The purpose of the project “Duwa-lofunga” is to organize and fund scholarships for school students in Malawi, a republic in southeast Africa. Alumni Freiburg e.V. made a donation to the project, which was initiated by the young medical student Philipp Müller as a means of enabling more students to receive a good school education. Müller expresses his thanks for the donation and reports on the project in the following letter.

“Zikomo Kwambiri!” – “thank you very much,” Alumni Freiburg e.V., for supporting the “Duwa-lofunga” scholarship. Your generous donation of €1000 will give more students the opportunity to receive a sound and effective education and therefore a chance to raise themselves out of bitter poverty. On behalf of the children in Malawi, I would like to express my gratitude!

A few words on the project: The scholarship was established as a pilot project in July 2011, beginning with funding for two children. The project is now providing scholarships for 15 students, five of whom will earn a school-leaving certificate qualifying them for higher education entry in the next three years.

A lack of prospects for the future is one of the biggest problems in Malawi. The quality of the public schools is appalling. Classes consisting of 150 to 250 students are the norm. There are neither desks nor chairs, and attendance is kept track of only sporadically, if at all. Occasionally even the teachers do not show up to class or do not take their job seriously because the government pays them their wages so irregularly. As a consequence, most students leave school after the eighth grade, without having received a school education that offers them career prospects. Most children have already lost all hope of learning a trade by the age of 15 and begin taking on casual work to survive.

In the private schools, by contrast, which are often parochial schools, the students have desks and chairs, receive one cooked meal per day, and are separated into classes of no more than 50 students each. Teachers are paid directly, and there are also enough materials available. The students receive report cards documenting their achievement in each subject, and the instruction is adjusted to reflect their progress. The tuition charged by these schools is unfortunately too expensive for families in the surrounding villages.

The scholarships are given to children whose parents cannot afford to send them to a private school. Students selected for a scholarship should show an interest in education and thus in taking advantage of this special funding. The parents are also expected to provide as much support to the scholarship recipient as they can. The scholarship covers tuition, shoes, and transportation to the schools, which are often quite far away. The families do not receive any money themselves. The money is left with Catholic nuns from the Carmelite Order, who are responsible for paying the tuition and making all other necessary purchases. They also collect the children’s report cards. This means that it is possible to follow the children’s progress in Germany.

Every scholarship provides guaranteed funding for three years. It is the aim of the project to ensure that the children receive a consistent and complete school education – only in this way can education open up opportunities.

Sincerely,

Philipp Müller