Construction of girls’ hostel stalls in Mchinji

Communities around Bua in Mchinji have expressed concern that the stalling of a girls’ hostel project at Bua Community Day Secondary School may compromise the fight against child marriages and early pregnancies.

In August this year, the communities started constructing a girls’ hostel to prevent girls from travelling 10 kilometres to access education, but in October the project stalled.

Parents Teacher Association (PTA) chairperson Noah Ephraim Kamwendo said the school raised K4 million.

“We have approached different stakeholders but our proposals were turned down,” he said.

Group village head (GVH) Chibwana said some time back they approached the area’s member of Parliament (MP) for support from Constituency Development Fund (CDF) but since then nothing happened.

GVH Chibwana said they owe the contractor K1.8 million.

“We are looking for help so that we pay the contractor and buy some materials like cement, among others,” he said.

MP Deus Gumba (Malawi Congress Party) said he is aware of the project and promised to avail K3 million from CDF.

The school’s head teacher Ireen Zimba said long distances negatively affect learners, especially girls, in many ways; hence, the need for a hostel.

The school, situated in Mchinji South West Constituency, has 276 girls out of 478 learners.

Between September 2016 to June 2017, 38 girls became pregnant.