YONECO has facilitated the re-admission of 74 children who withdrew from school under its back to school campaign it initiated last year in Ntcheu district District Manager for YONECO in Ntcheu, Sewenthe Mahwayo, confirmed the development saying out of the total, 42 are adolescent girls.
“We have managed to re-admit 74 children in various schools here in Ntcheu, out of which 42 are adolescent girls”, she said.
Mahwayo said they came up with the initiative after observing that most children in the district drop out of school due to parents’ negligence as they spend most of their time drinking beer, high poverty levels, sexual harassment by teachers, child marriages and early pregnancies. She however said despite facing opposition from communities, they are making strides and they will ensure that those who have been re-admitted in various schools stay in school and achieve their goals.
“We are determined to support these children academically; we follow up with their teachers on how they are performing in class and if there happen to be any challenges we assist them accordingly”, she said.
The 74 children have been re-admitted in various schools including; Mdeka primary school, Roman Catholic primary school, Dombole primary school, Dombole Community day secondary school and Gomani primary school Initially YONECO trained Parenting Circle facilitators who were able to link up parents whose children dropped from school to YONECO, and through dialogue session with parents and Head teachers, they reached a consensus of sending the children back to school.
Meanwhile, YONECO follows up on the children in their various schools to assess their performance and assist them with school materials and other basic needs including counselling on some psycho-social challenges they encounter.
