Support school costs for children in rural Malawi

Blessings (pictured above) is a promising student currently in her second year of secondary school in Neno District, one of the poorest districts in Malawi.

Blessings herself comes from a family that has weathered tremendous financial hardship. Her father’s sudden death left her mother and grandmother to care for Blessings and her three siblings with no consistent means of earning income. The POSER program has supported Blessings’ education for the past four years.

“Without the POSER program, I would not have been able to continue school. My family is so vulnerable, there is no way they would have been able to pay school fees or get scholastic materials.” This year, POSER has covered school fees and provided critical scholastic materials (including pens, books, and mathematical instruments) to 295 secondary school students in Neno District, making it possible for students like Blessings to continue their education. Budgetary constraints in previous years had made it impossible to provide school uniforms, but this year POSER resumed providing school uniforms to secondary school students as well. Not only do uniforms serve to reduce the distraction of class-consciousness in school, but they are, in fact, required for attendance in Malawi. The POSER program is proud to help remove this barrier to education and to help more students stay in school.  

The POSER program invests similarly in younger students, supporting just over 1,900 primary school students in Neno District this academic year with the supplies necessary in order to attend school and participate fully in lessons, including exercise books and pens.

For the first time in the POSER Program’s history, more female students are being supported in primary school than male students. This is a heartening accomplishment given that encouraging women’s education remains an organizational priority. 

“It’s important,” Blessings says, “that everyone either male or female should be given an equal opportunity to attain education.” Though she speaks with the confidence of a future stateswoman, Blessings insists that she aspires to be a doctor. Her favorite subjects include mathematics, chemistry, physics and biology, and she hopes to return to Neno after her studies to work as a physician. “Doctors help patients and they are very important in their community,” she explains. “I would like to work in Neno so that more girls from Neno have a role model to encourage them to go to school.” Echoing her mom and grandmother’s commitment to her education, Blessings emphasizes, “it’s a pity that so many girls drop out of school. They should know this chance only comes once in your lifetime. They should work hard and keep in mind what the future can hold.”