By Sitilitha Mpembenji
Courtesy of the Prophet Shepherd Bushiri Bursary Scheme, over 300 students who might otherwise have been loitering in their respective communities due to lack of funding for their tuition can now smile.
According to information obtained by this publication, scholarships have already been awarded to over 300 students nationwide, but the goal is to award 1000 students by the end of this year.
Officials in charge of the bursary scheme have started already started a familiarization tour to ensure that the bursary fulfills its intended purpose. Yesterday, they met with Lilongwe beneficiaries.
speaking during the tour, representative of Prophet Bushiri, Willie Kalonga, said Bushiri does not want to be disbursing bursaries to invisible people, stressing he wants to be engaging and connecting with them so that they appreciate the objective of the bursary.
“We hosted the students today and we will keep doing it to ensure that our beneficiaries are reminded and encouraged why this bursary was put in place,” he said.
The bursary was launched in April this year with a goal of assisting deserving but disadvantaged students in the country to access education.
In March this year Prophet Shepherd Bushiri, who is the President and Founder of Enlightened Christian Gathering (ECG, launched the bursary scheme, targeting 5,000 underprivileged students in secondary schools but also public and private institutions of higher learning across the country.
During the launch, the Prophet said that he was overwhelmed with the large number of requests his office was receiving and he thought it wise to launch the bursary scheme.
According to Bushiri, this is not a loan and it will be totally a free bursary but the beneficiaries are encouraged that once they start working in future to replicate the favor to other less privileged students.
