Giving Girls Power
Malawi girls get financial assistance to keep them in school
when the Malawian Government introduced free primary education in 1994, Joyce Mhango, then 13 years old, was in the same class as her brother in Mzimba, a small town in the north.
However, when both were selected to go to secondary school, their parents panicked. They were both unemployed and could barely afford to feed themselves.
Eventually the parents found employment working in local gardens with the hope that they could save enough money for their children’s school fees. For Mhango, this was good news because she wanted to fulfill her ambition of becoming a nurse.
“When I saw people turn back from the public hospital in my village because the only clinician there had gone on holiday, it pained me. This was the reason I vowed to continue with my education. The fact that my parents were eager to send us to secondary school gave me more motivation,” said Mhango, now 37.
Hope crashes
According to Mhango, just days before secondary school enrolment, her parents had called to inform the two siblings about their future plans. She could not believe what her parents told her.
They first explained that although both her and her brother’s selection to secondary school had made them proud, it was also a burden on them because of their financial position.
“We have done our best to find a solution. Because we could not find enough money for both of you [to attend secondary school], only one will go and it will definitely be the boy,” Mhango’s father told them.
Her dreams were further shattered when she was told to assist with her brother’s tuition by marrying a man who would pay the family a dowry.
“That was the end of all my dreams of becoming a medical practitioner. I understood the financial situation of my parents. What I did not understand, however, was why they chose my brother to continue with his education and not me. It is something