Benadeta Singini needed help at secondary school. Now she is Head of a Hospital unit as well as a busy mum to three young children.
Benadeta Singini was an orphan, like so many young people in Malawi. She attended a rural primary school and was selected to Ekwendeni Girls’ Secondary School. As her family could not support these fees, her pastor brought her situation to the attention of the school, and she received Mamie Martin Fund support for each of her four years there – 2004-2008.
In her final year at school, she was encouraged to apply for a vacancy advertised by 500 miles, an NGO which supports disabled people in Africa by providing prosthetic and orthotic devices. She got that job and was supported by her employer to gain a number of professional qualifications at tertiary level.
She worked at Mzuzu Central Hospital 500 miles Prosthetics and Orthotics Unit as an Orthopaedic Technologist. She undertook several yeras of professional study, supported by 500 miles. She became a qualified Prosthetist and Orthotist and is Head of her Unit. When she worked in Mzuzu, her manager said:
‘Benedeta is the first for us to select to study by correspondence in Human Study, upgrading to a degree in Prosthetics and Orthotics. She is top of the class in some subjects and is an outstanding representative and is one of our best clinicians. Her intellect brings everyone’s level up. You (MMF) have helped her, but she has also done all the hard work herself…. I
was afraid she’d be too shy and not tell you how good she is.’
She got her Diploma in Prosthetics and Orthotics in Tanzania in 2013 and then a Degree in Prosthetics and Orthotics with Human Study E.V. (based in Germany), graduating from Mahidol University in Thailand in 2019.
Back in Malawi she got married, also in 2019 and had twin daughters, who now have a younger brother. In that same year, she attended a Malawi-Scotland partnership meeting in Mzuzu as an ex-pupil of MMF. Trustees of MMF were able to meet here there, give her a card and gift, congratulating her on her qualification and her wedding. It is so joyful to be able to see how this ex-pupil has made a success of her life. She is a great role-model for young girls in similar situations to hers long ago.