By Blackson Mkupatira
Dedza, Mana: United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), through the action for teen mothers and adolescent girl’s project, has donated a vehicle and other Information Technology (IT) equipment to Dedza District Council.
The donation included brand new Toyota Land Cruiser TX (2022) valued at K45 million two desktop computers, two printers and two uninterruptible power supply (UPS) devices.
Speaking during the handover ceremony on Friday, UNFPA Malawi Officer-in-Charge, Miranda Tabifor said they decided to make the donation to easy transportation challenges the council was facing when promoting girls’ education.
“When we had an assessment of the district, we noted that girls aged between 15 and 18 form 22 percent of women who are pregnant and this has contributed to the high school dropout rate.
“So, through this project, we want to empower them to return to school and complete their studies so that they can realize their potential and that is why we decided to donate the vehicle and the IT equipment to be used for monitoring and tracking them even in hard to reach communities,” she said.
District Commissioner (DC) for Dedza, Immanuel Bambe, said the vehicle has come at the right time when the council was failing to implement various interventions due to transportation challenges.
He said during the COVID-19 era, the district registered a lot of teen pregnancies and high dropout rate among girls and it was becoming a challenge to reach out to them with various interventions.
“However, with the coming of this vehicle, we will be able to reach out to them even if they are in hard to reach areas as it is capable of traveling on all sorts of roads regardless of weather and other limitations,” Bambe said.
The DC commended UNFPA for making the donation and assured the organization that the vehicle would be used for its intended purpose and properly cared for.
The four year Action for Teen Mothers and Adolescent Girls project is being implemented in Dedza with funding from the Korea International cooperation Agency (KOICA).
Its overall goal is to promote sexual and reproductive health rights of teen mothers and adolescent girls aged between 10 and 24.
