Aims & Objectives

TEST for MALAWI provides both full and partial scholarships for undergraduate study in a wide spectrum of academic and practical subjects which in the opinion of the local Trustees are best oriented towards the social and economic development needs of their countries and their communities. Awards are biased towards females (60:40) from the poorest regions of MALAWI, and are also available to handicapped students. Scholarships are offered to both new and to continuing students, and are reviewed annually against both need and academic performance. Those scholars graduating with First Class Honours degrees are invited to apply for the Norman & Ivy Lloyd Scholarship at Linacre College, Oxford University which provides full funding for one year’s Master’s degree studies in a subject of their choice.

All Trustees of both TEST for MALAWI and TEST for AFRICA, as well as the Malawian Universities provide their services pro-bono, and consequently TEST Trustees guarantee that 100% of all donations received are disbursed for the education of the scholars. Moreover, each member of the TEST family is required to be transparent and publishes Annual Reports which are available on their web-sites.

TEST for MALAWI is currently organising both a job counselling programme and intends to form an alumni association. TEST for Malawi is also planning to establish an e- discussion group for its students under the scholarship. This will allow the students to discuss share ideas on how they are progressing with their studies in the various colleges in Malawi.

In 2011, TEST for MALAWI has made 42 scholarships awards, and aims to offer 109 awards in 2012.

Download a full copy of the constitution here.

FOCUS AREAS

Gender Bias

With the aim of providing more opportunities to persons who often would not be able to undertake tertiary education due to lack of financial support, our Trustees apply a gender bias to their awards with the ultimate aim of granting 60% of scholarships to female applicants.

Poor Bias

Our Trustees may apply geographical bias, such that applications from the poorest regions of Malawi receive at least 60% of the total awards made.

Handicapped Students

TEST for MALAWI endeavours to support the education of visually and physically handicapped. Where appropriate support facilities are available at educational institutions to accommodate visually and/or physically handicapped students, applications for TEST for MALAWI scholarships from such bright but needy students are encouraged.

Career Counselling

TEST for MALAWI recognises the current challenges facing graduates in finding suitable employment upon graduation. Whilst TEST for MALAWI is unable to provide jobs for their beneficiaries, it recognises the need to encourage and assist wherever possible. This is either done through local Advisory Boards, or by local Supporters (generally business people) who offer their services pro-bono in providing guidance and counselling to its prospective alumni to give them a competitive edge in the job market. Such guidance and counselling may take the form of advising forthcoming graduates on how to market themselves, and may take the form of showing how to prepare a good curriculum vitae, teaching interview techniques, entrepreneurship, etc., via regional sessions.

Alumni Association

Efforts are underway to organise an active Alumni Association with the goal of providing a forum for social events, newsletters, fund raising, networking through their education and fellow graduates, supporting new alumni, friendship forming, business relations and connecting with people from similar backgrounds

Link with Linacre College, University of Oxford

TEST for MALAWI’s origins lie with Linacre College and that relationship is reinforced by virtue of the Trust structure with the majority of the Trustees being alumni. It is the desire of our Trustees to provide opportunities for others to follow in their footsteps and to give back to society.

Accordingly, a direct link has been cemented between TEST for MALAWI via TEST for AFRICA and Linacre College, in that the fully funded Norman & Ivy Lloyd Scholarship (co-funded with the generosity of the UK Department for International Development), which many of TEST for MALAWI Trustees have benefited from, is now available on a competitive basis to anyone who graduates from the TEST for AFRICA programmes with a First Class Honours degree. Applications are encouraged from such alumni to be made to the University of Oxford for one year’s Master’s study at Linacre College in a subject of their choice. This Scholarship is now available on a preferential basis to qualified TEST for AFRICA graduates.

Self-Sustainability

Each of TEST for AFRICA’s local TEST charities are encouraged to organise for self-sustainability within seven (7) years of its life span. TEST for AFRICA provides advice and expertise in the generation of such plans and the sourcing of finance for such programmes, which inevitably will require a significant capital input. Such plans may include agriculture projects and possible real estate projects which will use the experience of local Trustees and may provide employment opportunities for some of TEST’s alumni. TEST for MALAWI is currently exploring alternatives for self-sustainability.

CONSTITUTION

Transparency

TEST for MALAWI is required to be totally transparent and to maintain proper accounting records to standards and time frames established by the Trustees of TEST for AFRICA as well as all Malawian requirements. We are obliged to publish an Annual Report which is to be openly available on our web-sites.

Applications and Means Testing

All applicants must have a valid offer from their relevant accredited educational institution in one of the accepted disciplines and must file their application for TEST for MALAWI scholarship support with their proposed educational institution and not with the Trust itself. The specified time frame for submission must be respected and the application complete. There are no exceptions allowed for late submission or for incomplete applications, as any such application will be automatically disqualified.

Applicants are required to complete a comprehensive application form (button) which provides extensive detail of their background, family and financial standing plus a history of their academic achievements. All claims made in the application must be accompanied by appropriate documentary support as proof of that claim. Applicants who falsify any claim will have their scholarship withdrawn. The application form includes a 500 word essay describing why applicants feel they are eligible and how they intend to use their education to improve the socio-economic prospects of their country.

TEST for MALAWI Scholarships are not automatically renewed as students need to have demonstrated considerable academic progress in their academic work as well as have their financial status re-assessed annually.

Bonding

TEST for MALAWI scholarships are reserved for those persons who are personally committed to their country. TEST for MALAWI is not for those persons wishing to emigrate and employ their newly received education elsewhere in the world. They are not loans and do not have to be repaid. Repayment is made in kind, through a personal pledge to remain in their country of origin and to work for the socio-economic benefit of Malawi. Accordingly, each applicant for a scholarship is required with their application, to commit to a five (5) year bond period following completion of their academic studies. The bond specifically states that they will remain in Malawi for at least five (5) years following their graduation and work in any field of their choice and contribute to national development.

This Bond does not prevent students from going outside of Malawi for further studies, but does require them to notify TEST for MALAWI Trustees in writing and renew their pledge to serve out any outstanding bond period after completion of their overseas studies.

List of Subjects Covered

TEST for MALAWI scholarships are available for studies in all subjects which the local Trustees deem to be appropriate for future national socio-economic development of their country. The only subjects which are specifically excluded from support are Politics and Religion.

List of Universities

TEST for MALAWI scholarships are available for study at all Malawian public Universities. Private Universities are specifically excluded.

Trustees

Mr Robert Kafakoma - Chairman

Has a Diploma and an undergraduate degree in Agriculture from Bunda College of Agriculture, University of Malawi. Robert has also a Master’s Degree in Forestry and its Relation to Land Use from Linacre College, University of Oxford which sponsored by the Normal and Ivy Scholarship. He also has a certificate in NGO management from Wye College, University of London and several other certificates mainly related to institutional development, change management and environmental policy analysis. He is currently the Executive Director and Lead Consultant for the Training Support for Partners (TSP) an NGO that specialises in capacity building of civil society organizations in Malawi.

He is very active in a number of global, regional and national civil society networks involved in policy reform agendas. He is currently the chairperson for Landnet Malawi (civil society network organizations on Land), Convenor of the Malawi Forest Governance Learning Group (FGLG), Chairman for the Global and Regional Advocacy for Small Producers (GRASP).

He likes watching football and basket ball during his free time. He also likes to participate in traditional activities such as dances and festivals. He sometimes assists traditional leaders in his village when they are resolving land and other family disputes.

Ms Rose Bell

Rose Bell has an undergraduate degree in Public Administration from the University of Malawi, a Master’s degree in Public Administration from the University of Botswana, and a Master’s degree in Forestry and Its Relation to Land Use from Oxford university/Linacre College where she was also a Norman & Ivy Lloyd Scholar.

Since then, Rose has worked on projects associated with forestry, irrigation, soil conservation and rural development, and was recently Task Manager responsible for Forestry with the EU-Funded Income Generation Public Works Programme where she overwsaw a project working with local communities planting 90 million trees throughout Malawi. She is currently Small Scale Irrigation Infrastructure Manager with the EU-Funded Rural Infrastructure Development Programme.

Mr Daulos D.C. Mauambeta

Daulos Mauambeta has a Diploma in Education (Sciences) and an undergraduate degree in Education (Sciences) from Chancellor College, University of Malawi, a Master’s Degree in Forestry and its Relation to Land Use from Linacre College/ Oxford University where he was the first Norman & Ivy Lloyd Scholar. He also held a Hubert Humphrey Fellowship at the University of Washington based in Seattle, United States of America. He holds several professional certificates from various Universities and Professional Institutions across the world. Daulos has spent most of his career with the Wildlife and Environmental Society

of Malawi (WESM) where he was the Executive Director from 1997 to March 2011. Before that, he served in various senior positions in WESM and Government Departments. He is now co-founder and Managing Partner of EnviroConsult Services Limited, an environmental and development consulting firm.

His other responsibilities included Chairmanship of the Government of Malawi’s Fisheries Advisory Board, the NGO Coalition on the Environment and Malawi Management Oriented Monitoring Systems Group and the Coordination Union for Rehabilitation of the Environment (CURE) and member to many Boards.

He is currently a Trustee of several charitable organisations including Chiuzira Education and Development Centre which he founded in 2000 and looks after the welfare of orphaned children; and Malawi Environmental Endowment Trust which donates money to local organizations doing environmental work in Malawi.

He brings great experience to TEST for MALAWI having served for several years as Honorary Country Representative of the Dutch based Stitching J'Africa Foundation which provides financial support to over 100 bright but needy students for tertiary education in Malawi. He has strong interests in education, environment, water and sanitation, health and working with and supporting children impacted by the HIV & AIDS pandemic. He is also providing financial support to needy students at some colleges in Malawi in additional to his own children and relatives.

Away from work, Daulos spends time at a family business, Green Gold Enterprises which specializes in farming, the sale of farm produce and transportation services. His leisure time is spent through photography, reading, travelling and visiting places of interests and collecting international flags.

Dr Address Malata (PhD)

Address is a Nurse/Midwife and is the Principal of Kamuzu College of Nursing at the University of Malawi. Following completion of a Bachelor in Science in Nursing at the University of Malawi she continued her studies at the Edith Cowan University, Australia where she was awarded a Master of Science in Nursing and subsequently a Doctor of Philosophy in Reproductive Health.

Address is currently the President of the Association of Malawian Midwives and a Board Member of the following organisations: Nurses and Midwives Council of Malawi, the University of Malawi Council, the International Confederation of Midwives, the Prevention of Maternal Deaths in Malawi, and the Parental and Child Health Initiative in Malawi. Currently Address leads three research projects on Quality of Maternal Health Care, Maternal Mortality Reduction in Malawi, and Sustainable Community Based Health Care in Malawi.

Address is married to Stewart Malata and is blessed with three daughters.

Mr Tarsizius Nampota(PhD)

Tarsizius has an undergraduate degree in Public Administration from the University of Malawi, a Masters Degree in Public Administration from the University of Botswana, a Certificate in Business Accounting from Bristol in the UK and a Certificate in Higher Education Management from the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa,

After his graduation in August, 1985 Tarsizius worked briefly with Manica (Malawi) Ltd and later in March 1990 joined the University of Malawi. He has served the University of Malawi as Admissions Officer, Assistant Registrar, Registrar of Chancellor College and now Deputy University Registrar. Tarsizius is also the Board Chairman of the University of Malawi Medical Scheme. He has also served as Board Member and Vice-Chairman of Blantyre Water Board.

During his free time Tarsizius enjoys watching soccer as well as participating in charity works that help his community. Presently he is the President of the Lions Club of Zomba.

Tarsizius is happily married to Dorothy and blessed with two children Nginache and Pempho.

Sponsors and Supporters

Jennie Travers

Jennie Travers co-founded TEST for AFRICA in 2008, together with Keith & Marjorie Lloyd. Her late husband was formerly the European Chairman of Cushman & Wakefield, and Jennie is now a Trustee of Cushman & Wakefield’s charity, Schools Around The World, as well as Chairman of TEST for AFRICA.

Keith & Marjorie Lloyd

Keith & Marjorie Lloyd are co-founders of TEST for AFRICA, and have for some 20 years provided matching funding with the Department for International Development Scholarship for the Norman & Ivy Lloyd Scholarship and Lloyd African Scholarships at Linacre College, Oxford University. The majority of the Trustees within the TEST family are former Norman & Ivy Lloyd and Lloyd African Scholars. Keith is a Trustee of TEST for AFRICA and an Honorary Fellow of Linacre College.

Ishmael Jesse-Dodoo

Ish is Ghanaian and has a BSc in Natural Resources Management from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and a Master’s in Environmental Control Management from Linacre College, University of Oxford. His career has taken him to many countries in Africa and elsewhere. He is presently a Member of the United Nations Development Programme. Following an assignment in Liberia, he is currently their Head of Management Support in Tanzania. Ish was one of the original founders of TEST for AFRICA.