Mzuzu University alumni organise charity walk towards student academic resources
Mzuzu University (Mzuni) Alumni Association has organised a fundraising Big Walk on Saturday, May 26 in Lilongwe, whose proceeds are aimed towards providing current students with much needed academic material resources.
The 10km Big Walk is starting at 9am from Lilongwe Community Centre to Gateway Mall.
The Alumni Association’s president, Nicely Claude Msowoya, a private legal practitioner for the law firm N.C. Msowoya & Associates, said they came to know of the students’ needs on academic material resources after they went to Mzuni to conduct a needs assessment exercise involving the Vice Chancellor, members of the administrative staff and the students’ body.
Msowoya said: “The current Executive assumed office on 28th April 2017, and crafting its agenda, it resolved to do a needs assessment exercise at the University through an interface meetings with the Vice Chancellor, the administrative staff, and the students body.
“The idea was that the results of such meetings would inform this executive’s agenda and dictate its program of activities.”
He said in future they plan to establish a Mzuzu University Alumni Association scholarship fund, to build and operate a hostel on campus to ease the accommodation problem and also as a mode for the alumni’s income generation and they also plan to continuously fundraise for towards the alleviation of the acute resource shortage.
“Of immediate implementation, are plans to acquire generators, desks and computers,” Msowoya said. “We also plan to keep the momentum of the fraternity that we have generated grow stronger.
“To this end we will have sometime in July an Open Day, akin to a huge Social Weekend, where all the chapters will come together for social, recreational and sporting activities.”
On other activities the alumni association has done, Msowoya paid tribute to their predecessor Executive that did a lot in terms of resource mobilisation towards the University’s material resources.
“You will recall that when we had the library razed by fire there was a fund raising dinner and dance that took place at Capital Hotel, a substantial sum was raised which went towards the replacement of the books and other resources that were destroyed.
“Aside from that there have been engagements with corporate partners which have led to the securing of scholarships for a few students, we have picked up from there to continue those engagements and programmes.
“In terms of the general social responsibility engagements, our Southern Chapter engaged in an activity where they made donations to a destitute woman in response to a call from the MBC’s Reach Out and Touch. We have an annual tree planting exercise which is done in all chapters. This year it took place in February and in Lilongwe we had it at Malingunde 2 Dam.
“In terms of enhancement of social interaction amongst ourselves, there have been numerous social activities of a sporting nature, and you might also recall that recently we had a heavily publicised Alumni Beach Party in Salima,” said the president, whose deputy is Julie Mkandawire.
Other executive members are treasurer Agnes Luhanga, adjunct lecturer at Mzuni, zu University secretary is Alfred Njikho whose deputy is Ruth Songa Walita, a Ndirande Hill Secondary School teacher.
Regional representatives are: South: Pempho Augustine Tonde, Disaster Risk Management coordinator, CADECOM Chikwawa Diocese
Centre: Dr John Mussa Paul, Executive Director of an NGO Africa Green Economy; Vitumbiko Kumwenda, District Project Officer for Global Fund (Malaria Project) World Vision International
North: Misheck Mzumara, lecturer in drama at Mzuni.
Mzuni, which as a diverse allay of high professionals across a wide range of fields opened its doors to students in 1999 and the Alumni Association was formed in 2005.
“Our Communications and Editorial Committee is currently in the process of creating an alumni database, it is after this process that we will be able to have a definite figure of the number of graduates from Mzuni. The rough figure is pegged at close to 5,000,” Msowoya said.
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