St. James Presbyterian Church/Cholinga Widow’s Group

Site Visit Findings

Student Activity

IPE has support students through St. James CWG since Term 1 of 2006. Some students attend boarding school. All IPE students have been orphaned and all are in secondary school except one. This student is the granddaughter of the widow described above. The student is in Form 8 and was in need of some pocket money to enable her to have the necessities to remain in school. CWG leaders note that her grades are improving. Mrs. Ellen Chimkono oversees the selection process. Students are selected based on their need for funding support. Mrs. Chimkono describes this as a challenging process because many families need support for their children’s education. Selecting those most in need and turning others down is difficult. IPE sends a monetary gift at Christmas to CWG to provide maize for students and their families and to host a party.

Student progress was a concern. Some students do well is some subjects, but poorly in others. It is possible to repeat a course or an entire form in Malawi. Meeting participants concluded that IPE will support repeating a form so that a secondary school student has the best chance of success and a greater likelihood of advancing to college, vocational school, or a good job. CWG does provide some mentoring to students at times.

It is difficult for students to proceed from secondary school to college. There is a year-long gap between finishing Form 4 and learning if one is qualified, accepted to college. Qualifying for college is very competitive in Malawi. Through discussions, IPE and CWG members proposed a peer mentoring program, whereby more advanced students could coach other students to increase their success in school. In addition, IPE and CWG re-visited the issue of whether or not IPE funds for post-secondary education should be limited to college attendance alone or to expand to cover vocational programs. CWG and IPE decided to limit funding beyond secondary school to college only because the demand would be too great if vocational programs were covered. IPE’s primary mission is covering secondary school and covering tertiary education, though important, is less of a priority. IPE support and gender was raised again. Families of orphans with limited resources are likely to fund boys’ education before girls. IPE has a primary mission of supporting girls and a secondary mission of supporting boys. Meeting participant wondered if IPE should identify a certain percentage of the budget just toward girls. This will be placed on a future board meeting agenda.

Financial Activity

CWG submits a proposal to IPE for each of the three yearly school terms. After this is reviewed and approved by the treasurer and US-based co-president, funds are sent to Ms. Mafuleka through Moneygram. Funds are distributed to each school by Mrs. Nyangulu; she also makes a visit to each school to obtain receipts. Funding to CWG covers tuition, room and board for students attending a boarding school, computer fees, exam fees, pocket money to some students, and transportation fees for some students. Parents, families, guardians are encouraged to provide uniforms as they are able, thus assuring they have a stake in their child’s education. As expected, the dialogue associated with the IPE visit allowed ongoing issues to become more apparent. First, it remains a challenge to visit all schools and to collect the receipts in a timely manner. The solution of using an IPE issued receipt was discussed. However, IPE needs to make the accountability process for funding as strong as possible. This is important to be clear with donors that funds are managed well and used for students’ education. Therefore, this idea was abandoned so that IPE has receipts that are issued by the recipients of the funds. IPE covers travel costs and offers a modest stipend to Mrs. Nyangulu who is the person in charge of distributing funding to schools and collecting receipts. Her commitment is greatly appreciated.

Partnership Developments

The longer-term association, the excellent track record of CWG in effectively managing the funding process, and the commitment of CWG to this partnership are assets of the IPE partnership with CWG.