Malawi university students invited for David Livingstone scholarships – Scotland
The Scotland Malawi Partnership (SMP) a national umbrella body representing Scotland’s many civil society links with Malawi has opened nominations for Malawi university students for David Livingstone Bicentenary Scholarships Programme.
This is part of its wider Malawi Development programme in which Scottish Government has awarded a one-off grant of £100,000 to establish the Scholarship Programme.
In a statement made available to Nyasa Times, Principal Officer for the Scotland Malawi Partnership David Hope-Jones says the programme marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Dr David Livingstone and seeks to support 30-50 young, gifted and underprivileged Malawian students through a Masters degree in Malawi.
“Any officially recognized university in Malawi currently offering Masters Courses may nominate up to 25 candidates for these scholarships by submitting nomination forms for each candidate no later than 27th June 2013. Each nomination can be for a maximum of K1.6 million of support,” says Jones.
He emphasizes that nominations can only be received from the relevant Malawian university, not from individual students.
“However those interested in receiving a scholarship, who have already been offered a place on a Masters course in Malawi starting in the 2013/14 academic year, may download the nomination/information pack and contact their relevant university, requesting to be nominated from www.tinyurl.com/LivingstoneScholarships,” he says.
According to Jones SMP exists to inspire the people and organizations of Scotland to be involved with Malawi in an informed, coordinated and effective way for the benefit of both nations.
“We do this by providing a forum where ideas, activities and information can be shared on our website, through our online mapping tool and through regular workshops, training events and stakeholder meetings. We also publish good practice guides to harness the expertise of our members on key issues such as school partnerships, volunteering in Malawi and shipping goods to Malawi”.
He says by creating a single space for all the organizations and individuals in Scotland currently engaged with Malawi to come together, “we help reduce duplication of effort, add value to Scotland’s historic civil society relationship with Malawi, and contribute towards poverty alleviation in Malawi”.
The organization has over 600 members, all of whom have their own Malawi work connections.
“In addition to our formal membership we engage almost 200 Scottish schools with Malawi links, around 150 Malawians in Scotland, and about 250 Malawian organizations and individuals with Scottish links in Malawi.
“We also work closely with (and are funded by) the Scottish Government, we facilitate a Cross Party Group on Malawi in the Scottish Parliament, and we are starting to work with all 32 Scottish Local Authorities,” he says.
A study by Edinburgh University, published on 3 November 2010 show that value of civil society links between Scotland and Malawi are worth at least £30 million a year and that 85,000 Scots and 148,000 Malawians play an active role in the links.
About 1.38 million Malawians and 280,000 Scots benefit from these links each year. In Malawi, the Malawi Scotland Partnership is currently chaired by Dr Matthews Mtumbuka.
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