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Global fund grant assists paying education
bursaries |
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The Global Fund
Coordinating Unit (GFCU) of the Ministry of
Finance and Development Planning (MOFDP) in 2008
assisted payment of bursaries of 1751 Orphans
and Vulnerable Children (OVC) at Form D and E
from 70 high schools around the country under
Round 2 Phase II grant amount to M6,295,799.70.
The supported children are assisted through
Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) where
the assistance only cover form D and E students
as other children are already assisted by the
ministry of education. The support covers
tuition fees, books, registration, computer and
other special subjects.
Visiting one of remote rural Maseru, Semonkong
high school on February 4, 2009, the school
administrator shows that Global Fund grant
funded 21 pupils in their school mainly form D
and E to the tune of M71,380 for 2008.
Among the supported pupils, 12 of them completed
high school whereby two passed with second
class, 6 with third class and 4 got General
Certificate of Education (GCE).
The school administrator mentioned that even if
OVC are assisted with school fees, the main
challenges are that many OVC especially those in
child headed households face hunger and shortage
of clothing.
“Without food they can’t concentrate in class,
especially in our school where we don’t have
school feeding scheme to enable children at
least to have one-meal a day,” she added.
Due to life challenges, some orphans adopt
harmful coping mechanisms especially girls go
for survival sex with elder men who promise to
provide them with food or clothing expecting to
sleep with these children in return while some
boys find themselves stealing to survive.
“As a result some young girls end-up with
teenage pregnancy where in 2008 alone, our
school had six girls left school due to
pregnancy whereby four of them were orphans who
lost both parents and other two were children
from needy families,” explained the school
administrator.
In an interview with one of the child, Rorisang
Lekaka 17 years, was a form D in 2008 and now
she passed to form E this year, 2009. Rorisang
is the first born of five siblings and lost her
parents on 2003 and 2004 respectively due to
Tubercloisis (TB) and other chronic illnesses.
Rorisang and her other 4 siblings were left with
a 72 year-old unemployed grandmother who had no
means of supporting her grand children.
“Since 2004, life was never easy sometimes sleep
hungry and no clothing especially during winter
snow here in the mountains,” revealed Rorisang.
On August 2008, situation became worsen and
their grandmother decided to take them to the
Methodist Church Orphanage home in Semonkong
where they are able to eat three full meals a
day.
“The main problem now is clothing especially
uniform because the orphanage is already helping
us with food and accommodation,” mentioned
Rorisang.
Meanwhile Rorisang was assisted with uniform by
her class teacher and she is now smart like
other children.
Rorisang’s dream is to become an accountant. “My
dream is to have enough money to be able to help
other needy children in the future. Just like
me, I am assisted by the Global Fund grants and
the Methodist orphanage home, even myself I want
to help other people when I grow-up,” she said.
“I thank our Government for looking for grants
to assist needy children because without
education bursary, my dream of becoming an
accountant could not be achieved without an
education background like I am receiving right
now.”
The education bursary did not help Rorisang
alone, but helped to build a strong foundation
and bring light to all 1751 OVC supported by the
grant in 2008.
The Ministry of Finance and Development Planning
through Global Fund Coordinating Unit would like
to help more needy children to have access to
high school and vocational education but
education fees in other districts are very
expensive hence reduce the number of supported
children due to budget constraint. However, if
schools will cooperate and charge standard fees
for all OVC, all needy children will be afforded
a life time chance to access higher education, a
key for the future |
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