First Lady challenges girls to face challenges to realize their dreams

First Lady Gertrude Mutharika has challenged girls in the country and beyond to take challenges in life and fight hard to realize their dreams.

Madam Mutharika was speaking on Monday at the closing ceremony of women in science camp at Malawi University of Science and Technology in Thyolo.

She expressed gratitude to see 98 young ladies across Africa and the United States sharing experience and knowledge in various categories of science.

“At first people thought that girls cannot do sciences, the camp has just demonstrated that it’s not only boys but girls can also make it.

“This camp is so unique because it focused on girl child in science and it will also help other girls who were lagging behind sciences,” Madame Mutharika said.

Mutharika, therefore, asked the women participating in the camp to put into practice the knowledge and share the skills with their respective communities.

“I would like to see you all blowing your own trumpet. One day I would like to hear that there is a women in science fair at community level. Be innovative and keep going because girl child is the future,” she added.

Minister of Education, Science and Technology, Bright Nsaka applauded the Dr. Mutharika for her passion towards ensuring that the girl child in this country was given equal opportunity to access and complete education.

“Through your Excellency’s Beatify Malawi Trust, you are making available bursaries to so many girls to access secondary education. You have also constructed girls’ hostels to ensure that the girl child does not walk long distances to school,” Nsaka said.

Nsaka said the work of promoting the girl child in the country requires a champion like the First Lady. He said with the support from Mutharika many women were taking up more challenging responsibilities.

The Minister also commended President Arthur Peter Mutharika for his leadership which was geared at raising and promoting the welfare of women in Malawi.

“It is under the leadership of Professor Peter Mutharika that we have seen various important initiatives towards promoting the welfare of women. One of the initiative is the enactment of the gender equality Act,” Nsaka observed.

He said the education sector appreciates the support from partners in ensuring that more girls participate in sciences.

“Malawi cannot realize meaningful progress if there is no investment in science and technology. We need scientists to assist us with innovation of new technologies that the country requires to forge ahead,” Nsaka added.

Nsaka, therefore, said it is for this reason that the current secondary school curriculum has a strong bias towards science as one way of ensuring that learners acquire the necessary knowledge and skills that the country.

He thanked the American Government and all partners for taking women in science camp to Malawi.

Malawi University of Science and Technology, Vice Chancellor Professor Address Malata said the country’s socio – economic growth could easily be realized through heavy investment science and technology.

“The legacy is not that you came to MUST for science camp, but this initiative should translate into an impact on your respective communities what you have acquired,” Malata said.

Malata added that the women in science camp was an as an eye opener and that the college would attempt to conduct such camps annually.

United States of America Ambassador to Malawi Virginia Palmer expressed her gratitude with Madame Gertrude Mutharika for her tireless efforts in uplifting the life of a girl child.

One of the participants, Chimwemwe Chiweza from Malawi said apart from science the camp has also exposed her to different cultures which will make her connect well with others, noting that the camp has taken her to another level in the world of science.

Malawi was the second country to host the camp after Liberia. The 2017 women in science camp is a US Department of State Programme being implemented by World Learning in the UN foundation’s Girl Up campaign with support from the private sector partners such as Google and Intel.

Girls in the field of science, technology, engineering, arts and design were drawn from the United States of America, Liberia, Rwanda, Zambia, Tanzania and Malawi.

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