Namadingo bails out needy student

In an effort to complement government’s effort in educating less privileged students in the country, Patience Namadingo Foundation on Saturday paid school fees for a government-sponsored student of Chancellor College.

The Foundation presented a K150 000 ($210) cheque to contribute towards Dyson Billiat’s tuition for the second semester.

Billiat, a first-year Bachelor of Social Science student at Chancellor College, a constituent College of University of Malawi (Unima), recently appealed for the K137 000 ($192) meant for his school fees or risk dropping out of college.

Billiat is a young achiever who moved the mountains early 2000 when he abandoned street music to undertake an education scholarship at Kaphuka Private Schools in Blantyre.

He scored 15 points at last year’s Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) which necessitated his enrolment at Chancellor College this year.

However, as government-sponsored student, he only received half of the annual fees of K275 000 ($385) which enabled him to be at Chanco first semester only.

“I only received part of the fees which covered my tuition for the first semester. This meant that I was supposed to look for the other half K137 000 to enable me to complete the year. And I am thankful to Patience Namadingo Foundation for the timely intervention,” he said.

Speaking during the presentation ceremony held at Sunbird Mount Soche in Blantyre, Namadingo said everyone has a responsibility to help government achieve its strategic goals.

“Government alone cannot achieve its strategic goals such as educating the country’s population of less privileged students. It is our collective efforts that can really translate this into reality,” said Namadingo.

He added that the primary target of Patience Namadingo Foundation is vulnerable students from community day secondary schools. But Billiat’s case was exceptional because his need was urgent.

Operations director of Patience Namadingo Foundation, Tonderai Banda, said the foundation has embarked on research on some CDSSs across the country to find out the magnitude of vulnerability among some students for possible intervention.

“The foundation is not just helping people randomly. We have a systematic approach in which we want to contribute to the development of deserving schools and students. We have a research team on the ground which is currently working on identifying schools and beneficiaries,” said Banda.

He added that Patience Namadingo Foundation will also integrate communities and other stakeholders to ensure the sustainability of the programmes.