Kaulanga, Mbilizi shine in NFB, Unicef Golf
Matthews Kaulanga and Roza Mbilizi on Sunday emerged champions in a joint New Finance Bank (NFB) and United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) Golf Tournament at Lilongwe Golf Club (LGC).
In the men’s championship, Kaulanga had an 80/68 score, followed by Sunil Godambe with 82/68 while Abdul Panjwani was third with 90/65.
In the women’s category, Blantyre-based Mbilizi pipped Golf Union of Malawi (GUoM) ladies captain Regina Mwanza to the honours.
The two-day event which teed off on Saturday, was graced by Minister of Education, Science and Technology Bright Msaka.
The tournament was aimed at promoting the girl child in education and NFB collaborated with Unicef and the Ministry of Education.
It was also organised to raise money towards Scholarship Trust Fund for higher education.
“As Unicef we work to promote education of the girl child. We work with government and the private sector. Last year we had a breakfast meeting and NFB was one of the private sector firms who attended the meeting. They took it up and promised to fundraise through golf,” said Clara Chindime, civic education officer for Unicef.
She said over 20 000 girls lack school fees and end up dropping out of school before completing higher education.
NFB chief executive officer Zandile Shaba thanked golfers for contributing towards the noble cause.
“As a bank, we learnt the statistics on how the girl child has been marginalised in terms of education in the country.
“We heard from Unicef that when you start with 100 girls in primary school, only three complete higher education. This was worrying and we decided to do something.
“We believe if we educate the girl child they will be able to compete effectively with the boy child and Malawi will develop,” she said.
On his part Msaka also thanked golfers, NFB and Unicef for supporting the event.
“As government we can’t do everything alone. We need partners like Unicef, and NFB. This is a good cause and will go a long way in helping educate the girl child so that they can have same opportunities like men and compete fairly. We really are appreciative to all those who have contributed to this event,” said Msaka.
Mbilizi, who also won the similar competition when it was played in Blantyre, said she is passionate about the girl child education and that is why she had to come to Lilongwe to participate and support the cause.
