeding programmes in some areas around Lilongwe where as of now over 100 children are on the school feeding programme and the other group of over 100 children also are on the adoption programme.
Reported by McDonald Chiwayula & Judith Kasinja.
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