Life Story Abigail Banda

Abigail Banda

My name is Abigail Jones Banda, second born in a family of five children: three boys and two girls. I was born on 3rd January 2001. My father is a pastor and my mother is a housewife and as a family we depend mainly on subsistence farming. As a pastor my father used to receive €10 per month from the church. With this type of income life has been very tough for us. My father could not afford to pay school fees for us all, therefore we were mostly out of school. My father mostly did home schooling for us and would then ask for a favor from the school so that we could just go to sit for the examinations. In 2014, I wrote Primary School Leaving Examinations and passed and got selected to a community day secondary school.

The economic pressure was too high in our family. My father’s income was too little to support my secondary school education and I ended up staying at home for three years. By the grace of God, ReachOut Education Support Foundation came to my rescue. ReachOut enabled me to go back to school. As I am talking now, I am the only one at school and the rest of my siblings dropped out of school completely because my father cannot afford to pay for their school fees. From 2017 I attended a very good Boarding School fully paid for courtesy of ReachOut. In 2018, I wrote my school certificate examinations and passed. Now I am at Malawi Assemblies of God University (MAGU) pursuing a Bachelor of Business Administration programme, fully supported by ReachOut.

Notes added mid 2024:

Unfortunately, Abigail’s academic progress has been repeatedly hampered by a recurring health issue. One of her legs has caused unimaginable pain, so much that she could not sit various exams. Had these health problems not occurred, Abigail would have graduated by 2023 after completing her studies in 2022. ReachOut will launch new efforts to identify the cause of Abigail’s persistent condition and to arrange effective treatment.