First Lady urges Malawi women in diaspora to help girl child education

Malawi’s First Lady, Gertrude  Mutharika, has urged women in the diaspora to assist in the education of a girl child back home in order to make them responsible citizens.

Madame Mutharika, who is in the United States of America accompanying President Prof. Arthur Peter Mutharika at the US – Africa Leaders summit in Washington DC, was speaking on Sunday when she interacted with women living in the US at the National Presbyterian Church.

She said girls in the country drop out of school due to several challenges such as lack of support, long distances to school and early marriages.

“Government has introduced a number of initiatives with the assistance of our development partners to make sure that girls do stay in school and also complete their education.

“So let us take an interest in assisting our girls back home so that they can contribute to the development of the country,” she said.

The First Lady said apart from being keen in the education of a girl child, she is also passionate about issues of environment and noted with concern that Malawi as a country experiences problems with waste management such that there is a lot of illegal dumping hence creating negative environmental impact and increase health risks of the citizenry.

In that regard, the First Lady said she had established the Gertrude Mutharika Beautify Malawi Trust which would promote hygiene practices, proper waste disposal and recycling of waste.

The Trust, which would work with the local councils and schools, will be focusing on community health and hygiene, peer education and enterprise development and access to markets, among other things.

“It is my vision that we should have a clean and health Malawi where every citizen enjoys quality life,” she said.

The meeting that was organized by women in diaspora gave women an opportunity to interact with the First Lady and ask a few questions which really showed that despite being abroad for many years, they remained connected to Malawi as a nation.

Lucy Khunga appealed to government to quickly restore security measures that would make every Malawian live in a safe and secure environment.

The women living in America pledged to work with the First Lady to promote girl child education and the cleanliness of the cities and townships.

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