Some teachers of Chigude Community Day Secondary School (CDSS) in Mzimba have requested parents to six female school drop-outs to pay back education support which was provided by Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED).
One of the parents, Teleza Mvula, whose daughter was supported by CAMFED but dropped out of school, confirmed having received a letter from the school in which CAMFED is alleged to be claiming back K480,000.00 as value for the support which the organisation provided to her daughter.
Mvula said she planned to start paying back the requested money by installments early June, 2018 but the letter has been disowned by CAMFED officials.
When contacted, chairperson for Chigude CDSS Committee, Kela Banda said the letters were written by some teachers without the knowledge of the committee and CAMFED officials.
“The teachers wrote the letters to claim back the support for their own benefit,” said Banda.
Commenting on the development, Mzimba North CAMFED District Operations Officer, Henry Tembo, disowned the letters, saying the documents were from Chigude CDSS head teacher and not CAMFED.
“May you come to my office with the said letters? Do they have a letter head? Come, I will show you how our official letters look like, we do not claim back any support from our project beneficiaries,” said Tembo.
However, when contacted in telephone interview, head teacher for Chigude CDSS, Adams Chiduli was uncooperative to the reporter and asked him in vernacular language Ukufumba vichi? (What are you asking?) before terminating the conversation.
CAMFED is an international organisation that supports girls’ education in some districts in the country.