As part of its 10th Anniversary celebrations which were celebrated — under the theme, ‘Creating Value’ — CDH Investment Bank (CDHIB) on 30th November 2022 donated K16.9 million Kwacha to Mary’s Meals towards the construction of a kitchen and a learners feeding block at Mbinda Primary School in Blantyre.
The anniversary celebration activities seek to Create Value by giving back to the community through supporting initiatives that will help develop the nation. The school, located at Somba in Blantyre Rural, was established in 2003 under the Joshua Foundation and was later handed over to the Ministry of Education in 2009.
Speaking during the donation held at Mary’s Meals offices at Ginnery Corner in Blantyre, CDHIB Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Kwame Ahadzi said they thought of partnering Mary’s Meals after learning about the challenges being encountered at Mbinda School, which was making learning difficult for the pupils.
Ahadzi highlighted that the support is one way of giving back to the society and that it is the Bank’s wish to see to it that the kids are fed each day, which will enable them stay in the classrooms and become responsible citizens for the benefit of the nation.
“Mary’s Meals is doing a commendable work through the school-feeding charity program by reaching out to school-going children,” he said. “For this great work, we decided to partner them specifically to help support Mbinda Primary School in building a modern kitchen and provide the learners meals for a year.
“At CDHIB, we believe that for the children to learn effectively, they to eat a good meal,” said Ahadzi.
Mary’s Meals country director in Malawi, Angela Chipeta Khonje hailed CDHIB for the gesture, which she said will help to bring a great impact in changing lives of the learners at Mbinda by improving their health, attract more kids into school as well as showing good performance in class.
Khonje disclosed that Mary’s Meals were feeding over 1 million school children in 24 district. Over 2 million pupils were yet to be reached with the feeding program, she therefore requested other well-wishers to emulate the gesture shown by CDHIB by partnering them so that they can reach to the remaining schools.
“This program is very important because the meals that we provide to the children give them hope since majority of the kids comes from families where they cannot manage to access food.
“Since we embarked on this feeding program in 2002, we have seen a high enrollment in schools among children which is not a mean achievement,” she said.
Blantyre Rural chief education officer Rebecca Misili said schools feeding services provided by Mary’s Meals has brought a number of positive outcome such as helping learners to remain in school, reducing absenteeism, as well as increasing the pass-rate. “Out of 170 schools that we have in Blantyre Rural, Mary’s Meals is feeding 143 schools but within these schools we have noticed a number of difference in terms of children enrollment number. We have also recorded good performance in schools where there is feeding program as well as record few cases of absenteeism compared to those without schools feeding initiative,” Misili said.
Village Headman Mbinda said the CDHIB donation will play a big role in helping the children to have a bright future. Mbinda primary school has standard 1-4 classes with a total of 160 learners.
CDH Investment Bank opened for business on April 2, 2012, following the successful conversion from Continental Discount House Limited, which had operated in the financial sector for 14 years since August 1998. The bank is celebrating ten years of providing banking services under the theme creating value. The bank has grown through leaps and bounds and contributed positively to growth of many individuals, organization’s and communities and ultimately the nation.
External source link:
https://www.nyasatimes.com/cdhib-invests-k16-9m-to-marys-meals-towards-construction-of-school-kitchen-and-learners-feeding-block/
