Caregivers in Dedza Community Based Childcare Centres get boost

Communities under Group Village Head (GVH) Mganja in the area of Traditional Authority Kachindamoto in Dedza have established a fund to help improve the economic welfare of caregivers for their Community Based Childcare Centres (CBCCs).

Speaking during the launch of the fund Wednesday, Senior Chief Kachindamoto said CBCCs in the area are facing a challenge as caregivers are not demonstrating total commitment since they do not get any monetary gains.

She said community members have already raised K300, 000 through their own contributions as well as donations from well-wishers.

Kachindamoto said: “We hope the fund will motivate the caregivers as they will be provided with startup capital for various economic activities apart from getting a small honorarium every month.”

She commended Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, Juliana Lunguzi, for mobilizing the community to start the initiative and urged community members to continue making contributions towards the fund in order to sustain it.

On her part, Lunguzi said the country needs to allocate adequate resources towards CBCCs saying children who start school at an early stage usually excel with education.

“Pupils especially girls in rural areas are dropping out of school to get married because they do not have interest in it. We need to promote CBCCs so that our children should develop interest in education at an early stage and it will be easier to retain them in school,” she said.

Lunguzi urged the Community Development Office in the district to train the caregivers on the concept of village savings and loans (VSL) so that they should form groups to save their money together and get soft loans.

The ceremony was graced by German Ambassador to Malawi, Juergen Borsch who urged other communities in the country to emulate the self-help initiative.

 

 

Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV :

Sharing is caring!