By Henk Knipscheer | Senior Associate
Recently Dr. Mercy Akeredolu, Technical Director for the Christopher Dowswell Scholarship Fund, traveled to Sokoine University of Agriculture in Morogoro, Tanzania. There she interviewed second- and third-year scholarship beneficiaries attending Sokoine University of Agriculture to gain perspective on the program’s successes and future goals.
Across the board, program participants see the myriad benefits of studying applied agricultural extension: expanding knowledge, securing professional advancement and staying competitive in their field. Most students expressed a desire to give back to their communities with their education, disseminating knowledge and working with different groups of people to promote behavior change.
But the average student salary (just $181) is rarely sufficient to cover expenses, especially for women with families.
“Most of the time we borrowed extra money from elsewhere and prepaid it the next month. As a result, we used to run our life on debt,” said one student.
But the Dowswell Scholarship changes everything. “After being awarded the scholarship, now we are able to live comfortably in the university, because the money helped to cover the gap,” she said. Having been relieved of their financial burdens, students can spend time and energy studying, rather than worrying about how to pay the bills. “After the scholarship we have been able to focus on our studies and improve our performance,” said another student.
Students also expressed dreams for the future of the scholarship program. Some hoped to see the program expand into other countries, allowing students to gain exposure. Others suggested extension of the scholarship’s duration to allow Master’s or Ph.D. level studies.
“Generally, we request that you continue empowering ladies financially, since they have a great contribution to rural development due to their high convincing power and interaction with society,” one student said. “The great percentage of agriculturalists in the village are women, so the interaction with women experts will help them to acquire improved technologies for their production activities and, finally, alleviate poverty.”
By Henk Knipscheer | Senior Associate
By Henk Knipscheer | Senior Associate
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
