Malawi: Old Mutual is will construct two classroom blocks at Chazinga and Chithumbi Primary Schools in Phalombe. The construction project is a part of the organization’s Post Cyclone Freddy Recovery support.
The groundbreaking ceremony for the construction in Chazinga Primary School was hosted on Tuesday. The Old Mutal Blantyre Foundation Trust Chairperson Tawonga Manda spoke on the significance of the project.
He said four primary schools in the southern region will be able to benefit from the project.
“We are to construct the classroom blocks with support from Old Mutual South Africa who have given us K360 million as part of post Cyclone Freddy recovery. The other two classroom blocks would be constructed at Chitedze and Maliya Primary Schools in Mulanje and Blantyre respectively,” he said.
The officials have shared that the members of the community will be able to get access to quality education. He stated that soon after Cyclone Freddy they did their assessment and found out that the classrooms could not be rehabilitated.
As a result of the assessment, the organization believes that it is important to construct the new blocks. The officials have shared that they are working with CARE Malawi who are to coordinate all the construction work.
The project will further be overseen and supervised by the Institute of Engineers. The Old Mutual representatives were also accompanied by the representatives from CARE Malawi.
The Education Programme Lead Limbani Chipembere said one of their thematic areas is to focus on adolescent education. Further, they are also involved in emergencies at the school level.
They further added that this is the reason they were interested in partnering with Old Mutual Malawi in the construction of classroom blocks as a way of responding to emergency in education.
Phalombe Director of Education and Sports Steven Banda said most learners learn under a tree due to lack of classrooms and Cyclone Freddy added to the challenge.
Banda thanked Old Mutual for the support as Chazinga Primary School had only seven classrooms which could not accommodate all the 3000 learners at the school. The school blocks will all have two classrooms.