Graca Machel Scholarships
Graça Machel is the first person to acknowledge that gaining a scholarship to study at university transformed her life and gave her an effective voice. She says “Education can be the difference between a life of grinding poverty and the potential for a full and secure one”.
Recognising that women are under-represented in public life in southern Africa she sees that access to higher education is essential for them to have a strong voice in policy and decision making bodies. During the celebrations for her 60th birthday in 2005 she made a commitment to find ways for southern African women to have access to educational opportunities similar to her own.
Mrs Machel has therefore asked the Canon Collins Trust to work with her to create educational opportunities for women. The ‘Graça Machel Scholarship Programme’ will provide scholarships over an initial 3 year period and aims to empower disadvantaged women from Lesotho, Swaziland, Malawi, Mozambique and South Africa by providing them with an opportunity to further their professional development and thus play a constructive role in the development of their country.
The Graça Machel Scholarship programme will develop further the work of Canon Collins Trust in building the skills of local people and communities through the provision of relevant scholarships. As the biggest (and one of the few) NGO providers of postgraduate scholarships for southern Africa, Canon Collins Trust aims to support national and international efforts to promote social justice and eliminate poverty by training teachers, medical professionals, managers and a range of skilled personnel to transform their local communities and make concrete development gains. In recognition of Graça Machel’s significant contribution to educational and development issues in Africa, this scholarship programme will provide opportunities for disadvantaged southern African women to access tertiary education.
Women & education:
The need for women and girls’ participation in education at all levels has been identified as one of the most significant challenges facing southern Africa. According to the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA), “investment in female education in the low income countries of Africa is a ‘best bet’ investment that simultaneously achieves greater earning ability for families … reduced infant mortality and increased levels of public health.”
Educating women brings important benefits to the broader community and has a positive impact on a wide range of development goals. Thokozile Lewanika a 2005 Zambian Canon Collins PhD scholar in Molecular and Cell Biology says ““I want my studies to culminate in a position that will help me to affect positive change in public health policies. This aim will be hard to achieve in the current political climate… The few (women) that are in powerful positions get hauled over the coals. That is the reason why I would like to make a name for myself as a scientist; people tend to listen to doctors. If it takes garnering a good reputation for myself as a scientist for my voice to be heard over policies I think matter, than I’m willing to do that. That is what all the studying is about.”
Nikki Naylor, a 2002 Canon Collins scholar, has recently been identified as one of the 100 people who will shape the next decade in South Africa through her work on women’s rights. She says:
“There is so much more work to be done and I am so grateful to have been given the opportunity through my scholarship to change the country for the better”
Graça Machel Scholarship Programme
Scholarships that target women have long been recognized as an effective approach in addressing gender equality and eradicating poverty. By providing opportunities to study at postgraduate level, these scholarships aim to empower women and to equip them to take up leadership positions in order to have a direct impact in the communities, nations and region in which they live.
Objectives:
- Provide a minimum of 60 postgraduate scholarships to female students from Lesotho, Swaziland, Malawi, Mozambique and South Africa in both South Africa and the UK over an initial 3 year period.
- Support women whose study programmes are particularly relevant to the development needs of southern Africa in order to maximise the positive impact for communities in the region. Scholarships in the areas of health, education, science and technology, economics and finance, and development will be prioritised:
Beneficiaries:
- Women from disadvantaged and rural backgrounds selected on the basis of merit, financial need, intended academic programme and commitment to work for constructive change in Africa, with no constraints placed on age.
Outcomes:
- Highly skilled southern African women, who invest their training, research and professional abilities into southern Africa.
Budget:
- To obtain a masters degree in South Africa over a two year period requires an average of ₤11,800 (R135, 000) to cover tuition, subsistence, child care and travel.
- To obtain a masters degree in one year in the UK requires an average of £25,000.
- To achieve a minimum of 50 South Africa based scholarships and 10 in the UK a total of £840,000 is required over a three year period
Please contact Canon Collins Trust to discuss your support of the Graca Machel Scholarship Fund.
