Sue Morgan Trust helps Malawian student

Wednesday, 16 May 2012

Dr Henny Osbahr with Charrison Tengatenga

The Sue Morgan Memorial Trust Fund 2012 Award has been presented to Charrison Tengatenga from Malawi who is studying for an MA in Social Development and Sustainable Livelihoods.

This is an annual prize that is awarded to a deserving postgraduate student from Africa studying programmes in the Graduate Institute of International Development and Applied Economics (GIIDAE).

Charrison received a cheque for £1,000 from the trust, which will help him to continue his future studies. He said: "I am extremely pleased to be this year's recipient of the Sue Morgan Memorial Trust Award. The award will really help me finish my studies at the University of Reading through contribution towards my living expenses and data collection on my research project in Malawi. I believe by the end of my course I will learn more about development approaches and practices which I will use to help change many rural communities in Malawi and beyond."

Charrison was nominated for the award by a number of staff in the Institute including his Programme Director, Dr Henny Osbahr. She said: "I have observed his commitment to participating, learning from his peers and from his MSc modules in order to apply new knowledge and skills to development in Malawi. He has shown he is hardworking and enthusiastic. Charrison intends to return to Malawi after his studies to seek a role that allows him to continue delivering development activities that bring improvement in agricultural livelihoods for the rural poor in Malawi. "

Dr Sarah Cardey, Lecturer in International Development, said: "In the classroom Charrison brings a really lively, insightful perspective that I know is appreciated by many, many students. I find it refreshing, and his level of critical insight has deepened over the course of the last term. I am finding that his work is improving, and he is contributing really well to the overall wellbeing of GIIDAE. He is very quick to volunteer to do extra roles for GIIDAE, both within the classroom, and outside."

The objectives of the Trust are to provide financial support to individuals from African countries, particularly Malawi and Mozambique, to further their academic study, with a view to assisting agricultural development within their own country.

The Trust was created in the memory of Sue Morgan who died tragically in Mozambique on the 26th June 1991. Sue was a student in the Department of Agricultural and Food Economics in the session 1988/89 when she successfully completed the MSc in Tropical Agricultural Development. At the time of her death she was working as an Agricultural Economist for the Food Studies group in the Department of Development Studies at Oxford University, having completed two years in Malawi with Voluntary Service Overseas.