(23 November 2016, Kamuzu Palace)

 

Your Excellency Dr. Gertrude Mutharika, First Lady of the Republic of Malawi,

Mr. Mayamiko Mwinjilo, Chairman of the Beautify Malawi Trust,

Officials from BEAM,

Friends from the media houses,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

      Good Morning. It is my great pleasure and honor to attend this handover ceremony together with Her Excellency Dr. Gertrude Mutharika, First Lady of the Republic of Malawi.

As we all know, over the past years, Her Excellency Dr. Gertrude Mutharika has devoted herself to the welfare of all Malawian people. In order to pursue a cleaner and healthier Malawi, Her Excellency champions the Beautify Malawi initiative and set up the Beautify Malawi Trust (BEAM). Under the excellent leadership of Her Excellency, BEAM is actively working on promoting the social public welfare of Malawian people and has become the most successful NGO in Malawi, especially in the areas of the environmental protection and education for girls.

As a true friend and sincere partner, the Chinese government always attaches great importance to the well-being of Malawian people. The Chinese Embassy in Malawi also highly cherishes the good relations with BEAM, and will try all means to assist its meaningful undertaking. Last year, we have provided valuable supports to BEAM by donating three advanced sanitation trucks, initiating sponsorship to dropout students and building needed infrastructures for some schools. This year we will be together again to implement the Chinese Ambassador's School sponsorship project.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As a famous saying goes, "When you educate a child, you educate the future of the country". That's true. In China, we regard education as the foundation for our national prosperity and social progress. Education also carries hundreds of millions of families' expectations for a better life. Therefore, making sure every boy and girl to receive the high quality education is the top priority of our government as well as every family. This is also one of the main reasons why China could achieve so fast development in the last three decades.

When Her Excellency told me that the dropout rate of girl in rural areas of Malawi are very high, mainly because of child pregnancies, lack of school fees and learning materials, long distances to school, I didn't hesitate to make up my mind to help change the situation together with BEAM. As the beginning, we have decided to donate 21 million Kwacha through BEAM to implement the Chinese Ambassador's School sponsorship project, aiming at assisting girls who are facing difficulties in school fees and other difficulties. Today I am glad to know that more than 350 girls will benefit from this program this year, which means that these 350 kids and families will have a brighter future ahead. We are also going to jointly organize a Chinese Ambassador Girl's Career Guidance Workshop to interact with girls to encourage and assist them to study hard and pursuit for a better future.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

To conclude my remarks, I want to assure you that in the years to come, we will forge ahead with joint efforts made by both sides of China and Malawi. We will continue to carry out more projects closely related to Malawians' welfare within our capacity, so as to better benefit the people of Malawi.

Thank you.