SLGs renovate desks at primary school

Members of COMSIP Cooperative Union Limited Savings and Loan Groups in T/A Dzoole B, Dowa have renovated 65 desks in an initiative that was initiated to give back to the community from which they are benefiting from the Social Support for Resilient Livelihoods Project, SSRLP.

According to the COMSIP caseworker for the area Rebecca Munthali, the 16 COMSIP groups, with her leadership contributed MK50, 000 each, for the renovation of the desks, and the money was used for the procurement of the materials used i.e timber, nails glue and paint.

They got the metal frames from the run-down desks at the primary school.

These are groups whose members are beneficiaries of the government Social Protection Program of Social Cash Transfer (Mtukula pakhomo).

The actual renovation of the desks was done by the youths that were trained in vocational skills by COMSIP with supervision from Savings and Loan Group Community Facilitators.

On the fore front were three youths that were trained in Carpentry under the Youth Skills Challenge Support. They are all in a Youth Cooperative called Hope Cooperative that was formed after they were trained   in cooperatives after getting their startup tools.

According to Munthali, Chivutwe primary school whose desks were renovated, was chosen by all community facilitators after considering the challenges it is facing which includes lack of desks

Munthali says, involved clusters hope by the initiative, to contribute to the development of their area, and hope that with the coming in of desks some school dropouts will be lured back into school.

In his remarks during the handover ceremony at the school, Hedteacher Kenneth Mphanda applauded the COMSIP groups saying the desks will go a long way in alleviating the desk challenges the school has been facing.

“We have a total of 529 learners against 130 desks 87 of which were dilapidated. This gesture will therefore go a long way in alleviating this challenge,” he said.

In his remarks, Chief Executive Officer for COMSIP Cooperative Union Limited Tenneson Gondwe applauded the groups, saying it was encouraging to see beneficiaries of social protection programs mobilizing such amounts of money for community development.

In working with its SLGs to eliminate extreme poverty, COMSIP regards poverty indicators as benchmarks for performance for every member of a group or cooperative compressed into eight points called the 8 Jobs of a COMSIP member.

Job number six encourages the attainment of education and literacy, while job number eight compels COMSIP members to be involved in developmental works of their areas.

SSRLP is a seven-year government of Malawi project which is being implemented by the World Bank and Social Protection Multi Donor Trust Fund whose Livelihoods Component is being implemented by COMSP, the other Components Being Social Cash Transfer and Climate Smart Enhanced Public Works Program.