OUR FOUNDER

Her Excellency Mrs. Monica Chakwera is the wife of Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera, the sixth President of the Republic of Malawi. Her forty-three years of marriage to the Head of State is blessed with four children and thirteen  grandchildren. She hails from Mwazisi in Rumphi District, Northern Malawi.

Her Excellency, Mrs. Monica Chakwera is a Chartered Accountant and a member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA). She is also a qualified Social Worker with a Bachelor of Arts in Social Work Degree from the University of the North, in South Africa. Prior to qualifying as a Chartered Accountant and as a qualified Social Worker, Her Excellency Mrs. Chakwera pursued her Studies with the University of Malawi, The Polytechnic, where she was awarded a Diploma in Business Studies.

In a career spanning four decades, until her retirement in 2017, Her Excellency Mrs. Chakwera worked with several international organisations such as the British Council, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Plan International, the Irish Embassy as well as the accounting firm, Deloitte.

For years, Her Excellency Mrs. Chakwera has been working on supporting the development of the village girl and street children, two causes she is passionate about. Her passion for the village girl is inspired by her own roots in the village where she was raised alongside her seven siblings. She faced a lot of struggles in paying school fees for her secondary school Education. Save the Children came to her rescue in the final years of secondary school to enable her finish her studies. It is this experience that has made her an advocate of women and girl-child education and as such she founded Shaping Our Future Foundation in August 2020.