Alliance One spends K71 million on school renovations
One of the country’s tobacco buying and processing companies, Alliance One Tobacco Malawi Limited says it has spent over K71 million to renovate some five primary schools in Lilongwe, Dowa, Ntchisi and Kasungu in the central region.
The five schools which the company has renovated are Lilongwe Demonstration, Mauni, Mtanila, Malunje and Makanda primary school of Ntchisi.
Speaking during the handover ceremony held at Makanda primary school in Ntchisi on Friday, Alliance One Tobacco Malawi Corporate Affairs Officer Ben Kawonga said his company decided to renovate the five primary schools as one way of fulfilling its corporate social responsibility program in the country.
“As a company we thought it wise to renovate the five primary schools as part of our corporate social responsibility program here in Malawi by ensuring that pupils are learning in a conducive environment,” said Kawonga.
Kawonga further explained that his company also decided to renovate the schools after realizing that some of the schools are based in the locations where its employees stay and their kids lean there, while the other schools are based in the areas where majority of people grow tobacco which the company buys annually in the country.
According to Kawonga, for so many years his company has been complimenting government’s efforts in improving the living standards of people in the country particularly in the areas of education, water and sanitation, environment, health and social-welfare among others.
He however urged parents in the country to avoid using children as a source of labor in tobacco farms, but instead they should send them to school so that they can become responsible and reliable future citizens for this nation, adding that this is what Alliance One International advocates in every country it is operating around the world.
In his remarks, Head Teacher for Lilongwe Demonstration primary school Caroline Majiga commended Alliance One Malawi for renovating her school which she said was in a bad state as it has never been renovated since its inception almost 40 years ago.
According to Majiga, before the renovations some teaching materials which are normally pasted inside the classrooms were being vandalized by passersby as the classrooms had no doors and window-glasses since the first ones were broken longtime ago. She said that kind of situation was hard to both the teachers and pupils at the schools.
“Let me commend Alliance One Tobacco for renovating these primary schools including our school here which has improved both the learning environment for pupils as well as the teaching environment for us the teachers,” she said.
She disclosed that most children especially girls are forced to drop out of school whenever they find that school is not conducive for their social environment among them being lack of desks, water and clean toilets.
Apart from renovating the schools, the company also donated desks and dug boreholes in some of the five renovated primary schools.
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