BellTIME
BellTIME
Only 4 out of 100 Girls in
rural Malawi complete
Secondary school!
As you sit in your comfortable
classroom today, you might wish
you were somewhere else, but I
bet you’d never switch places with
one of the girls in our Girl Child
Student project.
Mercy came into the Wells for Zoë
office in Mzuzu, Northern Malawi,
in tears. She had worked really
hard to get good grades in Primary
school like her older brother. She
had always done the cooking and
sweeping outside their three-
roomed thatched house with one
door and sacks covering the
windows and had carried the
water on her head from a well over
3km away. She helped with the
work on the small farm with
Manase, her older brother, and the
three younger ones, all Summer.
She hadn’t fought too much with
them but had discussed how she
had qualified for Secondary
school, without mentioning that
her results were better than her
brother’s. Then her mother
dropped the bombshell that she
would not be going to secondary
school, because there was no
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money left. As is common in
Malawi, her father had died in the
AIDS pandemic and their financial
situation had become even more
perilous.
Now I’m sure that the idea of not
going to school is something that
may not bother you from time-
to-time(!), but as I sat and
listened and watched her cuddle
up to her mother, praying for a
miracle, I was in tears. I listened
and told them how sorry I was
but of course my sympathies
brought no relief. We at Wells for
Zoë had invested our donor
funding for the year into enabling
the poorest to access clean water,
preschools and fruit tree
production, and had no funding
left.
But this was 2012 and how could
this be that this girl could not go
to school? However, had we
already too much on our hands?
We are Wells for Zoë, a small Irish
voluntary organisation, founded
in 2005 and working mainly in
Northern Malawi, focused on
enabling the rural poor to access
clean, safe, drinking water.
Working with women’s self-help
clusters, a package including
preschool, Girl Child Student and
adult education, and Climate
Smart Agriculture, this bottom-up
approach has a sustainable and
life changing impact on
communities.
Mary, my wife of 55 years, and
partner in all things “Malawi”,
thought I was even crazier than
she had realised, but we decided
to contact the schools in the area
and after serious interviews, we
agreed to support 49 girls who
had no other possibility of taking
the places they had earned in
secondary schools. But now after
six years of phenomenal success
for the 2018-2019 academic year
we support 273.
We pay the school fees, provide
clothes, uniforms, school
requisites, and sometimes must
support their families as well.
Students go to their allotted
schools Monday to Friday and
then attend extra classes on
Saturday, supported by our
funding. We have eight
excellent teachers and a
counsellor to support them,
and are gradually introducing
practical education on growing
food alongside academic
course work. We have Holiday-
time Camps, which adds a little
fun and games, drama and
singing to the academic and
practical lessons. We always
provide food, which will certainly
be their best meal of the week.
This sounds great, and it truly is
for a small voluntary organisation,
where 100% of all donations get
to our projects. We are making a
difference, but the reality is this:
Just 4 out of 100 rural girls get
to complete Secondary school
while boys don’t do much better;
but in a family, boys get
preference.
We need your help. There are so
many more like Mercy.
If girls don’t find funding, they
stay at home, can be married off –
or more precisely, sold off – to
anyone able to afford to pay a
dowry. Secondary education
brings many possibilities: like
avoiding pregnancy as early as 13,
like learning something about
their rights, like increasing their
self-esteem by being told each
day that they matter and can
achieve much more.
We have no lofty ambitions like
University or Third level, just that
these young girls do their best
> Choose the “Girl Child Student”
as your CSPE action project;
> Contact companies and look for
sponsorship for our project;
> Ask if one of the Sunday
collections in Church could be
given to the project;
> It would be fantastic if you
could come up with an
original fundraising idea.
We will give an award to
the best idea implemented
by a school and feature the
the campaign on our website.
Fees alone cost about €20 per
term and it costs €180 to
completely fund a girl for a
year.
Every class in your school
could sponsor one student for
the year? Would you really
miss €1 every few days – or
even each week – to make a
REAL difference to a girl’s life?
and have four years without
pregnancy or marriage. Naturally,
we are so delighted when they
surprise us: last year three
qualified for University and two
for Nursing, while Mercy is doing
Horticulture. We are delighted to
be able to support them
financially with the amazing help
of our donors from all over the
world.
Maybe you’re thinking: how can I
help?
Young people are constantly
striving to provide equal
opportunities for all and
compassion for those less
fortunate, and are often angered
when people fail to support the
poorest of the poor. This is your
chance to make a real difference
and to get on board!
When we are not in Malawi, we
are always prepared to visit
schools or classes to have a chat.
We really hope to hear from you.
If you want to get involved and
support a student your own age,
then here are a few ideas. You and
your class could:
John and Mary Coyne,
Wells for Zoë – wellsforzoe.org
https://wellsforzoe.org/support-
the-girl-child/
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