Lurdes Mutola Foundation

With the President of the Foundation, Maria de Lurdes Mutola, and the district government of Magude in attendance, The Lurdes Mutola Foundation inaugurated a house built to serve as a home for twenty female scholarship holders while they are students in secondary school in Magude over the next three years.

Work for the $ 50,000 enterprise lasted six months and resulted in a 3 bedroom house of more than 200 square feet with three bathrooms, two living rooms and a kitchen. The inauguration was attended by staff of the Lurdes Mutola Foundation, community leaders of the District of Magude, the Administrator, Directors of some schools in the district, as well as local people who were present at the site of the inauguration.

The Lurdes Mutola Foundation´s ´More School for Me´ Program began as a pilot in Magude at the beginning of 2008, and was conceived to reduce gender disparities in education in secondary schools. The program aimed to host the 7th grade girls from isolated areas of the district of Magude to support them in starting and completing the first cycle of secondary school. There are two groups of scholars, those who started last year and now attend the ninth grade, and the new group that enrolled in January this year. Currently, the 36 girls stem from the rural district of Magude as: Panjane, Mahli, Mapulangwene, Manjana, Nwambjana, Marrule, and Ungubana Motasse.

The program is funded by foundations in the United States and Switzerland. In California, the Friends of the Lurdes Mutola Foundation channel funds donated in the United States for this program. The largest donors to the construction were the Philip & Rebecca Hochman Foundation of California and the COFRA Foundation of Switzerland. Funds to start and sustain the pilot were donated by the Lee & Gund Foundation, also of California.

The girls have all the expenses of school and life supported by the foundation. Two assistant counselors live with the girls to ensure they are successful in school and are also protected and well cared for. These “mothers” don’t function as ´maids´ for the girls, but as guiders, as it is the girls who do the tasks: washing, ironing and cooking, following a schedule. The Foundation also provides allowances for transport to all grant holders, so they can go home one weekend each month, to ensure they do not miss or feel to distant from their families.