Chairperson for the organising committee of this year’s Girls STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) Camp at the Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST, Dr Marion Chirwa Kajombo, has described it as very successful.

She said this when asked to sum up the camp that closed on Friday, July 12, 2024.

This year, the camp attracted around 120 disadvantaged secondary school girls from across Malawi and was made possible with the generous support from various partners and sponsors. 

These included Irish Embassy through UN Women, Standard Bank of Malawi, NICO Life, National Commission for Science and technology (NCST), MUST Institute for Industrial Research and Innovation (MIIRI) through the Vice Chancellor's office, ICT Association of Malawi (ICTAM), Plan International Malawi (PIM), Electricity Generation Company of Malawi (EGENCO), Skills for a Vibrant Economy (SAVE) Project at MUST and Transforming Higher Education Systems (THES) Project at MUST. 

Speaking when she closed the camp, guest of honour and MUST Vice Chancellor, Professor Address Malata, encouraged the girls to work hard, fear God and have an ambition.

She shared her academic life struggles and successes that saw her repeating Form 4 but forged ahead to become the best student in her postgraduate studies, including the first female professor in Malawi to make a public lecture presentation and first female Vice Chancellor for a public university.

“Humble yourself and ask for help where you know you have weaknesses. However, be confident and make sure whenever there is an opportunity, let people know about your presence by making some contribution. I do that myself,” she said.

Professor Malata also thanked all partners for the camp, saying without their support, the camp could not have been successful. She urged them to continue partnering MUST to ensure that many girls are reached out and motivated.

A representative of the partners, Mr Hambani Gausi of NCST, said they were pleased with how the camp was implemented.

“We are happy that the objectives of creating a platform to inspire and motivate girls into science subjects and programmes was achieved. Seeing the projects that the girls presented and their testimonies shows that a lot was covered and they have learnt a lot. We hope they will not be the same as they go back home,” he said.

One of the girls, Rebecca Ebula, from Dzaleka CDSS in Dowa, said her passion for sciences has been ignited and she will work harder in class to enrol for a science programme in a public university.

Apart from having projects, presentations and classes, meeting role models, among other activities during their two-week stay at MUST, the girls on July 10 visited Nkula Hydropower Station to appreciate how electricity is generated.

Electricity Generation Company of Malawi (EGENCO) acting gender and social inclusion manager Ethel Bvalani said her institution is committed to promotion of girls in engineering studies.

“For us, this is part of inspiring more girls to join the engineering field. Imagine that at EGENCO, female staff representation is at 16 percent and all this is because we have few female engineers in Malawi. And as EGENCO, we want this to change and partnering MUST in this activity is one way of realising this goal,” she said.

MUST projects engineer Triphonia Kommwa said the visit to Nkula was inspirational to the girls as they saw science in action.