Student Profile
| Name: | Mailess Phiri |
| Gender: | Female |
| Date of birth: | 18th January 1996 |
| Place of birth: | Lusaka, Zambia |
| Mother: | Silvia Daka |
| Profession: | Unemployed |
| Guardian: | Lilian Daka (Grandma) |
| Profession: | Typist at Central Police |
| Primary School: | Ngwelele Basic School |
Family Background:
Silvia Daka is Mailess Phiri’s mother. She got pregnant when she was in grade seven and then dropped out of school. Currently she has returned to school as a seasoned adult and is now in Grade 10. Mailess has been raised by her grandmother Lilian Nzima Daka who works as a typist at the Lusaka Central Police Station.
Lilian Daka was married in 1973 and had nine children. Mailess is the second of those nine. Six of those children and seven grandchildren are living with Mrs. Daka and her unemployed husband. With all these dependants, it is fairly difficult to afford to pay for the education of all the children. Two of Lilian’s children are employed and assist with expenditures amounting up to K980, 000.00, but even this is not enough to cover all the expenses. Mailess shed some tears as she recalled just how difficult it has been for her to watch her grandmother struggle to provide for the family.
Mailess's Education:
Mailess has been at Ngwelele ever since Grade 1. Throughout her primary school experience, she has consistently been first in her class. She has only placed second three times which created a greater determination to work harder. She was also elected to be a class monitor in Grade 6, which gave her a leadership experience. During that time she had to make sure that the class maintained good behavior.
Mailess understands that an education is her ticket out of the poverty she lives in. With an educated grandmother encouraging both her and her mother, Mailess hopes to finish her primary and secondary education. She also hopes to one day go to a tertiary institution. She is however, worried that there won’t be enough funding for her to make it through secondary school. Even now there are times when the family can’t even afford food and Mailess has to go to school hungry.
Her favorite subjects are Science and English.
Career Interests:
Mailess would like to study to be a journalist.
What the teachers think of Mailess:
She is a very good and hardworking girl. She is very serious with her work. She can control and lead fellow pupils.
Mailess' Thoughts:
“My name is Mailess Phiri and I am twelve years old. I live in Garden compound with my mother, grandmother and grandfather. My father died in 2006 on the 28th of December, and my mother doesn’t work. She herself went back to school and now she is in Grade 10 at Munali Girls High School.
My grandmother, my aunties, my uncles are the people who help me and my family. My other two uncles are in university. It is not easy for my relatives to pay money so my uncles are only helped by the government and the rest of the money is paid by my grandmother, and my aunties and my uncle. I will be grateful if I will be sponsored by the Kucetekela Foundation.
If I were successful in my career choice, I would want to build a market place for the marketers. I was the marketers to be in a much safer and clean place where everyone would not have problems when they want to buy something at the market in the rain season.”